Deconstructing

Big Mac:

The Bun:

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin, sesame seed.

Noteworthy:

Hydrocarbons (gasoline byproducts) are listed in the ingredients. What’s all the scientific sounding stuff? Azodicarbonamide is banned in Australia and in Europe. In Singapore, the use of azodicarbonamide can result in up to 15 years imprisonment. (The U.S. currently allows up to 45 ppm or .0045% concentration in food.) What it does: Causes asthma and increases allergic reaction to other foods. In the U.S. it’s legal to use untested additives in food. Chemicals yet to be determined a health risk. After all, they aren’t food so they are regulated the same. Did I read that right? 2% or less? A whopping 20,000 parts per million (or less) of azodicarbonamide may be contained in my bun!?  Should someone be inspecting this? Benzoic acid is an ingredient in other parts of this meal:  Benzoic acid + ascorbic acid = benzene. What’s benzene? A colorless and highly flammable liquid with a sweet smell. It is a known carcinogen and an important industrial solvent. Bet your stomach loves that.

The Patty:

100% pure USDA inspected beef; no additives, no fillers, no extenders.

Noteworthy:

Lopez foods and Keystone are the listed suppliers. No known info on what cut/part of beef is included in McDonald patties- it is propriety information and closely guarded. What does this mean? Beef is a misleading term not directly indicative “meat”. Beef may include: skeletal tissue (what you and I think of as “meat” when we see it in the store), fat tissue, cow lips, intestines, organs, anuses, vaginas, sinus tracts, flaked and formed gristle and tendons, limp nodes, cyst sacks, etc. Percentage of skeletal tissue in McDonald’s beef is unknown. The good news? USDA inspects 100% of this beef.  Is this a typo? The USDA inspection is 100% pure or is the beef 100% pure or is the beef pure and the inspection is 100%? Isn’t it supposed to say 100% pure beef, USDA inspected?  They MUST have an editor on staff. Wait a minute….

Seasoning:
Grill seasoning: Salt, pepper

Noteworthy:

Recently removed from grill seasoning ingredients: partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (cottonseed and soybean). This one appears a lot in the ingredient list so pay attention to the “magic combo”: Cottonseed and soybean. Two of the Big Four GMO crops grown worldwide- mostly Monsanto stamped products. Cottonseed oil undergoes intensive treatment after extraction to reduce the level of gossypol found in untreated cottonseed oil; consuming gossypol may produce undesirable side-effects.  On the plus side, gossypol is undergoing studies to be used as a drug because it does have anti malarial and anti cancer properties! Soybean oil on the other hand is solvent-extracted with hexane—a significant constituent of gasoline.

Big Mac Sauce:
Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor)

Noteworthy:

Soybean oil, corn syrup. GMO again. It’s everywhere. Magic oil again. Sugar! EDTA. Another known carcinogen.  Metabolizes benzene creation—EDTA, Benzoic and ascorbic acid—the perfect trifecta of Big Mac carcinogens: the meat, the cheese, the sauce. EDTA is recommended for industrial use only. Of course, McDonald’s could be classified as industrial so maybe that counts….

The Cheese:

Pasteurized Process American Cheese
Milk, water, milkfat, cheese culture, sodium citrate, salt, citric acid, sorbic acid (preservative), sodium phosphate, artificial color, lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, soy lecithin (added for slice separation).

Noteworthy:

Here it is! Sorbic acid. Meat and cheese really IS a bad combo. This is what’ll create your benzne…aka industrial solvent. Artificial color. Not a food. No list of composition needed.

The Pickle:

Cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, calcium chloride, alum, potassium sorbate (preservative), natural flavors (plant source), polysorbate 80, extractives of turmeric (color).

Noteworthy:

This natural flavoring is popular stuff….At least the extractives of turmeric are natural.

The Lettuce and Onion:

100% shredded Iceberg lettuce. Sliced white onion.

Noteworthy:

13 year old Mexican-American Augustino Nieves worked on a farm in California supplying to the fast food industry. He missed months of school that year, working from 6:30 am until 8 p.m., with a 20-minute lunch break, six days a week, at less than the minimum wage. His story is not the only one. Most kids, some as young as seven, use hazardous equipment. A business can expect a visit by a federal inspector checking labor laws and minimum wage compliance once every 50 years.⁵ Farm workers at the supplier farms have reported forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation. These are mostly illegal immigrants. McDonald's is getting a humanitarian award for using these minority based businesses.Fast food restaurants are aware of these conditions and have inaccurately reported penny-per-pound laws.⁶

Ketchup:

Tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, water, corn syrup, salt, natural flavors (vegetable source.)

