From YaHoo!!
By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding - Posted on Tue, Feb 16, 2010, 10:31 am PST
Eat This, Not That
by David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition
Once upon a time, back when Ray Kroc was still pushing milkshake machines, a hamburger and fries meant a wad of freshly ground chuck and a peeled, sliced, and fried potato. Now, these two iconic foodslike nearly everything we consumehas taken on a whole new meaning. Sadly, many of our favorite foods today (especially fast foods) werent merely crafted in kitchens, they were also designed and perfected in labs. We uncovered the ugly truth in the course of our research for the Eat This, Not That! and new Cook This, Not That! series. What we found was not pretty.
Before you mindlessly chew your way through another value meal, take these mini-mysteries (conveniently solved below) into account. Sometimes the truth is tough to swallow.
Whats in a Chicken McNugget?
Youd think that a breaded lump of chicken would be pretty simple. Mostly, it would contain bread and chicken. But the McNugget and its peers at other fast-food restaurants are much more complicated creatures than that. The meat in the McNugget alone contains seven ingredients, some of which are made up of yet more ingredients. (Nope, its not just chicken. Its also such nonchicken-related stuff as water, wheat starch, dextrose, safflower oil, and sodium phosphates.) The meat also contains something called autolyzed yeast extract. Then add another 20 ingredients that make up the breading, and you have the industrial chemicalI mean, fast-food mealcalled the McNugget. Still, McDonalds is practically all-natural compared to Wendys Chicken Nuggets, with 30 ingredients, and Burger King Chicken Fries, with a whopping 35 ingredients.
Bonus tip: For the nutritional breakdown of each of these chicken meals, and thousands others, download the brand-new Eat This, Not That! iPhone App! Its like having your own personal nutritionist always at your fingertips!
Whats in a Wendys Frosty?
Wendys Frosty requires 14 ingredients to create what traditional shakes achieve with only milk and ice cream. So what accounts for the double-digit ingredient list? Mostly a barrage of thickening agents that includes guar gum, cellulose gum, and carrageenan. And while thats enough to disqualify it as a milk shake in our book, its nothing compared to the chemists list of ingredients in the restaurants new line of bulked-up Frankenfrosties.
Check out the Coffee Toffee Twisted Frosty, for instance. It seems harmless enough; the only additions, after all, are coffee syrup and coffee toffee pieces. The problem is that those two additions collectively contain 25 extra ingredients, seven of which are sugars and three of which are oils. And get this: Rather than a classic syrup, the coffee syrup would more accurately be described as a blend of water, high-fructose corn syrup, and propylene glycol, a laxative chemical thats used as an emulsifier in food and a filler in electronic cigarettes. Of all 10 ingredients it takes to make the syrup, coffee doesnt show up until near the end, eight items down the list.
Bonus tip: Not all restaurant desserts will detonate your diet. See which frozen treats made our popular list of The 39 Best Healthy Foods in America.
Whats in a Filet-O-Fish?
The worlds most famous fish sandwich begins as one of the oceans ugliest creatures. Filet-O-Fish, like many of the fish patties used by fast-food chains, is made predominantly from hoki, a gnarly, crazy-eyed fish found in the cold waters off the coast of New Zealand. In the past, McDonalds has purchased up to 15 million pounds of hoki a year, each flaky fillet destined for a coat of batter, a bath of oil, a squirt of tartar, and a final resting place in a warm, squishy bun. But it seems the worlds appetite for this and other fried-fish sandwiches has proven too voracious, as New Zealand has been forced to cut the allowable catch over the years in order to keep the hoki population from collapsing. Dont expect McDonalds to scale down Filet-O-Fish output anytime soon, though; other whitefish like Alaskan pollock will likely fill in the gaps left by the hoki downturn. After all, once its battered and fried, do you really think youll know the difference?
Bonus tip: About a quarter of your day's caloric consumption comes from what you drink. Defy that stat: Avoid the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America. You'll be shocked by this list.
Whats in my salami sandwich?
Salami, the mystery meat: Is it cow? Is it pig? Well, if youre talking Genoa salami, like youd get at Subway, then its both. Most salami is made from slaughterhouse leftovers that are gathered using advanced meat recovery, which sounds like a rehab center for vegans but is actually a mechanical process that strips the last remaining bits of muscle off the bone so nothing is wasted. Its then processed using lactic acid, the waste product produced by bacteria in the meat. It both gives the salami its tangy flavor and cures it as well, making it an inhos pitable place for other bacteria to grow. Add in a bunch of salt and spicesfor a total of 15 ingredients in alland youve got salami. But now that you know whats in there, you might need to check yourself into an advanced meat recovery center.
