

11. What's really in your ...: Chicken McNugget
Still, McDonald's is practically all-natural compared to Wendy's 30-ingredient Chicken Nugget or Burger King's 35-ingredient Chicken Fries.

10. What's really in your ...: Wendy's Frosty
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 that's used as an emulsifier in food and a filler in electronic cigarattes. Of all 10 ingredients it takes to the make the syrup, coffee doesn't show up until near the end, eight items down on the list.

9. What's really in your ...: Filet-O-Fish

8. What's really in your ...: Salami Sandwich

7. What's really in your ...: Fast-Food Hamburger
See, the company has developed a process for killing beef-based pathogens by forcing the ground meat through pipes and exposing it to ammonia gas. And not only has the USDA approved the process, but they've also allowed those who sell the beef to keep it hidden from their customers. At Beef Products' behest, ammonia gas has been deemed a "processing agent" that need not be identified on nutrition labels. Nevermind that if ammonia gets on your skin, it can cause severe burning, and if it gets in your eyes, it can blind you. As an ingredient in one of the foods we consume most, our government doesn't even deem it important enough to inform eaters of its presence.
Add to the gross-out factor the fact that after moving through this lengthy industrial process, a single beef patty can consist of cobbled-together pieces from different cows all over the world—a practice that only increases the odds of E. coli contamination. So if you're set on the challange of eating fresh, single-source hamburger, pick out a nice hunk of sirloin from the meat case and have your butcher grind it up fresh. Hold the ammonia.

6. What's really in your ...: Betty Crocker Bac-Os Bits
Not quite. If it's Bac-Os you grab for, just know that there's not the slightest whiff of anything pork-like to be found in the bottle. So what are you those little chips you've been shaking over your salads? Well, mostly soybeans. The bulk of each Bac-O is formed by tiny clumps of soy flour bound with trans-fatty, partially hydrogenated oil and laced with artificial coloring, salt, and sugar.
But here's what's really odd: Hormel makes a product called Real Bacon Bits, and as the name implies, it's made with real bacon. And gram for gram, the real bacon actually has fewer calories than Betty Crocker's Bac-Os. the difference is only 5 calories, but still, if Hormel can make a nutritionally superior product using real bacon, then why would you ever choose the artificial one that's loaded with partially hydrogenated soybeal oil?

5. What's really in your ... : Subway 9-Grain Wheat Roll
So outside the nine grains, how many ingredients does Subway use to keep this bread together? Sixteen, among which aren't exactly items you'd find in the average baker's pantry: DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium sulfate, and azodiacarbonamide. But here's one that's a little unnverving: ammonium sulfate. This compound is rich with nitrogen, which is why it's most commonly used as fertilizer. You might have used it to nourish your plants at home. And Subway does the same thing: The ammonium sulfate nourishes the yeast and helps bread turn brown. What, did you think that dark hue was the result of whole grains? Hardly. It's a combination of the ammonium sulfate and the caramel coloring Subway adds in to darken its bread and deceive its customers. Seems like Jared might frown on that sort of subterfuge.

4. What's really in your ...: Skittles
To achieve that color spectrum, Skittles brings in a whole new list of additives. When a Skittles ad tells you to "taste the rainbow," what it's really telling you to do is taste the laboratory-constructed amalgam of nine artificial colors, many of which have been linked to behavioral and attention deficit problems in children. A few years ago the British journal Lancet published a study linking the artificial additives to hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children, which prompted the Center for Science in the Public Interest to petition the FDA for mandatory labels on artificially colored products. The FDA's response: We need more tests. In the meantime, there's a very large-scale test going on all across the country, and every Skittles eater is an unwilling participant.

3. What's really in your ...: Taco Bell Mexican Pizza
Now, some of those ingredients amount to little more than Mexican seasoning and spices, but there is a whole cluster of complex compounds such as autolyzed yeast extract, maltodextrin, xanthan gum, calcuim propionate, fumaric acid, and silicon dioxide. Any of those sound familiar? The last one might if you've spent any time at the beach. But chances are you normally refer to it by its common name: sand. Why does Taco Bell put sand in the Mexican Pizza? To make it taste like spring break in Cancun? Not quite. As it turns out, Taco Bell adds silica to the beef to prevent it from clumping together during the shipping process.
Is it usual to add silica to food? Yes. is it dangerous? Probably not. The mineral actually occurs naturally in all sorts of food, including vegetables and milk. Of course, inhaling it is a different story. Construction workers who breathe in too much silica dust on the job can develop serious lung problems such as bronchitis or silicosis. Guess that's another reason to eat slowly—you don't want to make the mistake of inhaling your silica.

2. What's really in your ... : Baskin-Robbins Oreo Layered Sundae
If you make a sundae at home, you're looking at 10 ingredients tops. Of course, you'd probably choose to leave out the polysorbate 80 and mono- and diglycerides ingredients that Baskin relies on to keep other ingredients properly dissolved and certain fats from separating out. Sundae? more like a third period chemistry experiment gone awry.

1. What's really in your ...: Nacho Cheese Doritos
To
create each Dorito, the Frito-Lay food scientists draw from a well of
39 different ingredients. How many does it take to make a regular
tortilla chip? About three. That means some 36 ingredients wind up in
that weird cheese fuzz. Of those 36, only two are ingredients you'd use
to make nachos at home: Romano and cheddar cheeses. Alongside those,
processors rely on a cache of carbohydrate fillers such as
maltodextrin, dextrose, flour, and corn syrup solids. Then comes a
rotating cast of oils. Depending on what bag you get, you might find
any combination of corn oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, and sunflower
oil. Some of these will be partially hydrogenated, meaning they give
the chip a longer shelf life and spike your cholesteral with a little
shot of trans fat.
But for a brief moment before the fats and empty starches reach your
stomach, your taste buds will enjoy the Doritos seasoning blend, which
includes, "artificial flavoring," and a rather worrisome compound
called monosodium glutamate. Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is the
flavor enhancer largely responsible for the chip's addicting quality.
The drawback is that it interferes with the production of an
appetite-regulating hormone called leptin. That's why a study of
middle-aged Chinese people found a strong correlation between MSG
consumption and body fat. What's more, the FDA receives new complaints
every year from people who react violently to MSG, suffering symptons
like nausea, headaches, numbness, chest pains, and dizziness—not to
mention orange fingers.
No comments:
Post a Comment