[atoyot]

I know how bad this food is for you but the way they engineer these nuggets is amazing. I had no idea they where that technical. It's like eating an amazing science experiment. After seeing super size me and reading this I am convinced that the Big Mac is the devil. I am also guilty of trying to eat a Big Mac while on the freeway. Hey at least I was in the right lane. My liver hurts.




So What Really Is In A McDonald's Chicken McNugget?

Mcdonalds

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.”

http://www.alnyethelawyerguy.com/al_...t_really_.html

[D'Animal]

They would not be able to sell Chicken flavored Corn Nuggets, now would they.

[atoyot]

Originally Posted by D'Animal

They would not be able to sell Chicken flavored Corn Nuggets, now would they.

McDonalds? They could sell deep fired poo and people would eat it. Just throw in a free toy or chance to win a million dollars and people would gobble it up.

[D'Animal]

Originally Posted by atoyot

McDonalds? They could sell deep fired poo and people would eat it. Just throw in a free toy or chance to win a million dollars and people would gobble it up.

True.

[Zimm]

having just had some deep fried poo today. i can say thers alot of cold grease in there. dont let em sit for more than 5 min, or youll have a 10 piece pack of chicken flavored bubble yum.

[usmcruiser]

Back on Feb 3rd (superbowl weekend) McDonalds was doing 50 nuggets for $7. Of course my unit was the only one drilling that week end so I was at Buckley AFB. Well 3 other marines and I went out for lunch and decided to save some $$$ by buying 3 buckets of nuggets. Thats 150 McDonnalds chicken McNuggets. The 4 of couldn't finish 100 of them before we all started feeling sick. We ended up selling off the last 50 to make a small profit.

Anyway I had a grease ball in my stomach for 2 days. It hurt so bad.

[tcb]

Originally Posted by Zimm

having just had some deep fried poo today. i can say thers alot of cold grease in there. dont let em sit for more than 5 min, or youll have a 10 piece pack of chicken flavored bubble yum.

that's comedy right there.

[NorCalDoug]

meh.


spend enough time reading enough labels and you'd not likely eat much of anything.


it's not just McD's that does this...it's virtually any chain restaurant you go to.
and don't think you're safe with a non-chain unless you know it's someone who's making everything with fresh, top-notch ingredients.


as far as claiming that you're eating corn when you eat chicken...well...that's just a bunch of bullshit, isn't it? I suppose you're eating corn when you're eating beef and pork as well?




when did it become bad to eat corn, BTW? did I miss a report from the FDA or the CDC or something?


look...I'm not defending what the fast food places do when manufacturing foods...but I'm not going to point a finger their way when I (and everyone else who's packed a cholesterol-bomb into their pie hole) voluntarily pull into their parking lot and place an order.

[atoyot]

Originally Posted by NorCalDoug

meh.


spend enough time reading enough labels and you'd not likely eat much of anything.


it's not just McD's that does this...it's virtually any chain restaurant you go to.
and don't think you're safe with a non-chain unless you know it's someone who's making everything with fresh, top-notch ingredients.


as far as claiming that you're eating corn when you eat chicken...well...that's just a bunch of bullshit, isn't it? I suppose you're eating corn when you're eating beef and pork as well?




when did it become bad to eat corn, BTW? did I miss a report from the FDA or the CDC or something?


look...I'm not defending what the fast food places do when manufacturing foods...but I'm not going to point a finger their way when I (and everyone else who's packed a cholesterol-bomb into their pie hole) voluntarily pull into their parking lot and place an order.

I think your right. Eating plain corn or plain chicken is in fact a healthy choice but I don't think your average person had any idea what is really inside a chicken McNugget. Most people probably figure it's just processed chicken with some breading and deep fried. Actually I would bet you could find a lot of people who don't even know it's processed chicken. Then again those people probably don't really care. A little off topic I just saw a lady walk in to the DMV today with her to obese children. Probably 7 and 10 year old girls. It's very depressing to see stuff like that. Parents should be held accountable. When your kid is that unhealthy it is child abuse. You develop most of the fat cells in your adolescance. These same fat cells are with you for the rest of your life. It is extremely difficult and almost impossible to lose fat cells.

I still like there burgers and greasy fries.

[cary]

To me, they killed chicken nuggets when they went from parts to the "all white meat" formula.

[macneill]

And here I was thinking McMaggots were just made from lips and peckers.

[brownbear]

yah I would not touch those things...... I always thought of Rat meat as a kid


If it comes in wrapper when you are shopping, it is processed too much. Eating closer to the source is always my goal.

I do enjoy once and awhile eat Mcdonald's though.. It's hard not to.

[Jman]

Originally Posted by macneill

And here I was thinking McMaggots were just made from lips and peckers.

You're forgetting the anus. Just about every animal has an anus.

[NorCalDoug]

Originally Posted by macneill

And here I was thinking McMaggots were just made from lips and peckers.

there's no meat on them lips...

along with the peckers, they include assholes...yep...as Martha would say...it's a good thing.

