There's the Beef! KFC's New Meaty Chicken
| Thu Jun. 18, 2009 2:06 PM PDT
KFC's saucy new grilled chicken is made with a marinade of "secret herbs and spices," one of which is "beef powder." Hmm, is beef powder an herb, or a spice? This revelation apparently has people up in arms, and the chicken chain El Pollo Loco has even made commercials about what they are calling false advertising. KFC's response? "Small amounts of beef flavors are commonly used in seasonings for many food products, for both restaurant and retail use."
True.
Remember in 2002 when McDonald's settled a lawsuit (for $10 mil) brought by Hindus and vegetarians for the beef fat in their fries (after they promised they only used vegetable oil)? That companies beef up their products is not surprising: Beef makes things tastes good!
When I read the ingredients in KFC's "better-for-you option for health-conscious customers" grilled chicken I actually get stuck on the MSG (twice, in the marinade and in the seasoning) and the partially hydrogenated oil. Sure, other fast foods are just as bad if not worse. But there are all sorts of things in foods that aren't advertised well for consumers. For example, both Wendy's and Burger King, list "spices" as an ingredient in their chicken sandwiches. Which isn't all that descriptive, maybe they're slipping us the beef as well.
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Comments
Chicken Broth
Submitted by Raul (not verified) on Sun Jun. 21, 2009 7:12 AM PDT.
Have you ever cooked rice in chicken broth? That tastes pretty good too.
Partially hydrogenated and
Submitted by Vic (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 5:36 AM PDT.
Partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils should be banned from every thing. Where does it go after you consume it? From what I understand your body doesn't know how to process hydrogenated oils. It's one molecule different from plastic. How anybody decides to pay good money for fake butter is beyond me. Essential fatty acids and real butter should be your fat intake no man made crap. Do yourself a favor by reading the ingredients. If you see "Hydrogenated" in the list don't buy it any more.Long Island Basements
If you had MSG allergies, you would be scared too
Submitted by debocracy (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 11:56 AM PDT.
So that's why it's disclosed as part of the ingredients! Is that a bad thing? Why did you call it a scare? It is simply a public health alert. Following is a list of MSG allergy symptoms. If you had these, you would want to know whether your food had MSG.
MSG can cause a reaction in nerve cells. The use of this stimulant affects the mouth and the brain. Hence, you will find that when you consume MSG, your sense of taste and smell are stimulated. The down side to this stimulation is that it can also cause MSG allergy symptoms due to over stimulation of the nerve cells.
More severe MSG allergy symptoms include numbness or pressure in the face, chest pain or palpitations, nausea, vomiting, head pain, flushing and sweating, and/or wheezing. Symptoms can be worse if the foods high in MSG are consumed on an empty stomach and in high doses.
MSG allergy symptoms tend to show up within one half hour to one hour after eating food containing MSG, and symptoms usually dissipate within two or three hours. If reactions are severe, an emergency medical treatment is required.
Butter??
Submitted by MOJO20 (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 3:20 PM PDT.
Vic, have you looked into what they've been giving cows these days to produce butter? Yeah...one isn't doing himself a favor by consuming butter. Stick with non-processed foods (i.e., fruits and vegetables, preferably organic) and your heart will be happy and healthy. I work in a cardiac step-down unit and it's been a HUGE motivator in keeping my diet healthy. So many, many illnesses are preventable and treatable if folks would just say NO to processed foods. People are educating themselves more these days, I think, and hopefully we will all start to demand better, healthier fare and McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Arby's, etc. will file for bankruptcy along with the auto makers and either cease to exist or change their evil ways.
re: partially hydrogenated oils
Submitted by LeftyChemist (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 9:16 PM PDT.
Okay, wow. One of the major problems with the politics of food is that lots of people get hoodwinked by the rhetoric and start forming opinions without understanding the real science here.
Not to pick on you specifically, Vic, but your comment was so off base scientifically that I have to reply.
We are told that fats come in a variety of forms. This is true, but in reality there are only 3 main categories. Saturated fat, natural unsaturated fat and unnatural unsaturated fat. Saturation in the case of fats is, roughly speaking, a metric for how much energy is stored by the fat molecule. To look at things from a reality-based perspective, fats that are more or fully saturated are higher is dietary calories. Hydrogenation is a process that takes an unsaturated fat and makes it more saturated. We do this to make fats more solid (unsaturated fats are liquids) or more calorically dense. Partial hydrogenation means that you are making the fat more saturated but not totally saturated. In this process, the undesireable trans-fat can occur. Trans fat is just an unnatural form of fat that the human body can digest (it's just a fat and we can digest most fats) but because of the shape of the molecule, more molecules can fit in a smaller space, making them more calorically dense in normal quantities for consumption.
Fats are not one one molecule different from plastic. Plastics are polymers. Fats are not. Even in industry you make them in completely different ways.
