Chinese black chicken for a healthier life

BLACK chicken was unveiled as a new form of "super-food" yesterday, after researchers found that the traditional ingredient in Chinese medicine has high levels of a natural anti-oxidant.

Black-bone silky fowl, which have black skin, meat and bones but snow-white feathers, have been used as a "folk invigorant" in China for 1,000 years. Now Chinese food scientists have confirmed they contain high levels of a substance called carnosine. This is a powerful anti-oxidant and is taken in supplement form in the West to improve muscle strength and alleviate the effects of ageing, autism and diabetes.
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Chicken is known as a source of carnosine, but it was found that black-bone silky fowl had twice as much of the substance as ordinary breeds.