Noteworthy:

Ta Dah! More natural flavor!!!

Mustard:

Vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, turmeric, paprika, spice extractives. 

The Combo:

Fries:

Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent. *(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients)

Noteworthy:

My fries need an antifoaming agent? Does McDonald’s have a problem with foamy fries?? Again, the magic veggie oil. TBHQ. Think Twinkies. It’s how they stay so preserved. Natural BEEF flavor in fries? Natural flavors can be pretty much anything approved for use in food including chemicals, actually mostly chemicals. It's basically impossible to tell what is in natural flavors unless the company has specified it on the label. McDonald’s declined to send information in writing on what this contained except to say:"[t]he natural flavor used in French fries is from an animal source." Does that worry anyone? Summary on ingredients: The chemicals, yes chemicals, used prevent fries from spoiling and from digesting properly in your system. 

100 Circle Farms grows the perfect potatoes in circles so big around, they’re visible from space. Then our trusted processor, Lamb Weston, cuts them into fries-at 70 miles per hour. –McDonald’s

“We can dig anywhere from a thousand to twenty four hundred tons of potatoes per day…and the majority of these will go into McDonald’s Fries.” - Troy Grimes, Director of Farm & Dairy Operations, Lamb Weston

Tons?!!  How do you spell potato? G-M-O. How else can you produce up to 2400 tons of perfect fries a day? Question is: How has this been genetically modified and potentially more than one way? No one seems to know… I don’t even want to think about is required to produce that many potatoes in one day.

Soda:

Coca-Cola

Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors (vegetable source), caffeine.

Noteworthy:

The default 21 oz soda contains a little over ½ cup of sugar….sorry, high fructose corn syrup- a GMO corn is used. Natural flavors show up again. And all this time I thought natural flavors meant “naturally occurring, these ingredients belong here.” Caffeine and phosphoric acid combo reduces bone density.

I’m lovin’ it^tm:

Dirty packaging:

A typical McDonald's restaurant serves an average of 109 customers each peak hour, with every customer producing an average of 56.7 grams (2 oz) of trash. Consequently, an estimated 6.35 kilograms of trash is generated from food sales alone each (peak) hour, so across the world, at least 196,821 kg (433 lbs 14.65 oz) of trash are being generated every hour! Paper packaging lasts for approximately five minutes before it is discarded by consumer. How much paper must be produced to create the 28.8 billion articles of McDonald’s only trash each year? ¹

Consider the hydrocarbon usage included in and used to produce 400 million pounds of chicken, 260 million pounds of beef, and 25 million pounds of fish a year in the U.S. alone?² What about all the other menu items? Worldwide? That’s a huge global carbon footprint.

Fast Food Culture:

Evolved with mass urban development and growing working population.  Feeds the working population—employs 2 million workers.  Mickey D’s has received humanitarian awards for employing minorities: blacks, Hispanics, and women make up most of the workforce.⁸ Benefits from economic meltdown.  Reinforces fast-paced lifestyles, expediency and “value” for the dollar as cultural qualities. Unprecedented degree of power over nation’s food supply.³ Has promoted the Slow Food movement to counteract the saturation of fast food in daily life.  The Slow Food movement is about producing honest food in a sustainable manner, getting rid of homogenization and the forces of globalization which invade almost all areas of life today.⁴

At any given time, 1/3 of our calories are from eating out. 1 out of 3 calories we consume are from eating out!⁷ Based on a 2000 calorie daily diet, that’s 660 calories! Daily!

Big Mac combo:

 See also; Industrialization, cultural globalization, GMO, pesticide, insecticide, child labor, hydrocarbon technology, food additives, obesity, heart disease, politics, business, illegal immigrants, poverty, global warming, labor laws, nutrition laws and labeling, capitalism, monoculture, free market.

1. http://www.theconcordian.com/2.4740/mcdonald-s-environmental-mcnasty-1.637323

2.http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/see_what_we_are_made_of/meet_our_suppliers/keystone_foods

3.http://bukisa.com/articles/147358_the-detriments-of-the-fast-food-culture

4. http://transitionabroad.com/publications/magazine/0609/slow_food_in_italy.shtml

5. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1993/04/05/77695/index.htm

6.http://www.tradio21.org/news/2006/0711/mctrafficked-the-fast-food-industry-modern-day-slavery-in-the-us

7.http://npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=1497083

8. http://www.psucomm473.blogspot.com/