By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding - Posted on Tue, Feb 16, 2010, 10:31 am PST
Eat This, Not That
by David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding a Yahoo! Health Expert for Nutrition
Once upon a time, back when Ray Kroc was still pushing milkshake machines, a hamburger and fries meant a wad of freshly ground chuck and a peeled, sliced, and fried potato. Now, these two iconic foodslike nearly everything we consumehas taken on a whole new meaning. Sadly, many of our favorite foods today (especially fast foods) werent merely crafted in kitchens, they were also designed and perfected in labs. We uncovered the ugly truth in the course of our research for the Eat This, Not That! and new Cook This, Not That! series. What we found was not pretty.
Before you mindlessly chew your way through another value meal, take these mini-mysteries (conveniently solved below) into account. Sometimes the truth is tough to swallow.
Whats in a Chicken McNugget?
Youd think that a breaded lump of chicken would be pretty simple. Mostly, it would contain bread and chicken. But the McNugget and its peers at other fast-food restaurants are much more complicated creatures than that. The meat in the McNugget alone contains seven ingredients, some of which are made up of yet more ingredients. (Nope, its not just chicken. Its also such nonchicken-related stuff as water, wheat starch, dextrose, safflower oil, and sodium phosphates.) The meat also contains something called autolyzed yeast extract. Then add another 20 ingredients that make up the breading, and you have the industrial chemicalI mean, fast-food mealcalled the McNugget. Still, McDonalds is practically all-natural compared to Wendys Chicken Nuggets, with 30 ingredients, and Burger King Chicken Fries, with a whopping 35 ingredients.
Bonus tip: For the nutritional breakdown of each of these chicken meals, and thousands others, download the brand-new Eat This, Not That! iPhone App! Its like having your own personal nutritionist always at your fingertips!
Whats in a Wendys Frosty?
Wendys Frosty requires 14 ingredients to create what traditional shakes achieve with only milk and ice cream. So what accounts for the double-digit ingredient list? Mostly a barrage of thickening agents that includes guar gum, cellulose gum, and carrageenan. And while thats enough to disqualify it as a milk shake in our book, its nothing compared to the chemists list of ingredients in the restaurants new line of bulked-up Frankenfrosties.
Check out the Coffee Toffee Twisted Frosty, for instance. It seems harmless enough; the only additions, after all, are coffee syrup and coffee toffee pieces. The problem is that those two additions collectively contain 25 extra ingredients, seven of which are sugars and three of which are oils. And get this: Rather than a classic syrup, the coffee syrup would more accurately be described as a blend of water, high-fructose corn syrup, and propylene glycol, a laxative chemical thats used as an emulsifier in food and a filler in electronic cigarettes. Of all 10 ingredients it takes to make the syrup, coffee doesnt show up until near the end, eight items down the list.
Bonus tip: Not all restaurant desserts will detonate your diet. See which frozen treats made our popular list of The 39 Best Healthy Foods in America.
Whats in a Filet-O-Fish?
The worlds most famous fish sandwich begins as one of the oceans ugliest creatures. Filet-O-Fish, like many of the fish patties used by fast-food chains, is made predominantly from hoki, a gnarly, crazy-eyed fish found in the cold waters off the coast of New Zealand. In the past, McDonalds has purchased up to 15 million pounds of hoki a year, each flaky fillet destined for a coat of batter, a bath of oil, a squirt of tartar, and a final resting place in a warm, squishy bun. But it seems the worlds appetite for this and other fried-fish sandwiches has proven too voracious, as New Zealand has been forced to cut the allowable catch over the years in order to keep the hoki population from collapsing. Dont expect McDonalds to scale down Filet-O-Fish output anytime soon, though; other whitefish like Alaskan pollock will likely fill in the gaps left by the hoki downturn. After all, once its battered and fried, do you really think youll know the difference?
Bonus tip: About a quarter of your day's caloric consumption comes from what you drink. Defy that stat: Avoid the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America. You'll be shocked by this list.
Whats in my salami sandwich?
Salami, the mystery meat: Is it cow? Is it pig? Well, if youre talking Genoa salami, like youd get at Subway, then its both. Most salami is made from slaughterhouse leftovers that are gathered using advanced meat recovery, which sounds like a rehab center for vegans but is actually a mechanical process that strips the last remaining bits of muscle off the bone so nothing is wasted. Its then processed using lactic acid, the waste product produced by bacteria in the meat. It both gives the salami its tangy flavor and cures it as well, making it an inhos pitable place for other bacteria to grow. Add in a bunch of salt and spicesfor a total of 15 ingredients in alland youve got salami. But now that you know whats in there, you might need to check yourself into an advanced meat recovery center.
