SubscribeWhat's Lurking in Fast Food?
John Andrews at NewsTarget uncovers some of the more unpleasant ingredients in what often sounds like 'healthy' food.
Did you know?
Wheat bread at Subway is not 100% whole grain (whole wheat flour is down on the ingredients list - followed closely by High Fructose Corn Syrup). The color of the bread is from "caramel color" - which contains sulfites. There is also an ingredient called azodicarbonamide.
Azodicarbonamide is a respiratory sensitizer (a possible cause of asthma) that is banned in Australia.
Taco Bell
The rice contains dimethylpolysiloxane - this is normally used in silicone caulk, adhesives, and as an anti-foaming agent.
Wendy's
The Low Fat Honey Mustard Dressing contains titanium dioxide - used to manufacture paint, sunscreen, semiconductors, and also in food coloring.
McDonald's Offspring
Take your coffee without creamer. The creamer contains sodium phosphate, sodium polyphosphate, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, sodium citrate, carrageena. Many of these ingredients are commonly found in various industrial chemicals. If you're brave enough - go check out the McDonald's ingredients lists.
See other weird fast food ingredients at NewsTarget.
Of course fast food is not healthy, but I don't see why sharing a few ingredients with non-food items makes them bad. Honey Nut Cheerios contain Calcium Carbonate which is an ingredient found in cement. The only one that would make me nervous is Azodicarbonamide because its banned in Australia and I'm going to assume they didn't just ban it on a random hunch.
ReplyJosie, I wonder if that means that the rice in the AU Taco Bell burritos is made differently?
ReplyThe Subway bread kind of ticks me off. They purport to be so healthy, but they can't take one of their own staples, bread, and make it 100% whole wheat? Come on, how hard is that?
ReplyI am waiting for a real pizza with whole grains. I don't eat much grains, but when giving into a craving I certainly would want real whole food. So sad about Subway, but not surprising. All about money not so much health
ReplyOh. Unfortunately, this is just scratching the surface of the terrible things that are in fast food!
ReplyIBlogFat.blogspot.com
Fast food is not healthy food. All this debate about how "unfair" fast food marketers are is crazy. They will stay in business forever --and in fact grow-- because fat people do not care what in the food as long as it tastes good. Come check out our site, we'd love to hear from you!
ReplyCalcium carbonate is what's in Tums, too...it's just a mineral and it's perfectly safe to eat. They put all sorts of things in processed foods to make them whiter, a better consistency, to preserve them, etc. Most of the additives they put in are pretty safe, actually, but they are definitely not "natural" things. They put ethylene glycol in certain processed foods as an emulsifier. And ethylene glycol is basically antifreeze. If you've ever seen a coolant leak in a car (where the coolant leaks into the engine block), you will never eat ethylene glycol again. It turns car engine oil into sludge...I can't imagine it would be all that great for your arteries.
ReplyJosie, I wonder if that means that the rice in the AU Taco Bell burritos is made differently?
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I don't really get what you're saying. What is AU? It probably is though anyway, they make just about everything differently.
Calcium carbonate is what's in Tums, too...it's just a mineral and it's perfectly safe to eat
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Yup. And is there any evidence these things may be unsafe besides that first one?
About them being not natural, don't most of us take unnatural medication daily? Unnatural doesn't have to bad as far as I see it, and natural doesn't have to be healthier even though that goes against instinct.
ReplyExcuse my ignorance, but what the heck is 'creamer'? Never heard of it!
ReplyIts a subsitute for
I guess its just anything you can cream your coffee with besides actual cream. Sometimes it has dairy in it but sometimes not, and sometimes its that powder stuff you pour in that turns milky in there. Then there's coffee mate and eighth continent delight and all that. Reply
Woops, I meant to say 'international delight' not eighth continent delight. But you know, I think eighth continent delight soymilk would also constitute creamer if you poured it into your coffee or tea.
ReplyWater is also commonly found in industrial chemicals.
This alarmist nonsense attempts to appeal to ignorance, fear, suspicion and hatred. It's not even a half-truth because it's basically content-free.
This blog is OK sometimes. And some other times, it's the "we are victims of food" blog.
This is the worst post in a long, long time.
ReplyI think it was Jack Lalanne who advocated eating food in as close to its original form as possible. Basically, if the food comes in a box, bag, or wrapper, you should avoid it. However, despite this, and what is written above, I still like fast food from time to time :)
ReplyIt is incredible to see so many things pop up in fast food these last couple years. Even though new and healthy things are coming in I wonder how focused they are about improving the unhealthy foods.
ReplyIf anyone's concerned about the bread at Subway, you can do what I usually do: Ask that your 6" sub be made as a salad. They will fill a bowl with lettuce, spinach (if you want it) and whatever other veggies and stuff you want, plus your chicken breast or ham or whatever meat you want. They'll put cheese on it if you want it and you can get lowfat and fat free dressings if you want them. It's a great way to lighten up the meal.
