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You'll Never Guess What's In McDonald's Chicken McNuggets!
alnyethelawyerguy.com — Think you know what's in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget? Oh sure, there is a little bit of chicken (though it's mostly corn). But the real shocker is what else is in a McNugget. You'll never guess in a million years ....
AlanNye- 5880 diggs
- digg it
- EvilGnome, on 10/12/2007, -12/+115Now I know why I feel sick after eating them. That damn TBHQ
- PATSCRU, on 10/12/2007, -12/+200Damn, i just dusted a 20 piece for lunch.....
- Loonacy, on 10/12/2007, -8/+358Poor PATSCRU, you will be missed. Rest in peace, good buddy.
- quaunaut, on 10/12/2007, -6/+581@Loonacy
Bud, 40 pieces are where its at.
Though seriously: If you're eating at McDonalds, you don't care about what you're eating. Thats why you're eating at McDonalds. - smoothmedia, on 10/12/2007, -40/+254Who cares, it tastes good. The fat and sodium in McDonald's foods are far more dangerous than any tiny trace amount of weird a chemical that may or may not be in a given McNugget.
Ever seen that video where those students get hundreds of people to sign a petition to ban "Di-hydrogen Monoxide" (water)? - maxmoss1, on 10/12/2007, -53/+13And this surprises you why.... Doesn't anyone remember the chicken head in the McNuggets....
- jackmaninov, on 10/12/2007, -15/+161Mmm, glad I haven't eaten at McD's in like 5 years now.
- rockforever, on 10/12/2007, -8/+15A while ago they had a sale, 50 piece buckets for like 8 bucks or something, cant remember. me and three friends picked up a bucket each to see who could take em all. i got to 32 before i stopped. nobody finished all 50. Can you imagine though... 200 nuggets?
- wop4life, on 10/12/2007, -9/+289McNuggets are PEOPLE!!!!
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -64/+558Who really gives a *****?
They taste good, and people aren't dying from them. Welcome to the 21st century. When food has to travel cross country, it has to be preserved. You also need things to keep meat from turning to mush after being frozen. Most of those ingredients can be found in 99% of processed foods. They are there to keep the food safe. The only real "clean" method to keep meats from going bad is to salt-pack them, but then the sodium police would be after us.
I wish digg had a "Sensationalist *****" flag...it would be getting alot of use lately.
As for the TBHQ. Its not "Butane" .. its a derivative. Its a "white to light tan crystalline powder" (google is your friend) ... It prevents oxidization(which leads to rancidity). While doing so, it istelf oxidizes. Basically, when something around it gives off its hydrogen (oxididization) it gives its hydrogen to the the thing that initially lost it. Losing one of its hydrogens, it becomes an inert gas. By the time you eat the food, its well and gone. TBHQ has been used widely in most preprocessed foods for well over 50 years.
Lastly, the stuff isnt put on the chicken (or "inside the box" .. anyone fine white or tan crystalline powder in their chicken nuggets box?) .. its put in the corn oil that they use to pre-cook them in.
Is it that hard for people to do actual research on a subject before writing stuff like this "BUTANE BUTANE BUTANE, you're eating BUTANE!!!!" - masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -25/+17I bet you there's some damn High Fructose Corn Syrup in that. Hell, it's in everything from beans to bread.
- Hayaemsay, on 10/12/2007, -42/+8There used to be 76 ingredients, most of which were chemicals. I stopped eating McDonalds when I was five, says something doesn't it?
- r2builder, on 10/12/2007, -53/+33I used to work in McDonalds when I was in highschool... I have never, ever sprayed anything on a McNugget or the box they come in. Nor have I heard of the act of doing so (before reading this article)
I call ***** on that last part at least. - Teaboy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+79Chicken McNuggets™
Chicken (45%), Coating (Hydrogenated Vegetable
Oil, Wheat Flour, Maize Flour, Raising Agents (E450
Disodium Diphosphate, E500 Sodium Bicarbonate,
E341 Monocalcium Phosphate)), Dried Egg
Albumen, Pepper, Salt, Wheat Starch, Whey
Powder, Ground Celery, Flavour Enhancer (E508
Potassium Chloride), Vegetable Oil), Water, Natural
Flavouring, Flavour Enhancer (E508 Potassium
Chloride), Potato Starch, Vegetable Oil.