You can make natural fats in industrial processes. Most man made fats, especially lately are EXACTLY THE SAME as the so called "natural" fats. It's just that we didn't squish something to get it directly. We needed to change it. It's not a big deal. I know chemistry seems all all scary, but the FDA totally regulates these processes.
Also, people buy fake butter because they like butter but have some sort of condition (like high cholesterol) that makes eating SATURATED FATS like butter very bad for them.
It's called wikipedia. Please use it. It's not hard to learn about what you're going to express your Very Important Opinion about. This is part of the reason science has such a bad reputation. Average citizens know so little about the physical sciences that the corporate interests use the ignorance to push their agenda.
you trust the gummint?!?
Submitted by Nedhead on Wed Jun. 24, 2009 7:41 PM PDT.
Honestly, Lefty, "the FDA totally regulates these processes". Since when do we trust the FDA to be operating in our best interest?
Nor can you trust Wikipedia blindly. So do some research to find real answers rather than disseminating what you think to be "reality".
For instance, saturated fats are quite important to our health. And saturated fats from pasture-raised animals are proving to actually be beneficial.
And just so you know, your statements regarding fats are wrong on several points. Quite wrong.
PLEASE, please do research before adding noise to a discussion, people!
The concern over
Submitted by Ed (not verified) on Sat Jun. 27, 2009 9:17 AM PDT.
The concern over trans-unsaturated fats is that their shape is different not only from saturated fats but also from cis-unsaturated fats, raising concern over potential carcinogenesis due to altered interactions with other cell molecules.
FDA is the regulator that has allowed genetically modified foods to remain unlabeled.
Partially hydrogenated oils
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Jun. 23, 2009 3:34 PM PDT.
Partially hydrogenated oils are NOT one molecule away from fat - this is a common urban myth and can be researched and disproven on several locations on the web including snopes.com. I'm not saying that they're healthy, I'm just saying find things out on your own instead of listening to forwarded emails that your great aunt sends you when she's bored.
MSG
Submitted by Michael (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 10:36 AM PDT.
Maybe you've looked into this more than I have, but my understanding is that there's really nothing wrong with MSG - there was a brief hype scares years ago but it quieted down when it turned out to be over nothing. Still, of course, people remember the hype scare. But, unless there's new research I'm not aware of, there's nothing especially wrong with MSG.*
*MSG factoid, first produced and consumed by Buddhist monks.
MSG
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 5:53 PM PDT.
My then young wife did make tasty scrambled eggs for me using, unbeknowns to me, lots of MSG. Eventually I noticed something was wrong with me: I had irregular heart beat and my fingers tingled. We stopped the MSG and I became normal again.
Hidden contaminants
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 11:47 AM PDT.
To one with dietary restrictions, hidden ingredients may be deadly contaminants. Or, at the worst, quite unpleasant. To a vegetarian, "beef powder" may cause pain, as the vegetarian lacks enzymes to digest beef.
Perhaps the FDA should do more to label food. For example, the FDA could label whether food contains GMO's, animal ingredients, or imported ingredients. This labeling system would actually help the food industry in the long term, as people would feel like empowered consumers rather than just boycotting the entire industrial food system.
MSG makes the roof of my
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 11:49 AM PDT.
MSG makes the roof of my mouth feel like I took a bite of way too hot pizza - like when the screamin hot cheese scorches the roof of your mouth if you get carried away with the first slice of a new pizza
Don't know if it is bad for me but my mouth sure doesn't like it
MSG
Submitted by Robert Sullivan (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 12:03 PM PDT.
Try telling someone who is allergic to MSG that there is nothing wrong with it. My step-daughter was hospitalized after eating a meal which had MSG in it. I, personally experience a bout of arthritis pain after eating food with MSG.
People get all frothy about peanut allergies and rightfully so, but MSG should be in the same category.
Don't forget
Submitted by Veggie Paul (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 12:22 PM PDT.
Don't forget that Chick-Fil-A also uses Beef Fat in their fries. I've always thought this was ironic since they use the cows for advertising and all...
Allergies are a big problem in my family too. Detailed ingredient information is a must. We try to stay with food with less than 5 or 6 ingredients, all of which we can pronounce and know what they are. No MSG, no hydrogenated oils (trans fats) and no meat (including broths, gelatin etc.)
Boycott KFC
Submitted by Tracy (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 12:32 PM PDT.
"KFC suppliers cram birds into huge waste-filled factories, breed and drug them to grow so large that they can’t even walk, and often break their wings and legs. At slaughter, the birds’ throats are slit and they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water—often while they are still conscious."
trans-fatty acids - the truth
Submitted by natural cynic on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 12:36 PM PDT.
trans-fatty acids are formed from the partial hydrogenation of cis-fatty acids. Both are unsaturated, that is, they contain double bonds between certain carbon atoms. A small number of trans- occur naturally, but the vast majority of them come from partial hydrogenization of polyunsaturated FAs. [complete hydrogenization forms saturated fatty acids]. So, the trans-FAs in food contain one or two fewer double bonds. The major structural difference is that trans RAs are straighter than cis-FAs. This allows them to pack tighter and have a higher melting point, similar to the mostly saturated FAs in solid fats like butter. trans-FAs go rancid at a slower rate than cis-FAs, so they are an advantage in baking and have a longer shelf-life.
