Are You Having A McCrap Attack?
What’s really in fast food and what it does to our kids.

1 in 4 Americans will eat a fast food meal today. This year alone they’ll spend $110 billion in the drive thru lines. They do it because it’s fast, cheap and heavily promoted. They do it because they assume a major restaurant chain will stuff their bag with some sort of food, some substance providing much needed energy and nutrition. They are wrong.
The fast food industry is massive. McDonalds alone is the nations largest purchaser of beef, pork and potatoes (what do they use all that pork for, just McRibs? Hmm). They are also the second largest purchaser of chicken.
The question is what exactly is in the McMac, those mysterious chicken nuggets and that special sauce? You’d be surprised! In fact if the ingredients were advertised as heavily as the fake food in the commercials you’d never eat it again (let alone feed it to your children).
Everyone knows that fast food isn’t healthy. Somehow the powerful advertising combined with intense flavoring additives is still enough to hold on to the billions in sales they anticipate earning. Earning? I think that’s a stretch.
Let’s take a look at what’s inside the wrapper.
We’ll start with the king of crap burgers the “Big Mac®” The meat patty in a typical fast food hamburger has up to hundreds of strips of beef from different cattle from many regions mixed together. If you have one bad cow in the bunch the odds of getting sick is much greater. fast food meat is no exception.
As simple as it may sound” chewing” is essential for good health, as it promotes the flow of digestive juices which break down the food and send nutrients into the blood. McDonald’s food is so lacking in bulk you don’t even get the chance to really chew it. Even their own figures show that a “quarter-pounder” is 48% water. This sort of fake food encourages over-eating. The high sugar and sodium content can make people develop a kind of addiction or “craving”. That means more profit for McDonald’s, but constipation, clogged arteries and heart attacks for many customers. What’s even more disgusting is the fact that concentrating cattle into large feedlots then herding them through processing assembly lines operated by poorly trained employees increase the risk of large-scale food poisoning. Manure gets mixed with the meat, contaminating it with salmonella and Escherichia coli. A US Department of Agriculture (USDA) study that found 78.6% of ground beef contained microbes spread primarily by fecal material. Remember ANY part of a cow is considered %100 beef by the USDA.
So much for the meat patty but how about the Big Mac® Bun ingredients (as per mcdonalds.com)
Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup, yeast, soybean oil, canola oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of each of the following: sesame seed, salt, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate, ammonium chloride, calcium carbonate, baking soda, soy flour, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: distilled monoglycerides, DATEM, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, enzymes, ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, guar gum, mono-and diglycerides, calcium peroxide), calcium propionate & sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.
The “Special” Sauce ingredients: Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat) (AKA Monosodium Glutamate), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor).
The cheese ingredients: Pasteurized processed
American cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes), water, milkfat, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, salt, sorbic acid (preservative), acetic acid, artificial color, soy lecithin and/or corn starch (added for slice separation).
Evidence suggests they also add emulsifiers, preservatives, MSG, artificial colors, trans fats, and hidden ingredients under generic labels such as “spices”, or “natural and artificial flavors”. Bottom line, who knows exactly what harmful things may be in your fast “food”. One things for sure the published ingredient list is bad enough, the un-published one must be downright wicked.
What about those mystery meat chicken nuggets our kids are so fond of? Chicken McNuggets® ingredients: (as per mcdonalds.com)
White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, chicken flavor (autolyzed yeast extract) (AKA Monosodium Glutamate), salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), “spices”, wheat starch, whey, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent)
Wow. I was more comfortable when it was still a mystery.
Do you think getting a Grilled Chicken Sandwich is healthier? Think again, here’s the ingredients for the “Grilled” Chicken Breast Filet:
Chicken breast filets with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, sugar, food starch-modified, maltodextrin, “spices”, dextrose, autolyzed yeast extract (AKA MSG), hydrolyzed (corn gluten, soy, wheat gluten) (also MSG) proteins, garlic powder, paprika, chicken fat, chicken broth, natural flavors (plant and ANIMAL source), caramel color, polysorbate 80, xanthan gum, onion powder, extractives of paprika), modified potato starch, and sodium phosphates. Prepared with liquid Margarine: liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).
