the horror! the horror!
I had a conversation with my friend Steve once about the Chicken McNugget (while I was eating a McNugget, mind you.)
He claimed they had more ingredients than anything else on the menu at McDonalds, and I was a little skeptical.
“More than the soda? More than the cookies? More than, say, a Shamrock shake? Who even knows what’s in those? McNuggets are just batter — which has a few ingredients, yes — and pressed chicken and seasoning and oil. What about the spectre of the McRib? There’s some crazy shit in there.”
“The horror of the term ‘pressed chicken’ notwithstanding, I’m pretty sure you’re underestimating what they add to the chicken when they McNugget it.”
“I already mentioned the oil and seasoning?”
“No, I don’t mean salt and grease. I mean, stuff to make it more… chicken-textured.”
“Okay, the horror of the term ‘chicken-textured’ notwithstanding, what the hell does that mean?”
“Thickeners, texturizers, bodifiers…”
“They put hair products in McNuggets?”
“Seriously. They might. Don’t be naive.”
“Okay, I know there are lots of ingredients, but I still think by saying they have ‘the most’ that you’re full of crap.”
“You’re full of McNuggets. AND WHO KNOWS WHAT THAT MIGHT INVOLVE!”
“Do you want one? I AM totally full.”
“Yes.”
September 9th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Ew.
September 9th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Yeah.. there’s some scary chit in fast food. Just close your eyes and don’t think about it.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
a big part of the reason that McDonald’s is on my “Do not eat here” list… along with most fast food places.. leftover spaghetti from last night suits me just fine :) Or subway.
September 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
It’s like hot dogs. I know they’re full of terrible, terrible things. What those terrible, terrible things are, I try not to think about. Because every once in awhile, at a hockey game or something, I just get a strong craving for a big old concession hot dog wrapped in tinfoil!
September 9th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
You should watch Jamie Oliver’s school dinners. There’s one about chicken nuggets. They’re even more foul than you could ever imagine. Ew!
Also, I’m rather new to your blog. It’s great, so thank you! You remind me a bit of Meg at meish.org :)
September 10th, 2008 at 4:08 am
I hear tell that their french fries don’t actually decay…
September 10th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Chicken McNuggets®:
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, 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).
CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK.
^^Straight from the McDonald’s website. Where ALL the ingredients of ALL their food stuffs are listed. Some so-called “healthy” frozen dinners have more fat and calories AND additives than McDonald’s. I don’t eat there but I can still get indignant for the trashing they get.
And how are you this fine sunny Wednesday? :)
September 10th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I don’t think I’ve had a frozen dinner in years.:) And if it says “lean” on it, I’d just as soon buy some chicken and veg and do my own thing.:)
September 10th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Just don’t read Omnivore’s Dilemma; it could put you in danger of knowing what you’re eating and with respect to foodnuggets … believe me, that’s a bad thing.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:58 am
“Bodifiers” is just not a word. Dude totally made that up.
But I think I would have been better off without thinking about how many ingredients go into a nugget. Read “Fast Food Nation” too, if you really want to get freaked out. It goes into detail about the history of the McNugget, if I remember correctly.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I don’t know… that list doesn’t look that bad. And I bet there are way worse things in your shampoo.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:53 am
Weren’t chicken mcnuggets ‘edible plastic’. Now that they use ‘real white meat’? Ah well I miss when they the fries were cooked in the same oil as the mcnuggets, but now they are not due to religious reasons.. or so the employees are told.
McNuggets - The other other white meat.