NOVEMBER 14, 2010

Every mouthful of McDonalds meal contains a handful of chemicals that raise 'bad' cholesterol levels, increase diabetes risk, lower immunity, and damage DNA. In fact fast food contains so many harmful ingredients that I wouldn't even feed it to a pet because it would be cruel.

When you go to the fast-food drive-through, you are:

• paying to harm your own health;
• your children's health;
• reducing your quality of life because the toxicity of eating synthetic chemicals will trigger illness;
• put more money into the hands of the medical insurance companies.

Still lovin' it?

Heard it before? Well despite the illusion of a gradual switch to a healthier menu containing salads and smoothies, McDonald's line-up still contains nasty health-eroding chemicals: trans-fats, high levels of sugar, artificial sweeteners, petro-chemicals, and high-fructose corn syrup. The kids meals and salads also contain frightening ingredients and high levels of sugar.

Having perused their menus and nutritional information for their meals, it's incredible what synthetic chemicals they add to salads, chicken meals, burgers, and even to their drinks. Did you know that many of their foods and drinks containtertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a chemical preservative that is so deadly that just five grams is fatal? One gram of TBHQ can cause nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse.

McDonald's foods still contain trans-fats, in addition to a whole host of synthetic chemicals to produce a taste which they deliberately engineer to be addictive, so you spend more money with them according to investigations by Eric Schlosser in his book Fast Food Nation.

Trans Fat Lie

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided that a food can contain trans-fats and that the amount doesn't have to be listed on the ingredient or nutrition list, providing the amount is not more than half a gram. Many burgers, shakes, and breakfast meals contain trans-fats. The problems with these oils is that they induce free radical damage in the body, which leads to artery damage, DNA damage, and oxidation of cholesterol, a.k.a. 'bad cholesterol'. You are getting this with every mouthful.

Almost all foods on McDonald's menu contain hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, that are also harmful to the body because they damage your tissues and raise your 'bad' cholesterol. Did you know that if a food manufacturer's food contains less than 0.5g of trans-fats then it doesn't have to legally list trans-fats on the label?

Here is just one example of what McDonalds put in their foods. The unhealthful ingredients in McDonalds' Chicken nuggets (straight from the McDonalds' web site) include:

• sodium phosphates;
• bleached wheat flour (nutrients removed);
• food starch-modified (likely genetically-modified);
• dextrose (sugar);
• partially hydrogenated soybean oil and cottonseed oil with mono-and diglycerides, (trans fats);
• Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil) (trans fats);
• TBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleium dervived product;
• Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent (a form of silicone used in cosmetics, and Silly Putty).
• Look for yourself 
  Download this nutritional information chart. It's a long PDF document of all their menu items. Find the foods you buy in the left column, and see how much trans-fats, and sugars are in them. THEN, visit McDonald's web site, select the foods you eat, click on the nutrition link, and scroll down to the ingredients list. If you can't pronounce any of the ingredients and don't know what they are then is it wise to eat them? This is a choice only you can make, but give your kids a choice too.
• Pay now and later
• I'm not just picking on McDonald's here. Visit the web sites of KFC, Wendy's, and the other companies. Their foods contain the same harmful chemicals that age you and leave your wallet and body feeling empty inside within an hour of finishing the meal. Does this make sense from a financial standpoint? What about from a health perspective? If you buy fast food, you'll pay now (with your money) and also later (with your health).
• Why do I say that feeding fast food to a carnivorous pet would be cruel? Humans have a choice about what to eat, even if the choice is sometimes limited by finances, location, or time availability. When it comes to their food, pets rely on us making the best choice for them and trust that the food we put down for them is safe. If they don't like it, they'd leave it. The sweetness, aroma, and fat content however make fast food as appealing to pets as it would to humans, and feeding them food containing toxic ingredients would be cruel in my view.
• Still got to have your fast food fix?
  Even though I don't recommend fast food for my clients, if you've got to have it, then you may as well get the best. Evos is an up-and-coming franchise in several states that tend to use higher quality produce than the regular fast food chains, although just like the other companies, their shakes are high in sugar, and some foods are high in salt.
• http://www.examiner.com/article/mcdonalds-fast-food-toxic-ingredien...