Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Why We Have Not Eaten McDonald's since our Senior Year of High School

During our last year of high school, when we were about 17, J and I decided to go on a McDonald's strike because we didn't particularly agree with the way McDonald's prepared their food. 5 years later, we still have not eaten any McDonald's (hey, give us some credit. McDonald's is practically a staple when you're in university but we haven't once touched it!). Recently, it has become more of a competition (hey, bet I can outlast you in this!) than our first initial health-conscious reasoning. However, when this video (below) recently went viral, it has completely renewed my mission against McDonald's food - or any fast food for that matter .




I don't know about you but McDonalds chicken nuggets were my absolute FAVOURITE and I was seriously contemplating letting J win our McDonalds-free-diet competition because they had just released their Olympic Pack Deal (20 piece chicken nuggets, 2 medium fries, 2 medium drinks and 2 cookies with 2 limited edition Olympic pins!).

The process does indeed start with real chicken carcasses where the breast meat is removed, put through a grinder where it is mixed with seasoning and chicken skin. Then it's shaped into McNuggets. i don't know if many of you have noticed but they come in 4 distinct shapes - the bell, the ball, the bone and the boot.


The batch is then battered (TWICE!) then par-fried and shipped to franchises. While McDonald's does show that they use real chicken, I still can't shake the fact that most fast food chain chicken nuggets are 50% real meat AT MOST.

Just an FYI: a six piece serving of McNuggets contains 280 calories and 18 grams of fat. An easier way to understand that is that it is a quarter of the maximum amount of fat you should be eating per day (as per 2000 calorie/day diet). Apparently, this didn't stop Usain Bolt (who was famous for his 1000 McNuggets diet) from winning three gold medals.