EVER WONDER WHAT'S IN YOUR BIG MAC?

Granty2007

EVER WONDER WHAT’S IN YOUR BIG MAC?

Bet you did not know ....that a Big Mac has 76 listed ingredients, including 17 E-Numbers, 24 grams of Fat (10grms saturated fat, 490c)

http://www.mcdonalds.ie/Where-our-food-comes-from/Ingredients-Listing.aspx?p=Big%20Mac

The big mac alone would take two hours of walking to burning off the calories never mind the E-numbers...

Now can you imagine if you add an apple pie, fries, sauce, shake and desert...

We need to wake up to what we are eating.... and the funny thing is they are publishing it...god help the next generation!

For example, lets look at the simple chicken nugget which boasts 100% Chicken Brest

Nuggets
Chicken (45%), Coating [Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Wheat Flour, Maize Flour, Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate - E450, Sodium Bicarbonate - E500, Monocalcium Phosphate -E341), Dried Egg Albumen, Pepper, Salt, Wheat Starch, Whey Powder, Ground Celery, Flavour Enhancer (Potassium Chloride - E508), Vegetable Oil] Water, Natural Flavouring, Flavour Enhancer (Potassium Chloride - E508), Potato Starch, Vegetable Oil. Processing aids: E900 - Dimethyl polysiloxane , anti-foaming agent in hydrogenated vegetable oil. E504 - Magnesium carbonate anti-caking agent used in Potassium Chloride. E330 - Citric acid - processing aid used in the refining of oil. E300 - Ascorbic acid - processing aid used in the manufacture of the flavouring. E535 - Sodium ferrocyanide - processing aid used in salt manufacture

Sweet n Sour Dip
Fructose-Glucose syrup (from Wheat), Water Apricot Puree (Contains ascorbic acid), Spirit Vinegar, Modified Maize Starch, Salt, Dextrose Monohydrate, Rapeseed Oil, Stabiliser (E415), Mustard Flour (Contains Mustard), Preservative (E202), Garlic Powder, Colour (Caramel E150d), Spices, Flavouring (contains Propylene Glycol), Acetic Acid, Malic Acid, Anticaking Agent (E551), Onion Powder, Spice Extract.

Tzetze

That really is very disturbing. I find the contents of their cheese to be the most shocking. How can they pump a simple basic product, like cheese, full of so much crap?

Granty2007

Very good point...look at organic cheese which contains....well... cheese ...like the way it’s been produced for generations...then look at the ingredients that our generation has produced in McDonald’s Cheese...

McDonald's Cheddar Cheese (55%), Water, butter, Whey powder, Milk Proteins, Natural Cheese Flavouring, Emulsifying salts E331(trisodium citrate), E450 (diphosphates), E452 (polyphosphates), salt, preservative E200 (sorbic acid) and colour E160(a) (natural carotenes) E160(c) (paprika extract). Processing Aids: Lecithins (E322), Vegetable oil (Rape seed oil - component in lecithin which we spray on slice surface ) , Citric acid E330

Our poor kids!

cozmik

Well I haven't eaten at McDonalds in over ten years but I completely agree with your concerns.

maryo'dee

The big mac contains all the ingredients for a balanced diet.
bread for carbs, meat for protein, veg for vitamins and preservatives to prevent ageing. Also colourings to give you a healthy glow.:)

Femelade

Cant believe the fries are actually just potatoes and oil..

Mena

Hmm, I read all that, and now I want a Big Mac... Not had one in years...

BraziliaNZ

omg seriously, big macs are just amazing, that sauce, I love slamming one into me when I'm hungover as f*ck, nothing feels better. If you're too fat to eat them then don't!

cozmik

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I love slamming one into me when I'm hungover as f*ck, nothing feels better. If you're too fat to eat them then don't!

Wow, thanks for that amazing insight,BraziliaNZ! You've really helped with the development of this thread on an intellectual level.

