Need a Reason to Not Miss Fast Food...

The other day I posted a list of 10 Foods You Should Eat Every Day from Eat This Not That by David Zinczenko. As I said in that post these books are full of interesting information about food. One of the most interesting things I found in the newest edition was the chapter about what’s really in some of our fast food favorites. He includes chicken nuggets, the Wendy’s Frosty, McDonald’s Filet O’ Fish, and some others. The most intriguing to me was the fast food hambuger.

According to this book, meat for most fast food hamburgers comes from a company called Beef Products Inc.. The beef is slaughterhouse trimmings that are also used for pet food and cooking oil. In order to make the patties suitable for consumption Beef Products must “clean” the meat. They do this by running the meat through pipes and exposing it to ammonia gas. Because the ammonia gas is considered a processing agent it does not have to be listed as an ingredient.

Beef Products Inc. has information about this process on its website. The ammonia gas (ammonia hydroxide) they use is a mixture of ammonia and water. According to their FAQ it is an already naturally occurring gas in all proteins and they are slightly increasing the natural levels. To be fair, this is not some scandal or anything like that, it’s just a fact about how fast food meat is processed. However, for people (like me) who are trying to eliminate or at least greatly reduce added chemicals and ingredients to foods it is important to know.

We all know fast food is loaded with ingredients. It was not a suprise that the Wendy’s Frosty contains no dairy or that the average fast food chicken nugget contains 20-30 ingredients, but the ammonia gas to process meat trimmings was a bit of a surprise. Ammonia is also found the sandwich rolls at Subway (and I’m sure that’s not the only place).

The bottom line is that if you are watching what ingredients go into your food, fast food is probably not the best place to make any exceptions to your diet.

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Sherry Lipp

Founder at Happy Gut For Life

Sherry is a Certificed Holistic Gut Practioner, author, and recipe creator. Sherry started the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in 2000 and has been creating delicious, grain and gluten-free recipes ever since. She is the author of the Don't Skip Dessert SCD cookbooks.