[NorCalDoug]

Originally Posted by cary

To me, they killed chicken nuggets when they went from parts to the "all white meat" formula.

yep...they blew it.


just like KFC when they went from their original formula for popcorn chicken to whatever it is now...

not nearly enough random tasty bits as it used to have, IMO.

[atoyot]

Originally Posted by brownbear

I do enjoy once and awhile eat Mcdonald's though.. It's hard not to.

Yeah it's one of those things where I'm in a hurry or on the road and then afterwards I feel like crap. Oh yeah, and it gives me gas.

[NorCalDoug]

Originally Posted by atoyot

I think your right. Eating plain corn or plain chicken is in fact a healthy choice but I don't think your average person had any idea what is really inside a chicken McNugget. Most people probably figure it's just processed chicken with some breading and deep fried. Actually I would bet you could find a lot of people who don't even know it's processed chicken. Then again those people probably don't really care. A little off topic I just saw a lady walk in to the DMV today with her to obese children. Probably 7 and 10 year old girls. It's very depressing to see stuff like that. Parents should be held accountable. When your kid is that unhealthy it is child abuse. You develop most of the fat cells in your adolescance. These same fat cells are with you for the rest of your life. It is extremely difficult and almost impossible to lose fat cells.

I still like there burgers and greasy fries.

the following was grabbed from the internet so the usual disclaimers apply...but this is pretty much spot on according to current thinking:

The amount of fat the body wants to store is thought to be proportional to the total number of fat cells. So if you were overweight as a child, your body is programmed to carry more fat. This doesn't mean that you can't lose weight through diet and exercise, but it will be harder.

Most people don't think...or don't care what they shovel in. Their goal, typically is to keep the kids fed and placated...or to quickly satisfy that nagging "I'm starving" feeling in their gut.

Additionally, the average person hasn't the slightest clue what makes up the food they eat. Who knows what the main ingredient is in a Cheeto? I do...do you? Ask people around you...how many do you think will say "cheese"? Do you think they'd be surprised to know it's made mostly from corn and oil? Whey is third, cheddar cheese is fourth.


I don't know if you know or not, but a law is currently in the works for CA (and I've read about other states as well) requiring restaurants of a certain size (based on number of locations) to provide nutritional info and caloric info for all items on the menus.

IMO, this is a much needed thing. Would people be more apt to order the double-quarter-pounder with cheese if they knew it had 740 calories (380 calories from fat), 42g total fat, etc (pulled from McD's web site) or would they opt for the Big Mac instead (540 cal (260 from fat), 29g total fat)?




Now...don't get me wrong...I'm not anywhere near to being some sort of food extremist...those of you who've met me or seen pics of me would be hard pressed to think that I've been missing many meals I likes my snack foods...and I likes my fast foods...but I try to keep it all in moderation...


When cooking at home, I like to buy the highest quality stuff with the least amount of mystery ingredients added in.

[mickey_rubicon]

Funny - I just finished my McDonalds happy meal, because I like to get a toy with my lunch.

[mickey_rubicon]

anyone who ever killed a chicken, plucked it, gutted t, cut it up and cooked it, could definitely tell whether the nugget was chicken or some industrial alteration of chicken meat, this is a good example of how modern society separates the foodchain and removes the proximmity to the food animal, when I was a young boy I was in charge of chasing down and killing the chicken and prepping it for my grandmother to cook it for dinner every Sunday. Tred Barta said it best, you appreciate the animal more when you kill it yourself with your own hands and cook it yourself and eat it. A lot of wrong in today's society and the unexplained violence is a direct result of stifling the predatorial instinct. In a perfect world people would still buy live animals and killing them for dinner should be a right of passage for our young. I was 8 years old when I got to help slaughter the first pig. I eat pork till this day. I respect the animal more and the food I eat. Now everything is in boxes and bags like freakin lego. No wonder teenagers have to go out there and beat elderly people sensless or spray paint signatures on the overpass. All over a McNugget

[NorCalDoug]

Originally Posted by mickey_rubicon

anyone who ever killed a chicken, plucked it, gutted t, cut it up and cooked it, could definitely tell whether the nugget was chicken or some industrial alteration of chicken meat, this is a good example of how modern society separates the foodchain and removes the proximmity to the food animal, when I was a young boy I was in charge of chasing down and killing the chicken and prepping it for my grandmother to cook it for dinner every Sunday. Tred Barta said it best, you appreciate the animal more when you kill it yourself with your own hands and cook it yourself and eat it. A lot of wrong in today's society and the unexplained violence is a direct result of stifling the predatorial instinct. In a perfect world people would still buy live animals and killing them for dinner should be a right of passage for our young. I was 8 years old when I got to help slaughter the first pig. I eat pork till this day. I respect the animal more and the food I eat. Now everything is in boxes and bags like freakin lego. No wonder teenagers have to go out there and beat elderly people sensless or spray paint signatures on the overpass. All over a McNugget

so...in essence, large grocery store chains are responsible for the evils of our society?