Real foods spoil very quickly, fast foods not

27/10/2010

Maneka Gandhi

What do Egyptian mummies and Mcdonald’s Happy Meals have in common? Both refuse to decompose, judging by an experiment by New York artist Sally Davies who, in April 2010, bought a McDonald’s Happy Meal (MHM) and has since left it in her kitchen. Week after week she has taken and put pictures of the MHM on the net. Over six months later, the MHM has yet to even grow mouldy! ‘The only change that I can see,’ she records, ‘ is that it has become hard as a rock, plastic to the touch and has an acrylic feel’.
The media are startled at the results. Yet the health industry has known for years that junk food from fast food chains doesn’t decompose. Len Foley’s ‘Bionic Burger’ features a Big Mac bought in 1989 that has not decomposed over two decades. The buyer has a museum of undecomposed burgers in his basement. (http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyD…)
Joan Bruso, author of ‘Baby Bites-- Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater’, has been blogging the life of a MHM that she bought a year ago, " My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. It did NOT decompose. It did NOT get mouldy. This morning, I took its birthday photo".
Nutritionist Karen Hanrahan still has a burger she bought in 1996.
Author Julia Havey shows her experiment on the Net: a naturally decomposed potato beside pristine looking McDonald’s french fries that are 4 years old!
The net is full of innumerable accounts and photos showing similar results Here’s a sampling:
“ My son and I tried the experiment for school. We held onto a quarter pounder for over a year and the meat part still looked pretty good! We still have unchanged McDonald’s fries in a jar in our kitchen.”
“I ordered a cheeseburger, left it in the bag and put it in the closet. Two years later, it looks exactly the same as the day I bought it.”
“In Oct 2007 before taking my car to the dealer, I cleaned it thoroughly. Underneath the passenger seat was ¼ of a McDonald’s cheeseburger wrapped in the original paper. The burger piece was in perfect condition—no rot, no mould, no ‘melting’ and certainly no smell or I’d have noticed it earlier. The last time I ate at McDonald’s was in 2004.”
“I knew something was wrong when I was cleaning out my car and found Mcdonald’s fries under the seat and they were still crisp!”
“Back in the 80s, a McDonald’s milkshake was left in the car when we went on an 8 day canoe trip. When we returned, it was still drinkable!”
“I actually have some three week old fries in my glove compartment right now from a McDonald’s in Germany! They look cold but still delicious.”
“A friend spent a couple of weeks crashing on our sofa. Two months later, we found a McDonald’s hamburger bun behind the sofa and it was still soft.”
“Having once spilled McDonalds fries in my old car and not discovering them for months, I can confirm they just dry out and do not get moldy at all.”
“We left a cheeseburger in a kitchen cabinet for 2.5 years to see what would happen and got the same result. Except for the bun being crusty, we saw no mould, no funky odours and the cheese still had that fresh-from-the-counter glisten to it.”
Real foods spoil very quickly. Natural cut potatoes would be in advanced stages of decomposition in two weeks but inedible in only two to four days. Fruit and veggies begin decomposing in a week. Fresh bread lasts two days. Dairy, one day.
So why doesn't fast food decompose?
Partly because it contains so many chemicals that insects, rodents and even fungus and mould won’t consume it.
Partly because McDonalds meat patties are loaded with sodium and salt is an excellent preservative. Most fast food burgers contain 20% ‘pink sludge’ which is the industrial term for meat treated with ammonia—the stuff we clean toilets with because it kills bacteria.
Partly because the french fries are double fried. Being starchy, potatoes lose all their moisture and absorb all the oil. No moisture, no mould. Hydrogenated trans fats gives any food a long shelf life.
Partly because many fast food companies irradiate their food to preserve it. Radiation kills all life and disrupts the molecular structure of food to delay its decomposition.
But the real reason why not an insect, bacterium or fungus will touch a McDonald’s hamburger is because it’s not food at all! It’s a chemical concoction that looks, tastes and smells of food without any nutritional qualities. You do not prepare a McDonalds burger in a kitchen but a laboratory.
The reason why its buns ward off microscopic life for over 20 years, is to be found in their chemical ingredients and preservatives listed on McDonald’s own website: niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulphate, ammonium chloride, sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides,monocalcium phosphate,calcium peroxide,calcium propionate, sodium propionate.
Embalming fluid may be missing in a McDonald’s meat patty but you will find 1,1,1-trichloroethane, 1,2,4- trimethylbenzene, BCH, alpha Chloroform, chlorotoluene, chlorpyritos, DDE, p,p, DDT p,p dieldrin, diphenyl 2-wthylhexyl phosphate and ethyl benzene among a host of other chemicals.
Chicken McNuggets contain tertiary butylhydroquinone(TBHQ)-- a petroleum based product also added to varnishes, lacquers, resins and oil field additives plus dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent used in Silly Putty. Before 2003, McNuggets contained even more toxic chemicals which so shocked a judge that, terming them “a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook’ , he ordered them removed. The two mentioned above, TBHQ and dimthylpolysiloxane still remain.
Home fries need nothing but potatoes and cooking oil. Here’s what McD’s fries contain: potatoes, canola oil , hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavour, citric acid , preservative, salt, sodium acid pyrophosphate and dimethylpolysiloxane.
McD’s ‘cheeses’ have been invented to last indefinitely without refrigeration . Even the pickle slice contains the preservative sodium benzoate.
Stripped of flavour and nutrients, processed foods use chemical flavouring to add taste. They also use an addictive chemical that keeps you hooked. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is not only addictive but causes weight gain and a host of health problems from migraines to depression and aggression.
There is only one species on earth that’s stupid enough to consider eating a hybridized, chemicalised, genetically altered, hormone and pesticide laden, mass produced hamburger that even fungi, which feeds on dog feces, won’t touch. Only one species that feeds its own children this poisonous rubbish. Little wonder it is suffering from skyrocketing rates of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, autism, dementia and obesity. If you are in any doubt as to what fast food franchises like McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and KFC can do to you, watch the documentary ‘Super Size Me’.
On the positive side, at least we know now what to stock up with in case of a nuclear war. Also filmstars might consider injecting liquidized McD into their faces to halt the ageing process.
If it’s real food you’re after, stay away from stuff that doesn’t decompose. If food doesn’t break down naturally, how will it decompose in the stomach? And if it doesn’t decompose, what nutrients can it impart?
Forget the McDonald’s or any other Fast Food chain burger. Eat the box instead, its probably healthier and biodegrades faster.