EileenG

However, to give them their due, the basic burger is just beef and salt. And the salad is just a salad. I've got children with allergies, and I've actually managed to feed all of them in McDonalds.

And their coffee Vienna is made with real cream that has been pressurised, not stuff full of sugar and stableisers.

Macha

In Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma", he talks about the amount of corn in McDonalds food:

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/11_pollan.shtml

Amount of corn-derived carbon present in Pollan's McDonald's family meal, as measured by a mass spectrometer:
Soda, 100%
Milk shake, 78%
Salad dressing, 65%
Chicken nuggets, 56%
Cheeseburger, 52%
French fries, 23%.

Totally f**ked up... I don't know why anyone would eat there. It's just corn, re-packaged as overpriced, empty calories masquerading as normal things like cheeseburgers.

gemxpink

I'm a vegetarian, but if I wasn't I still wouldn't eat one if I was paid.

jimmycrackcorm

Why do people get so upset over a big mac? Having one once in a while isn't going to kill you. You might as well condemn every biscuit manufacturer too.

Macha

I have a special type of hatred reserved for companies like McDonalds that target children. Ronald McDonald, toys, Happy Meals, deals with Disney films. It's disgusting. Kellogs aren't much better & Michael Phelps should be ashamed of himself.

El_Dangeroso

If that's not enough to put you off.. check out this woman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IGtDPG4UfI


She's been keeping a macdonalds burger in her purse for four years, and it still looks like the day it was bought..

rubadub

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Why do people get so upset over a big mac? Having one once in a while isn't going to kill you. You might as well condemn every biscuit manufacturer too.

I don't get it either, burgers in a hotel are probably not going to be any better really. And burgers are not too bad anyway IMO, I remember Jamie Oliver in the UK years back about school dinners and they had nutritionists on saying burgers get a very bad rep, and did not deserve it, and should be in schools as one of the better choices.

taconnol wrote: »

It's just corn, re-packaged as overpriced, empty calories masquerading as normal things like cheeseburgers.

Not sure what you mean by that. That website seems very odd, I would like to see data on other things, seems one of these scientific mumbo jumbo results, skewed to make them look odd. You say "normal things like cheeseburgers", do you think burgers from burgerking or your nearest hotel would not score the same "result", whatever those corn figures mean. The figures are meaningless to me, for all I know fresh broccoli could contain more "corn" than the cheeseburger.

It is easy to try and shock with oddball figures out of context, I have tomato purée in my press, pure tomato, and at it contains nearly twice as much sugar as coke does.

taconnol wrote: »

I have a special type of hatred reserved for companies like McDonalds that target children.

That is the only reasonable reason I see people hating them, and maybe treatment of animals & land etc, but the food is on a par with most others takeaways.

neddas wrote: »

If that's not enough to put you off.. check out this woman

Doesn't put me off at all, have seen it all before, again skewing results, not comparing like with like. The chips in mcds are dry, to compare it properly you should use crisps, or get potatoes yourself and fry them and do the same thing, i.e. dry the moisture out and heat until sterile, most things stay inert when this happens, same with the dried out bread, you need moisture and right levels or nutrients for stuff to go mouldy.

Some good studies done here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersize_me#Alternative_experiments

colly10

taconnol wrote: »

In Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma", he talks about the amount of corn in McDonalds food:

http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/04/11_pollan.shtml



Totally f**ked up... I don't know why anyone would eat there. It's just corn, re-packaged as overpriced, empty calories masquerading as normal things like cheeseburgers.

WTF? How can soda be 100% corn?

rubadub

colly10 wrote: »

WTF? How can soda be 100% corn?

That is what I mean, it is skewed figures. And when did corn become so bad!

I imagine they dry out the soda and other things, so it ends up close to pure sugar, and in the US they use syrup derived from corn rather than sugar, hence 100%, 100% misleading too! I expect the chickens eat corn so register high, lean turkey meat probably contains more of this evil corn.

