Friday, August 13, 2010

How Many Ingredients Needed in a Recipe?

I think I'll make up some homemade chicken "nuggets" and "tenders" to have as snacks. Hmmm, what do I need? Let me make a list of ingredients:

Chicken (Package says contains free-range chicken)
Flour for dredging (Package says contains 100% unbleached hard white whole wheat flour)
Salt (Package says contains hand-harvested natural sea salt)
Pepper (Package says contains 100% ground peppercorns)
Lard or Tallow for frying (Ingredients, 100% pure home-rendered beef or pig fat, no chemicals used)

So to make chicken nuggets or tenders, I need just 5 ingredients... and all of them are 100% natural foods with no chemicals. Zero, Zip, Zilch.

Gee, I wonder what the ingredient list is for Chicken McNuggets? Here's what I found:

"There are 38 ingredients in a nugget, and 13 of them come from corn [probably GMO corn]. This includes; cornstarch, mono- tri- and di-glycerides, dextrose, lecithin, chicken broth, yellow corn flour, the corn fed to the chicken itself, and even more cornstarch for the batter, cornstarch for a filler, vegetable shortening and partially hydrogenated corn oil. 

Some of the other ingredients are quite frankly very frightening to think that we are eating. These ingredients are synthetic and usually come from a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. First there are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, monog-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These all keep the fats from going bad.

Chicken, water, salt, modified corn starch, sodium phosphates, chicken broth powder (chicken broth, salt, and natural flavoring (chicken source)), seasoning (vegetable oil, extracts of rosemary, mono, di- and triglycerides, lecithin).

Battered and breaded with water, enriched bleached wheat flour (niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dried whey, corn starch. Batter set in vegetable shortening.

Cooked in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, (may contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated corn oil and/or partially hydrogenated canola oil and/or cottonseed oil and/or sunflower oil and/or corn oil). TBHQ and citric acid added to help preserve freshness. Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent.

The most frightening of all is the TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone), an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to help preserve freshness! TBHQ is a form of butane (lighter fluid). The FDA allows processors to use it sparingly on food." source

Sounds more like a bunch of petroleum products, rancid hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats) that have been chemically cleaned and deodorized, and GMO's. Oh, and of course, chicken... no doubt a battery chicken force-fed hormones to mature quickly for a bigger profit. 

Do you think my chicken nugget recipe with just 5 ingredients might be healthier to eat?

No comments:

Post a Comment

I'd love to hear what you think about my posts! We all learn together.