Straight from the horse's mouth. This is from the UK menu btw. Also, the chicken is 100% breast, according to an advertising campaign they had recently. - DirkVanAss, on 10/12/2007, -14/+262When I was 16 I had the glamorous honor of working at McDonalds. One Saturday a schizophrenic homeless man decided his McNuggets were possessed by Satan so he ran around the store throwing them at people.
Who would of guessed he was right the entire time. - msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -10/+47Comment abuse, but this is scare mongering. The article says that it only has ill-effects if you injest a GRAM of it. Do you realize how much that would take? You would be hard pressed to find a whole gram in all of their boxes for the day, let alone in a single serving.
- ExSlashdotter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+35Jeezum, Morgan Spurlock could have burst into flames!
- wdfjxe, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5Cancer?
- neonhomer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+35I used to work on McD's in high school too. I remember one guy used to come in and order 2 double quarter pounders, a 20 piece mcnugget, and a large diet coke. I don't think the nuggets were the only thing killing him. :)
- endlessoul, on 10/12/2007, -9/+42Wow. I remember one week I ate a 20 piece meal for lunch for 4 days in a row.
Boy, I'll never do that again.
Although, I don't eat McD's anymore anyway.
/thanks to Super Size Me - deviouskoopa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17From Wikipedia article:
"McDonald's Chairman Fred Turner approached one of his suppliers in 1979 and requested “I want a chicken finger-food the size of your thumb. Can you do it?” Chicken McNuggets were developed soon thereafter." - gr3yn3t, on 10/12/2007, -14/+20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw
--Ban H20! - HaymishTheRed, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7@Hayaemsay
Yea, it says you stopped eating there when you were five - mrlost117, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20moral of story... don't eat 1000 nuggets in one sitting
Im hungry - NeoCortex, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23Wait, I haven't seen Grimace in a while. Anybody know what hap... Dear God, No! Why did you do it Ronald? Why?!?
- wang1011, on 10/12/2007, -0/+46ha, i guessed tertiary butylhydroquinone, i mean come on what else could it be -_-
- wang1011, on 10/12/2007, -3/+54i wonder why digg doesn't allow you to delete your own comments
- EBFoxbat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18You'll notice mosquitoes don't bite you after you've axed a box of TBHQ errr.... nuggets.
- insomuchas, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Its not bs, the ingredients McDonald's admits to right here
http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal?process=item&itemID=10077
White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, chicken flavor (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, natural 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, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, partially hydrogenated corn oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent). CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK - Triffid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25if you're eating 20 piece nugget meals with any regularity... I think the lighter fluid is the least of your worries... http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -30/+25@insomuchas
The article says 56% corn.
Thats BS. Ingredients are listed (by law) in order of quantity. Chicken is first. That means that no matter what, by the laws of math, no other ingredient can exceed 50%.
And the article says they spray the TBQH on the chicken or in the boxes, your ingredient list tells the truth. Its int he cooking oil. Its in almost all cooking oil, even the stuff you buy to cook with at home. It prevents fats from going rancid through oxidation (look at my previous comment for further detail)
It is BS. - KibibyteBrain, on 10/12/2007, -6/+17Come on guys, people are right that this is over-reacting. Almost nothing humans eat is free of things you'd rather not think about being inside of you. In fact, these aren't even toxins, but harmless preservatives. I eat a lot of veggies, and know darn well that while they are extremely nutritious, they also get far more rancid INSIDE my body than anyone could imagine. We are mortal organisms, we don't have a choice to keep nasty stuff out of us, thats why are bodies are built so robustly. Just be glad you aren't in the middle ages where a significant part of your diet would consist of trace manure. Exercise to keep up your immune system and eat foods that help you exercise and you will be fine.