ReplyNothing surprising, we know it's crap and most of us will still indulge because it taste great. That make sure it taste great by constant testing and tinkering.
I wonder how they come up with using all this weird crap in our food. I mean do they hold a meeting and be like "Alright people $100 bucks to the stupidest ingredient you can come up with to toss in our rice."
ReplyHaHa!! That's exactly what we do at Subway! If we want a sandwitch, we take it home and put it in a Pita Bread. Reply
Anyone know anything about Chick Fil A? It's the only fast food I ever have (and that, rarely.)
ReplyChick Fil-A is about the best choice you can make for a fast food place. The owners are great people with great values.
ReplyFolks, you're dealing with "corporate America". Their primary concern is "the bottom line". Any way they can cut corners or fool you, they will.
ReplyIf we believe to all these so called "facts" then we shouldn't be shopping or eating anything from the local store, as well.
What are we supposed to eat then? What we produce with our bare hands? I seriously doubt that...
ReplyIsn't it just acceptable practice that we eat what they serve... and while I can read and understand what in fact they have in it, I'm not sure that it matters a great deal... because we are going to eat it anyway!
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ReplyYeah, there's a giant dartboard of chemicals and food scientists just randomly throw darts at it and that's how they decide what to put in food. No, seriously, most of those ingredients are there for a reason; usually to improve texture or flavor or something similar. The ingredients they put into food are highly tested and regulated...food companies can't just go randomly throwing chemicals into food for the heck of it.
really? what about milk, or is that just not common practice?
ReplyToo many companies are trying to portray this "I am so healthy" image so you should buy from me. It really makes me mad.
ReplyIt should be illegal to market chemicals as food. False advertising. The entire "food additive" category should go away.
Unless it came from a plant, an animal, or is salt, then it is not a food and should not be sold as such.
ReplyIn a perfect world, we'd all eat natural foods and make things from scratch, but there are too many people out there that like processed convenience foods that would strongly object to getting rid of those foods. Ironically, a lot of people that freak out about the additives to food are probably the people that buy it the most.
ReplyAbsolutely nothing that I buy has food additives. So if I didn't eat at restaurants a few times a week, I'd be food additive free.
You see, I am very much interested in the banning of industrial chemicals as food, so that I can have a restaurant experience, and not be polluted by them.
No, I'm not completely psycho about the foods I buy either, that they have no additives. It's just that I eat a lot of meat :)
ReplyKailash--Wow, that's pretty impressive. Most of what I buy is additive-free as well. I'd really like to give up coffee creamer and just use half and half, but I actually like the non-dairy stuff better for some reason. I eat mostly non-processed foods, but I could probably stand to cut out the few processed things I do eat (like the coffee creamer). I guess if additives were banned, I'd be forced to give it up and just use half and half or milk. Maybe that's what we need...someone forcing us to give up processed foods as a nation. But I think a LOT of people would be opposed to the government telling them what to eat or what not to eat.
ReplyWell, the government already does that. Right now, they're telling people to eat this food additive poison. "Go ahead, its ok."
Because the food additives are legal, we all encounter them when we least expect it. Sometimes, we are goaded into paying for them, such as hospital or airplane food. So even if we didn't want to eat that garbage, our money's already paid for it, and it would be a waste not to eat up.
I think the biggest complainers, if food additives were banned, would be the processed food industry. They'd have to alter their manufacturing process to not include these chemicals. And they'd have to come in at a price point that people could still afford, or even consider cheap, if they're going to compete with the foods that are already additive free.
If anything, it would level the playing field for healthy foods to be more competitive on a price basis. In the end, even the poor would benefit, because either the food companies must create food that they can afford. Or their employers must raise their salaries to compensate. Or both! There is no alternative, other than rioting in the street, and revolution.
"Let them eat cake." People often discount this factor! Nothing can ever get too desperate. Food additives are only to make the rich richer, and control must sometimes be wrested from them by the peoples law, even if its in the form of government.
Because that's another thing that too many often discount. We, ourselves, are supposed to be the government. So when "the government did this and that" it is supposed to be by us, for us. The people who think its someone else doing these things are automatically giving up their right to self-government, and giving it to another. Creating what they fear.
So I say its high time we got our act together, embraced our government as ourselves, and banned these laboratory chemicals from being stuffed into our food supply.
ReplyHi everyone! This is my first post on the diet blog. I have been reading it for a few months now and love it. It is a great source of healthy diet info and more. I was just wondering though, is there a place, either on here or somewhere else, that has a list of items to watch out for in the ingredient list on foods? And is there any ingredients that companies are allowed to exclude from the list? Thanks for any help!
-Dom
Replyyep. fast
food is terrible.
because i just cant ever
Replystop eating eat! it just
taste so darn good!