Look What's In These Chicken Nuggets - Part 1 Of 4 - Chicken McNuggets

Do you know what's in your kids Chicken Nuggets?

There has been so much talk about all the unknown items in the chicken nuggets we have been feeding our children. So I decided to take a little time and actually read the ingredients of a few different ones and then research any ingredients that I am not familiar with and then share all that information with you.

I will start with the famous McDonald's chicken nuggets. 

Chicken McNuggets® (4 piece)

Allergens: WHEAT
White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning [autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid], sodium phosphates, natural flavor (botanical source). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dextrose, corn starch. 
CONTAINS: WHEAT. 

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.
*information taken from McDonalds.com

Wow, I never expected to find this many ingredients in chicken nuggets and so many that I can't even pronounce.

Here's a breakdown on some of these ingredients.

Modified Food Starch: This is cornstarch that has been chemically altered and added to the nugget to help glue everything together and as a bulking and filling agent to reduce the actual amount of chicken used in the nugget and consequently save McDonalds money. 

Autolyzed Yeast Extract: Is a substance that is formed when yeast is broken down into separate components and is a less expensive form of MSG. MSG has been reported to cause numerous health concerns such as severe allergies, cancer and heart disease.

Dextrose: Sugar( why do you need sugar in chicken nuggets)

Sodium Phosphates: Used in some products as a laxative, but is mainly used as a texturizer and emulsifier which stops all the nasty oils from separating within the nugget.

Bleached Wheat Flour: Its essentially flour that has been bleached... yes bleached, often by using the same chemicals you use to clean your bathroom and get your white's so sparking white... to extend shelf life and stop pests and insects from eating it. If they won't go near it, what does that say?

Sodium Aluminum Phosphate: Is used for leveling, and hasn't been thoroughly tested. Although aluminum has been widely researched to cause Alzheimers and dementia. Oh, and sodium aluminum phosphate is also used in eye drops and pesticides.

Hydrogenated Soybean Oil: The oil is chemically altered and bleached to turn it into a solid to avoid it going rancid. The problem with this, well it turns out our body's have a hard time digesting and using this chemically altered oil, so it causes weight gain as well other degenerative diseases. 

TBHQ: It is a derivative of petroleum and it is sprayed on the nugget directly or into the box to preserve freshness. It is also a form of butane, or you may know it as lighter fluid. They obviously don't use very much of it, because a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill. 

Dimethylpolysiloxane: Used as an "antifoaming agent" is a type of oil derived from silicon. It stops the McDonalds deep fryers from foaming up and boiling over. It's also put in shampoos and used in the manufacturing of contact lenses.

Do you really want your children eating these?