- TheJuggernaut, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24@roosterjm:
Corn and corn products can still make up more than 50 percent of the nugget, if they're broken out and listed as different products. Doing that lets McD's spin the ingredient list a little so chicken comes out on top. - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8They forgot to list the most important, secret ingredient: CRACK. It's what makes them so addictive, when you know they're so bad for you...
- hrhs556x, on 10/12/2007, -1/+64hold on, so let me get this right.....
McDonald's food is unhealthy? - lazyeyesam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8How is using a common preservative in food a shocking revelation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number - DaveV, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@Teaboy:
Damn, and I was thinking that chicken feet were extra tasty. - evilTak, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@endlessoul
You didn't realize McDonalds food wasn't healthy before you saw Supersize Me?
...and chicken feet *are* extra tasty! - phatalbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3But they're so chock full of yummy goodness!
- skyfire1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"i wonder why digg doesn't allow you to delete your own comments"
Because you can be an ***** and get away with it. It happens a lot with those kind of boards. - samnetwork, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Mmmhh, chicken mcnuggets.
- Tomtom40k, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15OMG whats next? smoking is unhealthy?
- futureb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6the point is not that trace amounts of this specific ingredient in this specific set of chicken mcnuggets will kill you. the point is that our bodies take in all sorts of "trace amounts" of toxins that we don't know we're eating. and pretty soon you see high rates of cancers that you never saw years ago, such as colon cancer. why would i want to eat a burger stuffed with preservatives from a cow that was killed a year ago? "it tastes good?" so do the burgers i make at home.
- serend, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@r2builder
I'm 100% positive they are talking about the process of packaging them in bulk. Not the boxes the nuggets get sold in.
I manage a Mcdonald's and I haven't eaten anything from there in over a year. This is only one of many reasons why... - FriscoTony, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6@roosterjm
"Thats BS. Ingredients are listed (by law) in order of quantity. Chicken is first. That means that no matter what, by the laws of math, no other ingredient can exceed 50%."
Ummmm.... by the laws of math, that's a crock. Imagine a breakfast product called, say, Crack-Os. It's made up of:
40% corn
20% high fructose corn syrup
20% sugar
20% dextrose
So, first off... there's nothing about the laws of math that says the first item in a list sorted by quantity has to be 50%.
Second, can you see how on this list corn is listed first, and yet Crack-Os are actually 60% sugar? - ccanni1028, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25How do they get the number 56% corn content?
"I counted thirteen [ingredients] that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself;..."
They're calling the actual chicken a corn product! Try giving a vegetarian a chicken breast and telling them that it's OK because the chicken was corn-fed so it's really just made of corn. - TheCount, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Eh, I'm still going to eat them. The nuggets and fries are the only digestible things on the menu that won't give you the *****.
- alllie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6No wonder there is so much cancer. And autism. And fatness.
- audiowizard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6If you eat McDeezies, more than once a week you're an idiot.
- IceSabre, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Lol, they count corn-fed chicken as corn.... guess the big-mac is 75% hay?
- Lennalf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@roosterjm2k2:
You really suck at math. - spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+65 grams can kill. 5 GRAMS. 0.02% of the oil is a ridiculously small amount.
You can die from alcohol poisoning, but taking a sip of shandy aint gonna cause you any harm.
This is just alarmist fear mongering. - Nerfdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2just like Super Size Me, this has only succeeded in making me hungry.
- rhesuspieces00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"You'll never guess in a million years..."
"But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone"
So chicken nuggets contain a toxic chemical i have never heard of and cannot pronounce. Actually, I guessed that the first time I ate one. - smackywentz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1McDonalds can go ***** themselves
- SeBBBe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"@roosterjm2k2:
You really suck at math."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The only ingredient that can only be more than 50% is the one listed first. If that's 50% the next one cant be more than 50% because then it'd be more than 100%. If the first ingredient is less than 50%, and the next one is always less (or same) than the first one because they're listed in order of percentage it contains, it still must be less that 50%... If it's more than 50% there's less than 50% for the other ingredients. - agilligan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3TBHQ = E319
Banned in a lot of countries, but not the U.S.
http://www.ukfoodguide.net/e319.htm - m1ss1ontomars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@friscotony and lennalf:
You don't understand his point. His point is that no other items on the list could possibly have more than 50% if there are more than 2 items, unless you want the remaining items to have negative or zero percentage, neither of which makes any sense.
