Silly Pooty

First off let me say that I am not (NOT) a McDonalds Chicken McNugget fan. Never have been. The best I can say about them is that if they are dipped in a lot of barbecue sauce then they are vaguely edible, and if I close my eyes and squint then maybe I can possibly - on a very clear day - imagine that they could possibly, in theory, taste sorta kinda like a piece of chicken. That said, if you like them, then you are in for a bit of an education.

Apparently in the United States it is perfectly okay to mix chemicals into them that the rest of the world considers to be poisonous. But then again what does the rest of the world know. We're Americans, we're smarter than the average bear.

Watch this:



When looking at the ingredients list it has Polydimethylsiloxane which is used as an anti-foaming agent.  That is all well and good, except it is also used to make contact lenses, medical devices (of the unknown variety), shampoo, caulking, lubricating oils (wink wink nudge nudge) and heat resistant tiles.  Makes ya wonder if the Chicken McNugget you are scarfing regrets the life it could have had as a piece of space shuttle.  It is also used in making Silly Putty.

Also among the ingredients is TBHQ a/k/a tert-Butylhydroquinone.  This is a preservative that is used to keep the oil from going icky.  Too much of this stuff can cause this:

The FDA sets an upper limit of 0.02% of the oil or fat content in foods.[4] At higher doses, it has some negative health effects on lab animals, such as producing precursors to stomach tumors and damage to DNA.[5] A number of studies have shown that prolonged exposure to high doses of TBHQ may induce carcinogenity,[6] especially for stomach tumors.[7] Other studies, however, have shown opposite effects including inhibition against HCA-induced carcinogenesis (by depression of metabolic activation) for TBHQ and other phenolic antioxidants (TBHQ was one of several, and not the most potent).[8] The EFSA considers TBHQ to be non-carcinogenic.[3] A review of scientific literature concerning the toxicity of TBHQ determined that there is a wide margin of safety between the levels of intake by humans and the doses that produce adverse effects in animal studies.[9]

Now to be fair we are being told that anything we do, say, breath, eat, drink, touch or look at is bad for us to the point of being deadly, so I guess if I am going to look up ingredients and their side effects I should probably try to balance it and look up something organic, eh?  Maybe later.

(This information was brought to you courtesy of Wikipedia and the McDonalds Website.)

Now a few months ago this picture was making the rounds:

It was being claimed that this was what Chicken McNuggets were made from.  What you see above is MSP a/k/a mechanically separated poultry.  This is what chicken nuggets are made from, but apparently not what McDonald's version of chicken nuggets are made from.  It is surprisingly difficult to find out how, exactly, McDonalds makes their chicken nuggets, but apparently they claim that it is made from all white bonelss meat.  The description I read was that they used breast meat only, made it into a paste with all the spices and crap in it, then they shape it into one of three shapes - the tombstone (appropriate), the circle and the boot.

Okay, I've unconvinced myself.   Maybe these little babies aren't so bad after all.  I'm going to McDonalds - anyone want to come along??