One Year Old Happy Meal

Before and After (Source:http://www.babybites.info/2010/03/03/1-year-happy-meal/)

So much has been said and written about McDonald's food and its effect on health that, I think, we became immune to it. Not to the food, to the bad news, I mean. McDonald's seems to be immune to it, too, as I haven't heard that the Company is doing badly in this current (still) recession.

I never thought I would blog about McDonald's, but what I heard on the radio today shocked me a little. I know that McDonald's is bad for me. Their hamburger bun looks like a sponge and their fries are suspiciously too long. But that's not all.

This is what I heard about on the radio today... Noona Joann bought a Happy Meal and deliberately didn't eat it. She kept it for observation and blogging purposes. For one full year. To her surprise though, there wasn't much to observe. Life didn't want to grow on it. The food didn't go bad. It didn't smell. It just shrunk a little. The food didn't attract ants or flies, either. I don't know about you but I think that's strange.

I actually went on McDonald's website and looked up the ingredients. The fries are made of potatoes. That's good news. And they are cooked in vegetable oil. So much for the good stuff. They also contain natural flavour (which comes from a vegetable source), dextrose (glucose), a chemical that maintains colour, another one that preserves the fries, and another one that prevents fries from foaming when cooked, and another one, added to oil to prevent it from changing. Yes. To prevent the oil from changing it's colour, taste, smell, or texture. FYI, it is called tert-Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ). In case you want to look it up. I did. http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v35je03.htm

The beef patty in the hamburger is 100% pure beef. Plus grill seasoning (salt, spice, sunflower oil). That's it. No other ingredients in the patty.

The bun is made of enriched wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast, vegetable oil, sunflower oil, corn flour, soy flour, sesame seed, malt and salt. That's when it comes to real food. In addition to that, the bun contains sixteen chemicals that serve as stabilizers, emulsifiers, and preservatives. I'm not going to bore you with all the sixteen names. They are very long and complicated. But one got my attention. This one is short. Ethanol. Otherwise known as ethyl alcohol. The same one that makes you feel relaxed after a glass of wine... I'm curious what it's doing there and in what proportions. The label says that it varies.
You can see for yourself
http://www.mcdonalds.ca/pdfs/IngredientFactsEN.pdf

No wonder it won't rot! The sixteen chemicals will do it!

Noona Joann is dedicated to helping children eat healthy. She said in the interview on the radio (CBC News) that she carries her Happy Meal with her when she does presentations to show the parents what they feed their children with when they take their kids to McDonald's. The parents are shocked. It turns out that visuals work best.

McDonald's scares me. I don't understand their ethics. And the 'unscared' people scare me even more. In the era of convenience and volume over value, McDonald's thrives. I'm thinking that maybe in my future practice as a dietitian (possibly maybe) I will replace the plastic food demos with real hamburgers from McDonald's.

And one last thought. We need to learn how too cook. And cook really well. We need to learn how to cook yummy and colourful food. And then we need to teach those who can't cook. So that the kids will like to eat at home. That's the basis for healthy communities.