Item 1: 50%
Item 2: 51%
Item 3: -1%
WTF? It is your math that sucks. - tomservo51, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Man, the TBHQ sauce is my favorite, Ill get the honey mustard next time.
- catbeller, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5WAIT A MINUTE, he defines the McNugget as mostly corn BECAUSE THE CHICKENS WERE FED CORN?!?!?
INACCURATE! - daborg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What surprises me is that anyone is actually surprised by this. I thought it was common knowledge that McDonalds is basically poison thinly disguised as food.
- yeahaboutthat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Wow. Makes me wonder what is in their "fruit and walnut salad"..... it's the only thing I eat at Micky D's
- matthewsr2000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Most of this "HARMFUL!!!" stuff either evaporates during cooking, or is converted into something innocuous either during shipping, cooking, or in your gastric juices. That bath of hydrochloric acid it goes through inside of your stomach takes care of a lot.
I am still surprised about how much corn there is in these things, wow. Considering corn is the major component of most animal feeds nowadays, it's especially surprising.
Oh, BTW the salads there have more fats in them then the hamburgers, IF you use their dressing. Also, they treat the lettuce with all kinds of things, so caveat emptor. - Higgins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal?process=item&itemID=10077
CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK
Is that an allergen warning or just there to reassure me these nuggets contain actual edible ingredients? - Dormammu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I have definitely received Chicken McNuggets that had a distinct chemical odor. The closest I could come was that it smelled like glass cleaner (eg, Windex). I bet those were batches that had a little more of the TBHQ sprayed on them. Kinda gross.
- Spooky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think I will just order a nice healthy Domino's pizza :-)
- Chuck1988, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was able to eat 70 of these in a single sitting once.
- smartass007, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2don't eat at mcdonalds...their food is ***** and they treat workers like slaves
- heysuburbia, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Here are McDonald's Recipes, so you can make it at home:
Arch Deluxe
Big Mac
Cheeseburger
Chicken McNuggets
Egg McMuffin
Fillet O Fish
French Fries
McRib
Milkshakes
Dipping Sauces
+ a bunch more
http://www.sendspace.com/file/lco0ax - thatsmyaibo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Bottom line is...if it feels good, do it. I love to engage in some junk food now and then. People freak out so much about what they are eating that they don't stop to enjoy life no matter how tasty and nuggety it may be.
- Biohazard101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well, that answers one of life's great conundrums: What is the most flammable corn and chicken based food?
At least I think its a conundrum... - FoxifiedNutjob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1""If you're eating at McDonalds, you don't care about what you're eating. Thats why you're eating at McDonalds.""
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kinda like if you're watching FOX fake news, you don't care about what disinformation you're hearing. Thats why you're watching FOX fake news.
- telegon, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3That's grosstastic!
- wuxia, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3I think we have a runner up. Now we know why flames shoot out when people eat Wendy's Spicy Burger!
- ccanni1028, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4That's Dairy Queen, not Wendy's. The commercial just came on TV as I read your comment.
- wuxia, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Oh.. my bad.. haha.. I hate TV.
- nevemark, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3"McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is 56% corn"
Gee... and I thought it was some health risk *****...- AlanNye, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10It's that last ingredient that will get you. Flame on!
- growlzor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+71I have a strange urge to purchase a 20 piece and light it on fire
- m1ss1ontomars, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I have an urge to print out a copy of this ***** website and light it on fire.
- viperman5000, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1But that would be a waste of 20 McNuggets.
- Paroparo, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3Tasteless white filth.
Everyone who's played the Impossible Quiz knows it!- phargarten, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Can anyone even get far enough in the impossible quiz to enjoy the reference ... Dont Touch White...