Macha

rubadub wrote: »

Not sure what you mean by that. That website seems very odd, I would like to see data on other things, seems one of these scientific mumbo jumbo results, skewed to make them look odd. You say "normal things like cheeseburgers", do you think burgers from burgerking or your nearest hotel would not score the same "result", whatever those corn figures mean. The figures are meaningless to me, for all I know fresh broccoli could contain more "corn" than the cheeseburger.

The website is not "odd", it is a review of the book that I was referring to and provided me with an online, digital format of the extract of the book that I wanted to quote. So it saved me from typing it out - that's all.

To answer your question, I think that burgers from BurgerKing, etc are pretty much the same. As for hotels, it really depends. Is the cow fed nothing but corn? Or is the cow grass-fed? That's the difference.

rubadub wrote: »

It is easy to try and shock with oddball figures out of context, I have tomato purée in my press, pure tomato, and at it contains nearly twice as much sugar as coke does.

I'm not trying to shock with oddball figures out of context. They are the facts, I can't really frame them in any other way. Yes tomato is a fruit - it contains sugar. I'm not sure how this is relevant...Sugar is something that occurs naturally in many, if not the majority of foods. Corn? No.

rubadub wrote: »

That is the only reasonable reason I see people hating them, and maybe treatment of animals & land etc, but the food is on a par with most others takeaways.

Yes, takeaways, for the most part, are crap crap food. Your point about the treatment of animals and food is a very good one.

colly10 wrote: »

WTF? How can soda be 100% corn?

Ever heard of High Fructose Corn Syrup? That's what you're drinking when you buy a soda in McD's or a similar chain. Please note, I did not say that soda IS 100% corn. The quote says that "Amount of corn-derived carbon present in Pollan's McDonald's family meal, as measured by a mass spectrometer"

rubadub wrote: »

That is what I mean, it is skewed figures. And when did corn become so bad!

I imagine they dry out the soda and other things, so it ends up close to pure sugar, and in the US they use syrup derived from corn rather than sugar, hence 100%, 100% misleading too! I expect the chickens eat corn so register high, lean turkey meat probably contains more of this evil corn.

Sorry figures are not skewed.

Yes, that's exactly what they do. I'm not saying corn is in itself a bad thing. But it has taken over many food systems, particularly in the US. Cows suffer terribly when they are fed only corn. Their rumens become inflamed and this, combined with them being crammed into such a confined space, causes the overuse of antibiotics.

Do you think its normal to find corn (pectin, lecithin, xanathan gum, zein, ascorbic acid, MSG..) and soy (TVP=textured vegetable protein=soy, soy lecithin, MSG, glycine) in almost every food product you find in the supermarket? I don't. I think its unnatural. And the only reason it's happening is because it suits big business. But for me the worst part is when we force-feed it to animals that are not naturally designed to eat it and they suffer.

Here's a Wiki page on the book if you wish to read further. I highly recommend it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omnivore's_Dilemma

cozmik

Fast Food = Fast Weight Gain

brendansmith

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

omg seriously, big macs are just amazing, that sauce, I love slamming one into me when I'm hungover as f*ck, nothing feels better. If you're too fat to eat them then don't!

cozmik wrote: »

Wow, thanks for that amazing insight,BraziliaNZ! You've really helped with the development of this thread on an intellectual level.

Big laughs guys! Seriously beats anything in the humour section!

vibe666

there's a lot worse things in the world than a burger.

at least there's a few more regulations about what they can put into thm now.

dread to think what was in the fast food that we were all eating in the 80's. :eek:

Tar.Aldarion

Even when I ate meat their burgers were not good. I could never understand people eating in a place that smells like puke most mornings.

olaola

...the best lips and ar$eholes money can buy.
I know it's not the best cut of meat, but at least A: it's Irish & B: Maccie D's are cleaner than most fast food joints. Haven't had one in a while, but when I'm feeling particularly rough - it's about the only thing I can stomach.

