The McRib sandwich is back, and with it, the horde of cult-like fans of the McDonald's pork sandwich.
Despite its name, the McRib sandwich actually contains no rib meat. But what exactly is it made of?
The Week explains some of the 70 ingredients of the McRib (which you may want to skip if you're a fan of the sandwich):
How many ingredients are there?
At face value, the sandwich contains just pork, onions, and pickle slices slathered in barbecue sauce and laid out on a bun. But the truth is, there are roughly 70 ingredients. The bun alone contains 34, says TIME's Melnick. In addition to chemicals like ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80, the most egregious may be azodicarbonamide — "a flour-bleaching agent most commonly used in the manufactur[ing] of foamed plastics like gym mats the and soles of shoes." According to McDonald's own ingredient list, the bun also includes calcium sulfate and ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides, among other chemicals.
Link (Photo: The Impulsive Buy/Flickr)
I mean seriously, why does the article start off with such a negative tone about "unpronounceable ingredients"... I could say the same about any foreign food
Most are too new to be fully evaluated, but that sure doesn't stop the corporations or the health and food safety commissions from approving them.
Look at it this way: in twenty years when these chemicals have been fully evaluated and there is conclusive evidence, you can either look back and either: say "I wasted twenty years of eating mcribs!" and start eating it again, or you can have colon cancer and die. Your choice, really.
Ammonium sulfate: Suspected health hazards: neurotoxicant, respiratory toxicant, gastrointestinal or live toxicant.
Sodium stearoyl lactylate can potentially cause a sodium imbalance.
Mono and diglycerides are what they're calling hydrogenated oil since anyone who's health conscious recognizes hydrogenated oil as containing trans fats which lead to heart disease, among other things.
Calcium proprionate can cause stomach ulcers, even behavioural changes.
BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) may be a carcinogen or tumorigen. Causes liver, thyroid and kidney problems and hormone imbalance.
TBHQ (tert-Butylhydroquinone) is likely to be a carcinogen according to the US National Institute of Health.
Just because you can't understand complicated chemical names does not mean you get to claim it's bogus. Comparing harmful chemical preservatives to words in a foreign language is a ridiculous comparison. Everyone is now dumber having listened to your claims of 'false alarm'; may the flying spaghetti monster have mercy on your soul.
I didn't check the link, but I would not be surprised if they had the widely-used meat-preservative, Sodium Nitrite in there, which is very very bad, too.
(along with its less-dangerous and more well-known cousin, Sodium Nitrate)
+And yes, the DOSAGE in these meats of some chemicals IS enough to do harm; -for those questioning presence-at-all vs. quantity.
.
+Mono and Di-Glycerides also do a fantastic job of saturating your fat-cells, too.
The "scary names" are found as additives in lots of processed foods. Scary name chemicals also exist within the freshest and purest of ingredients. They are also created in the cooking process. If you don't think these ingredients are safe then elect leaders who will ban them. The fearmongers need to give it a rest. If you don't want to eat scary named chemicals then don't eat at all.
Much of the world can't afford fresh or frozen local food. Processed food is what feeds much of the world, and will become more important in the future.
BTW I just had a McRib and it was OK, not great, but OK. I have been eating at McDonald's for over fifty years and I suffer no major illnesses except in my third eye.
Respectfully,
Blinky
We can act all superior about it, and pretend other people are stupid, but Gellner, do you really think people don't know that fast food is not healthy?
whitcwa, I agree with you.
There is fast food out there that's not healthy and there's fast food out there that is actually pretty good for you. Fish and Chips is a pretty healthy meal all in all.
What bugs me these days is how many people eat burgers and the like and say they know it's not good for them, but it's cheap. This stuff isn't particularly cheap, but it's marketed to appear as if it is.
Any of the millions of fast-food options can be placed under the microscope to reveal very unpleasant ingredients. Going off the deep end knee-jerk style about "we think cancer" this and "could be harmful" that is not any smarter science than consuming the stuff in the first place. We've been over this ground before with hot dogs, vienna sausages, and hundreds of other foods. They're still on the shelves. Mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) is known to cause some very severe symptoms if taken in high dosages, yet it is still available commercially and it is still used in a LOT of fast foods and even at the best steak houses. Point is, ok, now you know. So don't buy the stuff. They'll yank it, and come up with something else equally or more disgusting next time, and their earnings will always improve anyway, so the knee-jerking really isn't necessary. So instead of blaming McDonalds like some ridiculous ambulance-chaser, think for yourself. Eat a healthy meal and call it good.
Jim Fixx was a famous runner. He was healthy as a horse until he dropped dead running.
When it's "your time to go", you die (unless you are on a plane and it just happens to be the "pilot's time to go").
Trouble is there are so many superior types out there who don't need evidence. Just like they *know* coffee is bad for you even though they can find no reliable medical evidence to support their knowledge.