- dshPls, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Chicken selects are still safe right?
- BrK1, on 10/12/2007, -10/+7Spoiler for when the server gets dugg: they contain trace amount of Butane.
- Sarkos, on 10/12/2007, -6/+52Spoiler for people who believe everything they read on the internets: TBHQ is NOT a form of Butane... the article is inaccurate *****.
- insomuchas, on 10/12/2007, -13/+5Its a poison, and you know some of us prefer not to eat posions even if a little bit is unlikely to kill you, it will cause problems like headaches, aches and pains and immune vulnerabilities and maybe cancer.
http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/BU/tert-butyl_hydroquinone.html
Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Skin, eye and respiratory irritant.
Toxicity data
(The meaning of any abbreviations which appear in this section is given here.)
ORL-RAT LD50 700 mg kg-1
Oral Rat Lethal Dose 50% Kill 700 milligrams. - Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16@insomuchas
Just be careful about all the dihydrogen monoxide you ingest. MacDonalds put it in their shakes, but it is also found in sewage and cancer cells. Many people have died by simply breathing it in. - cyclopropene, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19@insomuchas
Natural foods are full of toxins. Just because it is made by humans doesn't mean it is worse (or better) than something made by nature. e.g. caffeine, which is three and a half times more toxic than TBHQ:
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/CA/caffeine.html
Harmful if swallowed. Experimental teratogen. Irritant in humans. May affect CNS.
Toxicity data
(The meaning of any abbreviations which appear in this section is given here.)
ORL-RAT LD50 192 mg kg-1
Oral Rat Lethal Dose 50% Kill 192 milligrams. - ccanni1028, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2insomuchas - You had better quit eating anything anymore. That 'poison' is in almost all vegetable and cooking oils purchased in a regular grocery store.
- corser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Wouldn't the LD50 number you gave us be per kilogram
I assume rats are lighter than a kilo so would that make the amount they ingested less than the mg you stated to kill 50%
It seems like an average person would be fairly safe with the amount that McD uses.
All this talk of chicken McNuggets is making me crave some, and on an intellectual level I know they are pretty damn gross. - spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Its a poison, and you know some of us prefer not to eat posions even if a little bit is unlikely to kill you"
Air contains very small amounts of poison, do you walk around with an oxygen pack too?
- slapded, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3for me, its MCDLT or nothin'.
- mdesjardins, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Dude - I *loved* the McDLT!!! The hot side stayed hot, the cool side stayed cool!!! MMMM!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDLT - chadtatro, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1or as my grandpa used to say.. 'Mc Dill-T'
- slapded, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23what about the mc-lean?
i used to work at mcd's as a kid and was in charge of the nuggets. I remember when parents would order their kids 4 piece nuggets. i would challenge myself to stuff as many nuggets in that tiny box as i could. i think i fit 10 in there. i fit over seventy in a 20 piece box. odd, nobody complained. - slapded, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5http://youtube.com/watch?v=UTSdUOC8Kac
yes - Newlz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@slapded
West Side Story had hamburgers? - mrlost117, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3slapded you are ***** awesome, have my baby
- eleven, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@slapded.
Now I know why I always seemed to get at least 1 extra nugget every time.
- mdesjardins, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Dude - I *loved* the McDLT!!! The hot side stayed hot, the cool side stayed cool!!! MMMM!
- oblongmouth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Without reading the article I'm going to guess that its sawdust, toenail clippings and clegnuts.
- fireball74, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20No, but you just described how they taste....
- ryannerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10No. This is the ingredients in Burger King's fries. Try again.
- jm1234567890, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7FUD
Most of these "bad" ingredients are in trace amounts. In these amounts they aren't as harmful as described in the article.- hoju7887, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I work as a quality control technician for a company that makes seasonings and breading for all sorts of fast food companies and McDonalds Canada is one of them. I can assure you that the "chemicals" that go into the chicken breader are completely harmless and are acutally there to make you NOT get sick from the varios different microbes the breading or chicken will encounter on its trip to your tummy.
