Top 10 Questionable Fast Food Additives
10
Sulfur Dioxide
Used to prevent browning as a sort of bleaching agent, sulfur dioxide (a.k.a. coal tar) can be
found in fruits and veggies, as well as soft and hard drinks. This preservative, however, has a vicious side: it destroys Vitamin B1 and has caused 12 deaths of individuals with a sensitivity to the substance. Heres one chemical for which the negligible benefits arent worth the cost or rather, the savings.
9
Nitrates
Used primary as preservatives for meat and cheeses contributing to taste and color they also can lead to some adverse side-effects for people who intake nitrates on a regular basis. They include: headaches, flushed faces, and difficulties in blood carrying oxygen. Sounding like the disclaimer of a prescription drug ad, heres another good reason to go organic/grill your own burgers.
8
Cellulose
It comes from plants and is actually good for you, as a sort of high-fiber, low-fat substitute for flour and oils; its used to thicken foods and toppings like salad dressing, strawberry syrup, muffins, and cheese. The source, however, is a little fetching: processed wood pulp. Thats right, trees. The cellulose in powdered form is attained by either boiling the pulp in chemicals or, with certain types, by exposing it to acid. Youd be hard-pressed not to find some cellulose in whatever you just ordered at the drive-through.
7
Silicon Dioxide
Also known as sand.
Used to make glass and cement, it is also used as an anti-caking agent
in the chili you can readily order at Wendys and Taco Bell. The err sand is used to keep the processed meat from sticking together. It isnt harmful to consume, apparently, but it sure doesnt sound edible.
6
L-cysteine
This is an
amino acid which helps enhance the pliability of dough, which better suits the machinery. Its common
source: human hair and duck feathers. Most
fast food about 80% uses the duck feathers; its what MacDonalds uses in its pies and rolls. But this wasnt always the case, as human hair was the original source, making for a sort of quasi-cannibalism. Gross even if it is just a hair in your food.
5
Dimethylpolysiloxane
Also known as Silly Putty plastic. It is good for making hand-rolled bouncy balls, photocopying the funnies section of the newspaper, and in the case of the fast food industry preventing fryolator oil from foaming. Meaning that anything dipped into that scalding vat of oil which is essentially everything in any given mall food court contains a trace amount of your favorite egg-shaped toy growing up.
4
Carminic acid
You might recognize this ingredient, a natural food coloring, by one of its many pseudonyms: Crimson Lake,
Natural Red 4, Carmine, etc. It shows up in virtually
everything, from soft drinks to desserts to jam and gelatin. But its source is a little irking: the
cochineal. Go Google it right now. Yep,
its a bug in particular, a scale insect. The dye is derived from dried crushed females. Also in the same family of this insect is the Lac Beetle, which is where confectioners glaze comes from, as does shellac you know, that thing your dad used to finish the coffee table with.
3
TBHQ
This
petroleum-derived preservative shows up in beauty products, lacquers and varnishes, and most of what appears on the McDonalds dollar menu
Fruit and Walnut Salad, the McGriddle, and Chicken McNuggets. 5 grams of this stuff can kill you, 1 gram can make you seriously ill, and while itd take
11 pounds of McNuggets to even attain that much, its still horrifying to know that the FDA actually approved this stuff for general consumption (even if it is limited to 0.02% of the food items oil and fat content).
2
Ammonium Sulfate
Distributed by chemical companies, it serves the role of a a sort of food for bread yeast (as if sugar wasnt good enough). Its other purpose ready the vomit bag is as a fertilizer for alkaline soils. It is also used in pesticides to enhance their target effectiveness (not lethal by itself). And here you see how its not just the livestock and crops of a farm that goes into your food, but the very farm itself.
1
Pink Slime
This vomit-inducing, Ghostbusters-ish fast food additive has been covered by many news sources. While it is legal (and regarded as generally safe by the U.S. Department of Agriculture), McDonalds has decided to discontinue allowing it into their beef, probably for all the bad press it should be noted that only after McDonalds finally caved did Burger King and Taco Bell drop their Alfred E. Newman-esque What me worry? stance on the matter. The truth is, this pink slime is sprayed with ammonium hydroxide which is used to kill off any possible bacteria. It can also be found in myriad household cleaners, fertilizers, and even homemade bombs.
Top 10 Questionable Fast Food Additives
"I dropped the chicken"
............................................
................................
, with our conscience peering over our shoulder like 
, and the remnants of what I had just watched were mentally drowned out by enjoyment of my taste buds
*reads thread*