The trans-FAs are metabolized by the body similar to cis-FA metabolism, so they don't accumulate in the body unless you're overeating - in which case all types will accumulate. trans-FAs can replace cis-FAs in the diglycerides [fat molecules that contain usually one saturated and one unsaturated fatty acid] in cell membranes. When this occurs, the membranes become slightly less fluid, which can slightly change some of the biochemical reactions that take place in membranes - in some cases, making them more sticky - enhancing clot formation by platelets [good if you're bleeding, bad if the clot causes a heart attack or stroke]. trans-FAs also stimulate the inflammation response, a common factor in atherosclerosis.
So, Vic, your body does process them naturally; they are not so much like plastic, and the saturated fatty acids in butter are marginally better than the trans fatty acids in margarines and many baked products. So, don't eat 'em anyway.
There is nothing wrong with
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 1:02 PM PDT.
There is nothing wrong with MSG the same way there is nothing wrong with peanuts. The anecdote of the allergic step-daughter is a non sequitur. Here is a secret: Your body naturally produces the G in MSG, and the S is a critical part of cellular respiration! Look into Glutamate, and remember, moderation is key.
MSG
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 5:23 PM PDT.
Saying there is nothing wrong with msg because the brain uses glutamate and sodium is used by all cell is akin to saying CO (carbon monoxide is OK) because carbon is found in all organic compounds and we need oxygen to survive!
No, bad analogy
Submitted by natural cynic on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 6:09 PM PDT.
The body does not need or use CO, glutamate is necessary for virtually every protein. And it is used as a major neurotransmitter, so it is essential. The fact that is a neurotransmitter may result in some of the effects.
KFC's Meaty Chicken
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 1:47 PM PDT.
Why moo about it? Isn't this the age of greed and deception and catch me if you can? This is why GM and Chrysler found themselves tethering at the brink of you know. As the saying goes, "many days for the thief but one day for the owner."
Boycott...
Submitted by Elizabeth Gettelman on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 4:19 PM PDT.
If you are thinking of a boycott, Tracy, you might need to consider going cold turkey on all fast food. Do McDonald's cows get treated any better than KFC's chickens? Etc.
This is what I call the Nike Syndrome, where the outcry in the early 90s over labor violations led consumers to boycott Nike...and buy Reebok, Converse, Adidas, etc. Somehow people convinced themselves that similarly priced and constructed athletic shoes were better so long as they weren't made by Nike. The products and companies that get studied, and criticized, and highlighted, are merely the flag bearers for what are industry-wide symptoms, most often, and certainly in the case of fast food.
MSG debate
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jun. 22, 2009 7:40 PM PDT.
For any who actually care about their health here is a very good link. Do your own research. The food industry are all in it for the bottom line NOT FOR YOUR HEALTH
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/
a very good link?
Submitted by naartjie on Wed Jun. 24, 2009 9:29 AM PDT.
that website looks like whoever wrote it just consumed a kilo of msg....
I would like to mention that
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Jun. 23, 2009 5:59 AM PDT.
I would like to mention that everyone see the movie Food.Inc.........
You can look it up and find out when it will be playing in your area.
There are many worse things
Submitted by Riggsveda on Tue Jun. 23, 2009 11:42 AM PDT.
There are many worse things to get exercised about. Anyone who is willing to eat KFC's birds is not really on the vegan/anti-factory farming/anti-fast food train to begin with. And many a Thanksgiving my family improved the taste of turkey gravy with the addition of a little beef stock.
ingredients labeled by their psuedonym
Submitted by jamfhall1 on Sat Jul. 11, 2009 1:05 PM PDT.
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, is produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. The acid hydrolyzes, or breaks down, the protein in vegetables into their component amino acids. The resulting brown powder contains, among other amino acids, glutamic acid, which consumers are more familiar with in the form of its sodium salt, monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It is used as a flavor enhancer in many processed foods.
A similar product, from dairy origin, is hydrolyzed whey protein.
Other sources of glutamate, sometimes used in conjunction with HVP, include autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed yeast extract.
*If you're so concerned about MSG per se, look up the rest of those ingredients on the label.*
MSG
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu Dec. 31, 2009 1:41 PM PST.
Really? If your allergic to something then it's OBVIOUSLY going to be bad for you. Don't say that it's bad for EVERYONE because your allergic to it, that's just stupid.
I'm allergic to lemons! Does that mean I should throw a fit every time someone uses lemon juice in their food? For christ's sake...
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