***** like this is why we're paying 5 times more for food that is apparently more healthy because of a 2 cent sticker that says "organic".
PS. Yes..i dont know the Colonel's secret recipe..
- hoju7887, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I work as a quality control technician for a company that makes seasonings and breading for all sorts of fast food companies and McDonalds Canada is one of them. I can assure you that the "chemicals" that go into the chicken breader are completely harmless and are acutally there to make you NOT get sick from the varios different microbes the breading or chicken will encounter on its trip to your tummy.
- WanderLink, on 10/12/2007, -2/+30Lighter Fluid? So what. I thought it was going to be something really dusgusting like Soylent Green.
- Phyltre, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hey, given the choice between something really fattening and unhealthy and something made from people...well...we'll just have fewer people, is all.
- corser, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Does anyone else have the munchies for a California Cheeseburger?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=california+cheeseburger
- offput, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4They're still ***** awesome
- Mipmap, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4To those in a hurry:
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.
There you have it – lighter fluid. But you never thought that was in your chicken McNuggets!- optigon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yeah, but what is in the sauce?
- corser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Depends on if you piss off the McEmployee or not.
- Skotasma, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2"You'll never guess in a million years ...."
First guess is always something groce, like .. hooves, skins, feathers or worse.
Second guess is something chemical you'd not wanna eat.
Somehow I'm not surprised.
Anybody ever thought about where all the strawberries grow for all that flavour?
And so on...- underthelinux, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14groce?
- SasquatchBill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Yeah. As in, "I saw horse hooves at the grossery store. They were groce."
- ccanni1028, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You forget, the horse hooves are Jello not McNuggets.
- shufan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I never did like McNuggets. Now if that's in the chicken tenders of other places, like Culver's then I'll be worried haha. McNuggets don't even look like chicken inside. =P
- secondimpact, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hell...
I was gonna say Soylent Green...but yeah..TBHQ thats close. - catfish182, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1So if i clean 40 off my plate can i spit fire with my lighter?
- merien, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21What percentage of the fat in your home barbecued chicken wings consists of lighter fluid?
- evilTak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Ninety-two.
- corser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Chicken wings are to be battered/breaded, deep fried, followed by a buffalo-ing or honey-garlic-ing This is to be accompanied by beer on tap.
- ursername180, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The diet of an experienced fire breather consists of hundreds of McNuggets.
- Mipmap, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3On a related note there's the McDonald's game: http://www.funny-base.com/games8/mcdonalds_game.swf
Industrialized food at its finest! - niczar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29TBHQ can't be a "form of butane", butane is a pure hydrocarbon, formula C4H10. It's gaseous at room temperature.
- scottfarner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31Adding a butyl group to a molecule hardly makes it a "form of butane." It is like saying cyanocobalamin (vit B12) is a form of cyanide.
Maybe Al Nye the lawyer guy should be disbarred for lying to the public. Unfortunately I don't expect anything different from a lawyer (facts are irrelevant, if they can make money off a "form of the truth." That's a different story altogether. - sugrloafah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19Yeah, just because TBHQ has the word butane in it, doesn't mean its a derivative of butane. Look at the chemical structures, they're completely different molecules.
Oops... scott beat me to it. - nmathew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7For those curious, chemfinder.com is an excellent database to compare structures. Just type in TBHQ, because the molecule's name isn't in the database exactly as written in the article.
The author is a dumb-ass who failed organic chemistry. - jstem1994, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You think there's a reason he has no comments on his page? "Comments are moderated and approved before posting".
Probably all "Sensationalist asswipe, get a clue".... - Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Next week they'll be claiming that salt contains chlorine gas. Sheesh
- scottfarner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31Adding a butyl group to a molecule hardly makes it a "form of butane." It is like saying cyanocobalamin (vit B12) is a form of cyanide.
- mikefitz2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12i'll still eat them
- penneyisok, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5A video about chicken nuggets that was on diggs video section 22 days ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKcd4-IRsBk&eurl=
For anyone interest heres the story:
http://digg.com/videos/educational/What_s_in_a_Chicken_Nugget - Skitals, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8who would have guessed lighter fluid is so delicious?