It's not too hard to find a pre-packaged sambo that has a higher fat & calorie content than a big mac!

rubadub

taconnol wrote: »

The website is not "odd", it is a review of the book that I was referring to

I just found it strange, I have never seen "anti-corn" writings before. I had only skimmed through the webpage.

taconnol wrote: »

To answer your question, I think that burgers from BurgerKing, etc are pretty much the same. As for hotels, it really depends. Is the cow fed nothing but corn? Or is the cow grass-fed? That's the difference

Well you would not get the same "corn derived carbon" results in Ireland, since the produce is locally sourced. The soda here is probably 100% beet derived carbon. What I was really getting at is the demonisation of mcdonalds, you were saying the burgers are just corn, masquerading as "normal things" like cheeseburgers, I just wondered what a "normal cheeseburger" is, i.e. the burgers here might be described as wheat, barley or grass masquerading as burgers. For me eating it, all morals aside, I am not sure which is better or worse for me, my beet drink or my corn drink.

taconnol wrote: »

I'm not trying to shock with oddball figures out of context. They are the facts, I can't really frame them in any other way.

Well one poster was shocked, all I am saying is the figures are pretty meaningless to the average person, and that all I saw was mcdonalds "corn derived carbon", I do not know if the figures are good or bad, could be far less corn than other foods, and again I am not sure if that is good or bad.

taconnol wrote: »

Yes tomato is a fruit - it contains sugar. I'm not sure how this is relevant...

My point is that people can infer that something is bad, that webpage IMO inferred that a high corn derived carbon % was bad and unusual. I often hear people saying "coke has 32 teaspoons of sugar per can", or some other high figure, as though this is amazingly high, as though I should be shocked into not drinking it. I just like to debunk/calm these facts, e.g. saying back to them "it has the same sugar content as apple or orange juice, grape juice has nearly 50% more, and skimmed milk has more sugar than full sugar lilt".

Personally I am not too concerned, if I go to the US I probably will eat this stuff, I eat sweetcorn at home with no apparent problems so far.

taconnol wrote: »

Sugar is something that occurs naturally in many, if not the majority of foods. Corn? No.

This is what I am ignorant about, the fries had corn derived carbon, I presume this is the oil. The other items did, was this just breaded coatings or would mcds actual meat have corn derived carbon. I do not know if corn derived carbon does naturally occur in foods, or animals who eat it.

Do you think its normal to find corn (pectin, lecithin, xanathan gum, zein, ascorbic acid, MSG..) and soy (TVP=textured vegetable protein=soy, soy lecithin, MSG, glycine) in almost every food product you find in the supermarket? I don't. I think its unnatural.

I do think it is normal, i.e. it is the norm to have this stuff in foods and therefore "normal", unnatural-yes, but that does not overly worry me, the vast majority of stuff I eat, wear, own, work at could be described as unnatural.

& Cheers for the link.

Running Bing

neddas wrote: »

If that's not enough to put you off.. check out this woman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IGtDPG4UfI


She's been keeping a macdonalds burger in her purse for four years, and it still looks like the day it was bought..

The most amazing thing to me about that video is that the women in it is the author of a diet book:eek:

"Amount of corn-derived carbon present in Pollan's McDonald's family meal, as measured by a mass spectrometer"

Excuse my ignorance but what in the fvcking name of nelly does that mean and what are the implications?



Bottom line, as its a well known brand McDonalds is an easy target. Im very conscious of my diet and fitness in general and I dont eat in McDonalds but Im sick and tired of hearing its bad for me. I knew that when I was 10 ffs, I wish people would get off their high horses about it. Its junk food, its ****, its empty calories....if you dont understand that by now you deserve to weigh 500lbs and have your arteries clogged to ****e...same goes for every chipper, Chinese take way, pizza take away, Burger King, KFC and any other fast food restaurant in the country...but Im sure if I ate Burdocks for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next month Id be a picture of health:rolleyes:

McDonalds has never killed anybody, Ive never even heard of anyone getting sick from eating in there (line up your funny retorts now). If people enjoy the occasional Big Mac, or bring their kids as an occasional treat then what harm is it.

