Wednesday, July 7, 2010

McDonalds: 10 Billion Now Served... Silly Putty?


To my generation who grew up in the 80's, perhaps nothing represents the taste of childhood like McDonald’s. As a child, a trip to McDonald’s was a treat, an illusion doctored by their flagrant catering towards children (the Happy Meal, Ronald McDonald, the Fun House, etc).

Today, I’m extremely leery of fast food establishments, for reasons exactly like the following news story from Slashfood.com. A recent investigation revealed that American chicken nuggets contain “at least two industrial chemicals, the sort with names that are as hard to pronounce as Icelandic volcanoes. Tertiary butylhydroquinone (tBHQ) is a petroleum-based preservative, and dimethylpolysiloxane is an "anti-foaming agent," which also happens to be used in making...Silly Putty!” Toxic? Supposedly no. Disturbing? Yes.

Now I think of all those times I bit into the crunchy surface and slightly rubbery center, each time I dipped those nuggets in sweet and sour or BBQ sauce, I never dreamed that what I was consuming was a scientifically engineered substance as opposed to what a growing child should have been served - real food.

While I do appreciate the recent improvements made to the McDonald’s menu (apple slices and milk are now available options for the Happy Meal), I won’t feel comfortable eating there until they cut the fluff, eliminate scary secret ingredients, and serve real, honest food to their customers.

Read more: http://www.slashfood.com/2010/06/29/the-silly-secret-about-chicken-mcnuggets/

2 comments:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me!