I'm buying me some lighters for lunch. - pathy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Should I even bother pasting the DHMO link again?
I can't believe people worry about ***** like this. - Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10this is so stupid. I mean, it's not like TBHQ is not approved by the FDA for use in food. Judging by how little of the stuff is probably in these McNuggets, you would have to eat hundreds of the things to start to feel sick from the THBQ, and by then you would be a lot more sick from the chicken itself
- johnstar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2you guys are totally missing the point, corn is good for you!
- FredSpeaking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3While it would be nice to have less non-edible ingredients in fast food, I really doubt the amount of this stuff they use hurts you any more than the loads of hydrogenated fat you're ingesting with it anyway.
Other restaurants that use TBHQ in their food include Pizza Hut, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell and KFC.
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:www.pizzahut.com/menu/nutritioninfo/documents/ph_ingredients.pdf+TBHQ
http://www.jackinthebox.com/ourfood/ingredients.php
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:www.yum.com/nutrition/documents/tb_ingredient_statement.pdf+TBHQ
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_ingredients.pdf+TBHQ- richid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Exactly. You're better off worrying about eating foods with "partially hydrogenated" oils (trans fats) than this FUD. Of course, if you were concerned at all about your health you wouldn't be eating this crap in the first place.
- PaulJohns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, all places I'll never eat!
- TheMachine1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2The breading is an abomination. Plus the nuggets are trans fatty nightmares. Wendy's and Chick-fil-A (ate there last night) have trans fatty free chicken that is edible.
- Pexeter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I noticed that there was THBQ in reeses peanut butter cups yesterday..
- h00paj00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15How many of these ingredients are in the breading vs. the chicken inside.
Also, calling a corn fed chicken a "corn derivative" is just lame.
Beef isn't a grass derivative. Pork isn't a slop derivative. Duck isn't a pond scum derivative. - Corrosionx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Now I know I can squeeze a McNugget to refill my Zippo! Yay!
- InternetUser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Stay away from water; it's got hydrogen in it!
- Cornedbeef, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Fast food sometimes gives me heartburn and now I know why.
- imauser, on 10/12/2007, -8/+33This is complete *****, just because "a chemical" is present in a food does not mean its going to harm you.
Ladies and gentlemen EVERYTHING IS A CHEMICAL, you are all made of chemicals, all your food is made of chemicals, everything around you is made of chemicals, get over it.
And just because a chemical that you use to burn lighters is also in your food means jack too - chemical energy is what you live on and there are lots of chemicals that make up a lot of things.
- Carbon, the same element thats present in pollution is naturally found in your body in abundance, actually, you are significantly made of carbon-based chemicals!
- Chlorine, the same extremely deadly element used in chemical warfare makes up 50% of a certain substance ingested by millions of people every day, infact this substance is vital for your health.
- Hydrogen, the gas that was inside the Hindenburg when it violently exploded killing dozens of people is perhaps the single most common element in your body, and makes up most of a certain chemical substance that can actually kill you and yet most people drink this substance every day and suffer no bad health from it.
- Nitrogen, sounds like something you dont want to mess with, and if someone told you there had been a nitrogen leak and it was in the air you would want to get out of there pretty quick right? Guess what, nitrogen makes up most of the air you are breathing right now.
and as for Butane - it contains nothing but Hydrogen and Carbon molecules!!- joebagodonuts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Thank you, Dr. Science
- lexaken, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8C21H23NO5
oh wow, only carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, all things we normally ingest, i should definitely ingest this substance!
herion btw - crimson117, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"and as for Butane - it contains nothing but Hydrogen and Carbon molecules!!"
So? That doesn't mean it's safe...
We breather a mixture of mostly Nitrogen, some Oxygen, and some other gasses, yet NO2 (nitrous oxide - laughing gas) will sedate you and too much will even kill you. - CarolynMittens, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1imauser that rant in no way justifies eating artificially engineered fast food. and there is a big difference between the chemicals found in whole, natural food verses the chemicals found in mcnuggets.