Running Bing

olaola wrote: »

...the best lips and ar$eholes money can buy.
I know it's not the best cut of meat, but at least A: it's Irish & B: Maccie D's are cleaner than most fast food joints. Haven't had one in a while, but when I'm feeling particularly rough - it's about the only thing I can stomach.

It's not too hard to find a pre-packaged sambo that has a higher fat & calorie content than a big mac!

Thats the great irony of it all.

People are avoiding the evil Big Mac and instead eating a healthy ready made chicken mayo sandwhich on brown bread from the Spar:rolleyes: The stuff those things are made out of is just as criminal as McDonalds stuff and its even more misleading imo.

Then you have the healthy breakfast cereals and cereal bars and the raft of "low fat food" like Go Ahead biscuits or weight watchers. Thats the stuff that makes money off peoples ignorance. Everyone knows what McDonalds is and it never makes any illusions otherwise.

corkcomp

Babybing wrote: »

Thats the great irony of it all.

People are avoiding the evil Big Mac and instead eating a healthy ready made chicken mayo sandwhich on brown bread from the Spar:rolleyes: The stuff those things are made out of is just as criminal as McDonalds stuff and its even more misleading imo.

Then you have the healthy breakfast cereals and cereal bars and the raft of "low fat food" like Go Ahead biscuits or weight watchers. Thats the stuff that makes money off peoples ignorance. Everyone knows what McDonalds is and it never makes any illusions otherwise.

+1, couldnt agree more! The very people that often give out about Mc D's are the ones who are eating far worse foods ... I rarely eat in McDonalds but it happens maybe 4 or 5 times a year .. and lets face it there are far worse things than a plain quarter pounder with salad ... At least Mc Donalds display nutritional values (per product rather than per 100g before anyone mentions portion sizes!) and they dont try to "hide" any sneaky stuff in the food ..

cozmik

rubadub wrote: »

I often hear people saying "coke has 32 teaspoons of sugar per can", or some other high figure, as though this is amazingly high,

well it is lol

rubadub wrote: »

I just like to debunk/calm these facts, e.g. saying back to them "it has the same sugar content as apple or orange juice, grape juice has nearly 50% more,

Fruit juices are just as bad as coke because they ARE bad! lol

Only the whole fruit provides slow-release sugar.

cozmik

corkcomp wrote: »

+1, couldnt agree more! The very people that often give out about Mc D's are the ones who are eating far worse foods ...

You care to back up that rather bold assertion with any kind of proof?

Macha

rubadub wrote: »

Well you would not get the same "corn derived carbon" results in Ireland, since the produce is locally sourced. The soda here is probably 100% beet derived carbon.

Yes you're right, assuming that the cows are not corn-fed. In Ireland, this really isn't so much an issue as most of our cattle are grass-fed. But I'm not so sure on imported beef. Unfortunately, the McD's website doesn't specify how the cattle are fed, just that they comply with national & EU regulations.

Just to point out, you can't get HFCS from beet - by definition it is a corn-derived product.

rubadub wrote: »

What I was really getting at is the demonisation of mcdonalds, you were saying the burgers are just corn, masquerading as "normal things" like cheeseburgers, I just wondered what a "normal cheeseburger" is, i.e. the burgers here might be described as wheat, barley or grass masquerading as burgers. For me eating it, all morals aside, I am not sure which is better or worse for me, my beet drink or my corn drink.

