It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Please take the time to read this in its entirety and then look up the links below. This isn't posted to bash or to start a scare or controversy. It's posted to make people aware that sometimes you need to do a little research.


The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a fascinating book that details the changing eating habits of Americans. I can't recommend it highly enough. It explains how, over the last 30 years, we have become a nation that eats vast quantities of corn ¬ much more so than Mexicans, the original "corn people."

Most folks assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know, for example, that a McDonald's Chicken McNugget is 56% corn?

What else is in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget? Besides corn, and to a lesser extent, chicken, The Omnivore's Dilemma describes all of the thirty-eight ingredients that make up a McNugget ¬ one of which I'll bet you'll never guess. During this part of the book, the author has just ordered a meal from McDonald's with his family and taken one of the flyers available at McDonald's called "A Full Serving of Nutrition Facts: Choose the Best Meal for You."

These two paragraphs are taken directly from The Omnivore's Dilemma:

"The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasiedible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable.

But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill."

Bet you never thought that was in your chicken McNuggets!

More Research!

http://www.codexalimentarius.net/gsfaonline/additives/details.html?id=190

http://ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/index.cfm?objectid=03E81E3A-AC4C-F697-18428D1E05D43D1D

Some other comments I found during my research!

In high doses, it has some negative health effects on lab animals, such as precursors to stomach tumors and damage to DNA.

It is used in formulating varnish, lacquer, resins and oil field additives.

Hydroquinones have been shown to be myelotoxic; thus, the immune system may represent a possible target. As a result of the wide usage of TBQ, it was selected by the NTP for immunotoxicological assessment.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

This is why I never eat McDonalds

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

I'd be surprised to see that anyone didn't know how bad fast food is...

ets: with all of the news pieces and articles out there, I don't know how any of these places stay in business.

Message edited 9/14/2007 8:23:21 AM.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Yowser...

So, what you're saying is..no more McNuggets with Sweet and Sour sauce? Thankfully it was a once a month treat...doesn't look like it was much of a treat, anyway

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Ok I haven't had a Mc Nugget in years because they always have the "chubby" chicken in them, but I will NEVER ever eat one again. So gross.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

I have not eaten McD's in years, yucky!

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

And this is why I don't eat meat

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Yum. Very appetizing.

But seriously- Why doesn't the FDA come down on places like this? According to this article, eating McDonalds is like injesting poison into your body. Thats pure insanity. The really sad part is that there are so many chains around the world, it makes us Americans look like idiots.

Never ever again. And god as my witness, I will never EVER bring my kids to this place to eat so much as a friggen french fry from this joke of an establishment. This is sickening.

Thanks for posting this.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Posted by Bxgell2

And this is why I don't eat meat

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Posted by Bxgell2

And this is why I don't eat meat

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

that is absolutely VILE. thank you for posting that....

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

I'm sure most people already know McD's isn't healthy or good for you at all... but people have been eating it for years. I doubt they'll stop now, even after reading something like this.

Honestly, I have it once in a blue moon and probably will continue to.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Message edited 9/14/2007 8:50:02 AM.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Thank you for posting this! I have to forewarn my sister about it.

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Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Posted by Lisa

Posted by CaMacho

I'm sure most people already know McD's isn't healthy or good for you at all... but people have been eating it for years. I doubt they'll stop now, even after reading something like this.

Honestly, I have it once in a blue moon and probably will continue to.

i was thinking the same thing....most people DONT go to McD's to have a "healthy" meal!!

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Great post!

I wish more would realize just how bad all this processed, fried food it!

When you're done with the book, can I borrow it! Sounds like one I want!

There have been so many Studies about other cultures (like the Eskimos) and facial features who have been so drastically changed by the eating habits of Americans that they developed.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

All processed foods are filled with nasty unpronounceable chemicals and other surprises, but almost anything can be safely eaten in moderation. It's just unfortunate that many people don't grasp the concept of moderation...

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

Wow- I don't eat fast food much, but this makes me want to eat it even less.

I have the book but haven't read it yet - I might have to bump it up in my reading list.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

people have to realize that food should be eaten in the form it comes in- nothing out of a box or can- fresh fruits and veggies, no ingredients that cannot be pronouced, etc.

ugh.
so sad.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

This is scary!

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Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!

And to think- I refused to pick my ripe, full head of cabbage from my garden because a slug was on it.



Seriously though- the cabbage is still outside in the garden. I ran away once I almost touched the slug.

Re: It's long but EVERYONE needs to read this!