will you ever eat a Chicken McNugget as a cheat meal again after reading this?

biggysmalls324 · 05-14-2007, 01:54 PM

"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!"

http:// www. rense. com /general76/chk.htm

dillingerescp · 05-14-2007, 01:57 PM

thank god I dont eat chicken mcnuggets

Jesus christ.

I pretty much think of any McD's food as cancer on a tray.

Captain Sagara · 05-14-2007, 02:00 PM

Hell no....

Ke422azn · 05-14-2007, 02:02 PM

i just ate a 6 piece yesterday along with their grilled chicken club with regular fries 3 hours before work out.

alexclark · 05-14-2007, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dillingerescp

I pretty much think of any McD's food as cancer on a tray.

Exactly. I don't even consider what they serve as real food. It's just chemicals, fillers, and sweeteners. I don't know how McDonald's Execs can live with themselves.

tryharder1 · 05-14-2007, 02:34 PM

McD's is good for the body, and good for this country! Also, underutilized in weight loss!

JiP · 05-14-2007, 02:42 PM

i didn't read that (haha) but i saw how they made chicken nuggets on supersize me and it was sick

now i read it, i had a chicken burger at mcdonalds last week. i wonder if they added all that crap to it. there goes the "it's just chicken" theory

DDD619 · 05-14-2007, 02:47 PM

OH...MY....GOD!

NOOOOOOOO!

Not my McNuggets.

clovely · 05-14-2007, 02:47 PM

(Fingers in my ears) LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!! (Singing).

....I'm sure the nuggets are just the beginning and it's certainly not just McDonalds. Terrifying.

norcalmuscle · 05-14-2007, 03:26 PM

I remember when I used to go to McDonalds hammered and order a 20 pc nugget. After reading that I'm sure glad those days are over. It seems like you could power a car with half the things that are in a chicken nugget.

ManOwarrior86 · 05-14-2007, 03:31 PM

I'd eat it on a cheat day, but my cheats are usually alot higher in taste and quality than that mcdonalds bull****.

Environ · 05-14-2007, 03:35 PM

I wouldn't have eaten one BEFORE reading that article, never mind after reading it.

dempo25 · 05-14-2007, 03:46 PM

this changed nothing for me, but was interesting

brah_of_iron · 05-14-2007, 03:58 PM

That's why I avoid fast food, even for cheats.
You never know what they put into food just to save a few bucks.

grapemaster · 05-14-2007, 04:03 PM

Yeah I just don't eat fast food period, in a pinch there are better options at a gas station. I'm a bit of a food snob too so... it honestly doesn't do anything for me taste wise, would never waste a cheat on it.

WellHungOver · 05-14-2007, 04:08 PM

Nothing is good for you.

The Director · 05-14-2007, 04:19 PM

Nothings better than a single sitting at a buffet..

What the hell are you bodybuilders doing anyway eating at mcdonalds on cheat days? Were bodybuilders, we belong in a buffet, kids eat at mcdonalds.

.ridiculous · 05-14-2007, 04:21 PM

d3v · 05-14-2007, 04:23 PM

cancer in a box/tray/bag.

xamadeix · 05-14-2007, 04:23 PM

my mom calls mcdonalds the greasey spoon.. but i'll have to admit.. i do miss the occasional happy meal when i was 6.

siamesedream · 05-14-2007, 05:01 PM

Means less than **** to me. Though I usually don't eat fast food on a cheat and rarely ever cheat as it is, if I decided to have a chicken mcnugget on a cheat, I'm having a chicken mcnugget on a cheat. Extra chemicals, please.

Mansewerz · 05-14-2007, 05:30 PM

i have the mcchickens from time to time

Mises · 05-14-2007, 05:36 PM

I'm glad I boycotted McD years ago.

biggysmalls324 · 05-14-2007, 05:42 PM

yeah i never eat that on a cheat day, but mabey once every 6 months if im driving on the parkway there are no other options and i would pick up a couple of them......Can't believe some of the **** they can put in the foods and drinks we have.