Well I got a lot of my information from the US market, so you're right to pull me up on that; Ireland is different.When I say "normal cheeseburger", I'm referring to something that doesn't have this many ingredients:

Flour, Water, Sugar, Yeast., Rape Seed Oil, Salt, Emulsifier E472(e), Soya Flour. Preservative: Calcium Propionate (E282), Flour Treatment Agent : Ascorbic Acid (E300). Processing aids: Fungal alpha amylase and
Hemicellulase, Beef, Vegetarian Cheddar Cheese (55%), Water, butter, Whey powder, Milk Proteins, Natural Cheese Flavouring, Emulsifying salts E331(trisodium citrate), E450 (diphosphates), E452 (polyphosphates), salt, preservative E200 (sorbic acid) and colour E160(a) (natural carotenes) E160(c) (paprika extract). Processing Aids: Lecithins (E322), Vegetable oil (Rape seed oil - component in lecithin which we spray on slice surface ) , Citric acid E330.Dehydrated Onion,
Cucumbers, water, salt, vinegar, dill pickle blends, calcium chloride (E509), potassium sorbate (E 202), sodium benzoate (E 211),Tomatoes (126 g per 100 g Ketchup), Spirit Vinegar, Sugar, Salt, Spices and Herb Extracts (contains celery), Spice, Garlic Powder, Water, spirit vinegar, mustard seed, salt, spices.

Really, I think the difference is quite clear between this and a good quality cheeseburger.

rubadub wrote: »

Well one poster was shocked, all I am saying is the figures are pretty meaningless to the average person, and that all I saw was mcdonalds "corn derived carbon", I do not know if the figures are good or bad, could be far less corn than other foods, and again I am not sure if that is good or bad.

Ok, you're right. I'll use another extract from the book to help explain:

You are what you eat, it's often said, and if this is true, then what we mostly are is corn-or, more precisely, processed corn. This proposition is susceptible to scientific proof: the same scientists who glean the composition of ancient diets from mummified human remains can do the same for you or me, using a snip of hair or fingernail. The science works by identifying stable isotopes of carbon in human tissue that bear the signatures, in effect, of the different types of plants that originally took them from the air and introduced them into the food chain...

(He goes onto explain why corn carbon is distinguishable, as an atom called C-13). The higher the ratio of carbon 13 to carbon 12 in a person's flesh, the more corn has been in his diet-or in the diet of the animals he or she ate. (As far as we're concerned, it makes little difference whether we consume relatively more or less carbon 13.)

One would expect to find a comparatively high proportion of carbon 13 in the flesh of people whose staple food of choice is corn-Mexicans, most famously. Americans eat much more wheat that corn-114 pounds of wheat flour per person per year, compared to 11 pounds of corn flour.....But carbon 13 doesn't lie, and researchers who have compared the isotopes of flesh or hair of North Americans to those in the same tissues of Mexicans report that it is now we in the North who are the true people of corn. "When you look at the isotope rations, "Todd Dawson, a Berkeley biologist who's done this sort of research, told me, "we North Americans like like corn chips with legs." Compared to us, Mexicans today consume a far more varied carbon diet: the animals they et still eat grass (until recently, Mexicans regarded feeding corn to livestock as a sacrilege); much of their protein comes from legumes; and they still sweeten their beverages with cane sugar.
So that's us: processed corn, walking

rubadub wrote: »

This is what I am ignorant about, the fries had corn derived carbon, I presume this is the oil. The other items did, was this just breaded coatings or would mcds actual meat have corn derived carbon. I do not know if corn derived carbon does naturally occur in foods, or animals who eat it.

I hope the above extract explains this. Corn-derived carbon only "naturally" occurs in the meat of animals that have eaten it, or in other corn-derived products such as xanathan gum.

rubadub wrote: »

I do think it is normal, i.e. it is the norm to have this stuff in foods and therefore "normal", unnatural-yes, but that does not overly worry me, the vast majority of stuff I eat, wear, own, work at could be described as unnatural.

Ok let me rephrase that. I do not think it is a good idea for so many of the products that we eat, to contain such a high amount of one particular grain. Clearly, Ireland is in no way on the same scale as the US, but I think it's important to highlight a potential problem before it manifests itself, not after. I personally don't want to become a walking corn chip.

I think people have the right to know what is in their food, because as the other thread on breakfast cereals discusses, it is not always clear. Xanathan gum - what the hell is that? Dextrose..??? I have no clue. That's all.