- Songcrow, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2TBHQ is in everything from chewing gum to broth for god's sake, BROTH people, the trans fats in there are far worse for you, though still delicious
- alex288288, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Well. I dont think this is going to stop the 30million fatass greasy americans from eating it 3times a day, but its interesting..
- OdinsFury, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Not to mention they have to add all this crap to it because chicken mcnuggets are made only from the ground up carcass of the chicken after the meat has been stripped off. I'm glad I'm a vegetarian.
- msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3And whats wrong with that? There is very little wasted that way, and almost everything in an animal is edible.
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4And it tastes damn good with some ketchup or sweet and sour sauce
- jerryn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Hmm .. Nope.. look close. TBHQ is also a carcinogen.
You've got to be careful to what "chemicals" you intake. The Phosphoric Acid in many soda pops not only cause calcium and other mineral loss, but
also insulin resistance. Drinking soda with lunch and supper alone can lead one to Type II diabetes. Don't believe me, read up on our cells metabolize
and you'll get a wakeup call. My bg is boderline diabetic even though I am very active, so I am taking steps now to drop the BG.
I havent' went to a fast food resteraunt in a year, now I'm gonna check to see if Tyson Foods uses TBHQ, if it does then no more frozen grilled chicken
patties for B.J.'s wholesale either, that's what I have when my wife and I get home late from work instead of hitting the fast food places.
Better off buying fresh chicken breast from a butcher anyway and freezing it. Like the old days.
- dakke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6They say a 5 grams of TBHQ can be lethal..that's an insanely high amount though. About the same amount of iron (which is commonly found is multivitamins in high quantities than the amount of TBHQ reported) or caffeine is equally deadly.
Iron has other positive side effects, but saying how 5mg can kill you, without putting it in relation to something else is just sensationalization.- h00paj00, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1grams or milligrams?
- msgyrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1read the article, it plainly states grams.
- h00paj00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2....
- valehru, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Did anyone else get a craving for chicken nuggets after reading that?
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Mmmm... with gobs of sweet and sour sauce!
- nebben, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Yea , I think having people in chicken nuggets would've been about the furthest guess I would've made.
Lighter fluid and a long list of other chemicals? Yea, no surprises there. Several years ago, I read that McDonalds hamburger meat is processed so heavily after it leaves the thousands of cows (I also learned that the beef in McD's burgers comes from super-farms, where any beef patty might contain beef from hundreds or thousands of cows), it has very little flavor left. A chemical factory in NJ makes some kind of stuff that gives the burgers their flavor.
Yikes. - h00paj00, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4In-N-Out Burger should go nationwide
- skaz05, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Oh man, that would be so sweet. I haven't had a triple, animal style, in years now.
- Darksaber11, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wonder if that means they're flammable?
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7everything is flammable.... IF you can apply enough heat.
- tearor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4--ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse."
I'm scoring some for Saturday night!!!! - ch0rn33, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Mmmmmmmmmm .. Corn Nuggets
- yujie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1what about Wendys and BK nuggets or chicken strips?
- chuckado, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2after reading this article i looked down at my Reese's peanut butter cups and found that they had TBHQ in them and i was scared.
- Bahimiron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Man, look at all that corn!
I never knew nuggets were so darn healthy.
My All Nugget Diet is gonna be the next Hollywood sensation. - wbeavis, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5First the author is obviously not a culinary expert, probably does not know how to cook. Food preparation is a chemical process. Ingredients are not added on a whim, they perform a function to bring the product to a specific result. Most of the "scientfic chemical" names in truth are common household items people use daily. They just can't list name brands, plus they need to hide the recipe.
The FDA does not allow companies to put toxic ingredients in food, that is their job. If you can't trust the FDA, can you trust the almighty dollar? McDonald's is not about to cause harm to customers. Anyone remember the media store over the hot coffee?
If you don't like something, do buy it. Please stop the FUD. Was this article funded by Vegans or PETA (mmmm, tasty animals) - mtnlion2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4This just in, fast food is bad for you!
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