What's In Those Chicken McNuggets You Feed Your Kids?

Did you know that McDonald's Chicken McNuggets are less than 50% chicken?

They are 56% corn, from corn starch, partially hydrogenated corn oil, numerous food additives derived from corn and the chicken being fed corn.

But that's not all.

There are other syntheric ingredients derived from petroleum in Chicken McNuggets to keep them fresh ... like sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate and sodium acid pyrophosphate.

In addition, "there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxane, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules." This chemical "is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable."

"But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting 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."

Now the next time you think about stopping at McDonald's for Chicken McNuggets or any of their other highly processed and preserved chemical concoctions, ask yourself ... "Is this what I really want to feed my kids?"

Just imagine what these chemicals are doing to yours and their health.

Read more.

Learn more about healthy food and healthy cooking.

Answer to ... What do gluten and MSG have in common?

They're found in some of the same ingredients like

hydrolyzed wheat protein
stearyldimoniumhydroxypropyl (hydrolyzed wheat protein)
hydroxypropyltrimonium (hydrolyzed wheat protein)
hydrolyzed malt extract
hydrolyzed vegetable protein
maltodextrin (can be from barley)

These ingredients can be found in food as well as cosmetics and personal care products. So they can be enter your body either when you eat food containing these chemicals or when you apply products to your skin that contain them.

Which Label Do You Read?

When you're looking for healthy packaged food products, it makes a difference which label you read. Each package has 3 labels that you can read:

• the front of the package
• the nutrition facts
• the ingredients list

Which of these 3 is the most important?

Manufacturers want you to read the front of the package. That's where they tell you what they want you to believe about the contents of the box, bottle or jar. Processed food manufacturers often lie about the healthfulness of what's in the food packages they produce. This  is the last place you should look.

Many organizations that give out healthy eating information say that you should read the nutrition facts. They stress the importance of eating foods low in sodium and saturated fats. But this is not the most important thing for you to know about a packaged food before you decide to buy it.

The first place you should look when you pick up a packaged food is the ingredients list. This is the last place that the manufacturers want you to look. They don't want you to know about the harmful chemicals they put in your food to give it a better taste, texture or a longer shelf life. In many cases, they make it hard for you to even see the ingredients list. The print is so tiny and in a color that blends in with the packaging that it's hard to make it out without a powerful magnifying glass. Get in the habit of carrying one with you when you shop.

Label readers eat healthier according to two new reports in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. And healthy eating helps you to live a healthier life. Click here to read more about these studies.

If you're not knowledgeable about food additives, then reading ingredients lists may be a big challenge. But, don't dismay, there's help available. Get started right now with some Free Food Additives Tips.

Artificial Flavors

Do you ever wonder what gives artificially flavored foods their orange, grape, cherry or pineapple flavoring?

These flavors may taste somewhat similar to the real thing, but in terms of safety, watch out!

You'll find some of these fake flavors in processed foods like beverages, baked goods, ice cream, candy, gelatin desserts, puddings, ices, chewing gum, icings and even in vitamins.

Most of these artificial flavors have not been adequately tested.

With the little bit that is known about their safety, many are "harmful if swallowed or absorbed through the skin." Some are "toxic if ingested." At least one that I know of "can be fatal if inhaled." It's also toxic when you eat it.

Because manufacturers are not required to disclose the chemicals used in creating their artificial flavors, you don't know which toxic chemicals are in the flavorings in the packaged foods you buy, or how toxic they are.

Make sure there are NO artificial flavors in the foods you buy for yourself or your famly.

Click here to get Free Food Additives Tips and learn more about the safety of the additives in your food.

Aspartame, What You Don't Know Can Hurt You!

Aspartame is one of the most toxic food additives on the market today. It's in over 4000 different products. It can mimic a variety of diseases that you may be taking drugs for when you don't even have the disease, but instead you may have aspartame poisoning.

Find out more about the deadly effects of aspartame here. If you use aspartame, even if you don't have any known adverse effects, you still need to read this.

Learn how you can avoid the harmful effects of food additives in the food you eat every day.