My god have your ever grilled out and needed all this crap to turn out a decent char-grilled chicken sandwich! Most of us don’t even know what these things are. I do know what “animal” is though and I find it odd that McDonalds does not disclose exactly which animal they are using. After all they clearly state when it’s beef or chicken or pork so what’s left? Rumor has it that in France the McDonald’s have been using horse tallow to fry the fries in, so who knows what “animal” really means, your guess is as good as mine, only McDonalds top executives know for sure. Problem is I don’t like guessing about which animal is in my “chicken sandwich” do you?
It’s not just the “Golden Arches” either. All fast food places misrepresent their products. Just look at Burger King, the BK Veggie Burger has six ingredients commonly used to hide free glutamate (MSG): calcium caseinate, hydrolyzed corn, yeast extract, soy protein isolate, spices, and natural flavors. At the end of the ingredients list, it states “This is NOT a vegan product” Why call it a veggie burger if it’s not vegan? Answer... more sales!
Wendys is just as bad just look at the ingredients for the popular Ultimate Chicken Grill Fillet: [Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast Fillets With Rib Meat Containing up to 18% of a solution of Water, Seasoning (salt, natural flavors, corn maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract (AKA MSG), modified corn starch, onion powder, paprika, spice, garlic powder, sugar, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, dextrose, artificial flavors), Modified Corn Starch and Sodium Phosphates.
KFC can’t even seem to make a freakin’ chicken wing without resorting to all sorts of foul flavorings, just look at the list. KFC Hot Wings: Breaded Chicken Wing Sections Containing up to 15% of a Solution of Water, Salt, Seasoning (Monosodium Glutamate, Spice, Extractives of Spice, Garlic Powder) and Sodium Phosphates. Battered With: Water, Bleached Wheat Flour, Modified Corn Starch, Seasoning (Monosodium Glutamate, Spice, Extractives of Spice and Garlic Powder), Yellow Corn Flour, Salt. Breaded With: Bleached Wheat Flour. Predusted With: Bleached Wheat Flour, Modified Corn Starch, Yellow Corn Flour, Salt. Breading Set in Vegetable Oil.
Once again who would ever think you can’t make a decent wing without a laboratory.
Now you get the jist of just how bad this chemical laden crap really is, problem is we feed it to the kids. Recently, the magazine Advertising Age cited Ronald McDonald as #2 on its list of top 10 advertising icons of the 20th century (#1 was the Marlboro Man).
The image of a giant smiling Ronald McDonald clown dangling a happy meal in hand while wading in a pile of play room balls has been the hook that keeps these kids craving over the so called food at McDonalds for decades. The really bad part is we are continuing to reinforce the false notion that it’s OK to eat fast food, we’re teaching our children it’s fine to eat things you have no idea what they are or where they came from. We’re also making them fat.
65% of American adults are overweight; 30% are obese. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, obesity figures almost doubled. What could account for this tremendous increase across the nation, fast food is one. Almost all the food that comes across the counter is saturated with MSG. MSG is known to cause obesity! Even without over-eating people can become obese by eating too much MSG. How much is too much? It all depends on the individual. Children are especially susceptible.
Even Childrens Hospitals across the US have fast-food franchises in them. The top-ranked pediatric hospital in the country (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) even has a McDonald’s. Recently, a combination of good information and bad publicity has encouraged some hospitals to reconsider their food-service contracts. But Ronald won’t always leave without a fight. The Cleveland Clinic wants to rid America’s leading heart hospital of its McDonald’s. But according to the clinic’s chief executive (Dr. Toby Cosgrove) they received a letter from a McDonald’s corporate vice-president (Marty Ranft) which “defended the franchise, and vowed ... that ‘McDonald’s has no intention of terminating’ the remaining 10 years on its lease”. Ronald smiles on.
The saddest part is there are many decent family restaurants here in our area that do provide a decent quality meal. The big question is what do we have to do to get you out of the drive thru line and into their establishment. Until we figure that out we’ll just keep on dishing the dope on the horrors of the fast food phenomenon that is driving the billion dollar business. Think smarter, eat better, eat local.