Surprising junk food facts
Posted on Jul 28th 2010
We all think we know how bad processed foods are for us, but do we really know what does, or in some cases doesn't, go into making them?We reveal some shocking facts about processed and junk foods.
What many of us don't realise is that while most fast food french fries are drenched in fat and salt, they are also dripping in sugar.
Restaurants like McDonald's dip their fries in sugar to give them that nice golden brown colour when they're fried. It also helps to develop the crispiness that only junk food chips have.
Surprising junk food facts
French fries are full of sugar
What many of us don't realise is that while most fast food french fries are drenched in fat and salt, they are also dripping in sugar.
Restaurants like McDonald's dip their fries in sugar to give them that nice golden brown colour when they're fried. It also helps to develop the crispiness that only junk food chips have.
There's no strawberry in strawberry-flavouring
The artificial flavours you see in so many foods can often contain every chemical known to man, and this is particularly true of strawberry flavouring.
Strawberry milkshakes or other mass-produced strawberry flavour desserts, contain an artificial flavouring made of more than 50 different chemicals, including amyl acetate and solvent. And not so much as a sniff of strawberry.
Ice cream contains seaweed
Little do most of us know, but many mass-produced ice creams have seaweed in them. A seaweed extract called carrageenan is used as a stabilizer to prevent the ice cream from getting over-frozen, or from turning into a runny mush.
Worcestershire sauce is made of anchovies
Worcestershire sauce is one of our favourite condiments in Britain, but not many people know that the main ingredient used to make it is anchovies. Yep, as in fish.
The whole of the little fish, bones and guts included, is soaked in vinegar until it dissolves and is then mixed with molasses, garlic and chillies. Tell that to your vegetarian friends.
Many foods contain bugs
In a restaurant, finding an insect in your food is cause for a refund. In the mass-produced food industry, it's sometimes a necessity. Any pink foods, such as pink grapefruit juice and strawberry yoghurt, include a food colouring called cochineal extract that gets its red colour from an insect called Dactylopius coccus Costa, which feeds on red cactus berries.
The insects are dried and ground up into powder, which is then inserted into many pink, red and purple foods.
Some cheese doesn't contain any cheese
Unless you're buying proper lumps of cheddar or mozzarella, many 'cheese products' in the supermarket, namely cheese strings or processed cheese slices, hardly contain any cheese at all.
This kind of cheese product is composed of less than 51 percent cheese and more than half the product is ingredients such as emulsifiers, carrageenan (the seaweed-extract found in ice cream) and flavourings like citric acid (which gives it the cheese-style tanginess).
Peanut butter has maggots in it
Scary as it sounds, some products are allowed by law to contain a certain amount of insects and mites. One product, canned mushrooms, is allowed to have up to 19 maggots per 100 grams of mushrooms.
That same portion can acceptably contain up to 74 mites. Lots of other mass-produced foods, such as our beloved peanut butter and hot dogs, are also allowed by law to include bugs.
Frozen food can be healthier than fresh
Contrary to popular belief, sometimes frozen food is better for you than fresh. Frozen veg, particularly peaches or peas, can actually be more nutritious than the fresh versions. The reason for this is because fresh produce travels so far to get to shops; it is often picked before it is ripe so that it doesn't go rotten along the way.
Frozen produce, on the other hand, can be fully ripened before it's picked since it's getting frozen immediately afterward so there is no worry that it'll go bad before you can buy it.
Almost everything contains beef
It may surprise you to know that almost all fast food products contain some kind of beef extract, even the chicken, fish and salads. The simple reason for this is that beef makes things taste better, apparently.
Just a few surprising areas where you'll find beef in extract or essence form include McDonald's Chicken McNuggets and KFC's Grilled Chicken Sandwich. It also used to be in McDonald's french fries.
Fizzy drink cans cost more to make than the actual drink
If you're reading this drinking a can of Diet Coke, Fanta or Sprite, take a second to think about the fact that the metal can that holds your drink actually cost more to produce than the actual drink it contains.
Fizzy drinks are primarily water mixed with additives, sugar or sweetener, and caffeine. And just to remind you, a can of coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar.
What many of us don't realise is that while most fast food french fries are drenched in fat and salt, they are also dripping in sugar.
Restaurants like McDonald's dip their fries in sugar to give them that nice golden brown colour when they're fried. It also helps to develop the crispiness that only junk food chips have.
Surprising junk food facts
French fries are full of sugar
What many of us don't realise is that while most fast food french fries are drenched in fat and salt, they are also dripping in sugar.
Restaurants like McDonald's dip their fries in sugar to give them that nice golden brown colour when they're fried. It also helps to develop the crispiness that only junk food chips have.
There's no strawberry in strawberry-flavouring
The artificial flavours you see in so many foods can often contain every chemical known to man, and this is particularly true of strawberry flavouring.
Strawberry milkshakes or other mass-produced strawberry flavour desserts, contain an artificial flavouring made of more than 50 different chemicals, including amyl acetate and solvent. And not so much as a sniff of strawberry.
Ice cream contains seaweed
Little do most of us know, but many mass-produced ice creams have seaweed in them. A seaweed extract called carrageenan is used as a stabilizer to prevent the ice cream from getting over-frozen, or from turning into a runny mush.
Worcestershire sauce is made of anchovies
Worcestershire sauce is one of our favourite condiments in Britain, but not many people know that the main ingredient used to make it is anchovies. Yep, as in fish.
The whole of the little fish, bones and guts included, is soaked in vinegar until it dissolves and is then mixed with molasses, garlic and chillies. Tell that to your vegetarian friends.
Many foods contain bugs
In a restaurant, finding an insect in your food is cause for a refund. In the mass-produced food industry, it's sometimes a necessity. Any pink foods, such as pink grapefruit juice and strawberry yoghurt, include a food colouring called cochineal extract that gets its red colour from an insect called Dactylopius coccus Costa, which feeds on red cactus berries.
The insects are dried and ground up into powder, which is then inserted into many pink, red and purple foods.
Some cheese doesn't contain any cheese
Unless you're buying proper lumps of cheddar or mozzarella, many 'cheese products' in the supermarket, namely cheese strings or processed cheese slices, hardly contain any cheese at all.
This kind of cheese product is composed of less than 51 percent cheese and more than half the product is ingredients such as emulsifiers, carrageenan (the seaweed-extract found in ice cream) and flavourings like citric acid (which gives it the cheese-style tanginess).
Peanut butter has maggots in it
Scary as it sounds, some products are allowed by law to contain a certain amount of insects and mites. One product, canned mushrooms, is allowed to have up to 19 maggots per 100 grams of mushrooms.
That same portion can acceptably contain up to 74 mites. Lots of other mass-produced foods, such as our beloved peanut butter and hot dogs, are also allowed by law to include bugs.
Frozen food can be healthier than fresh
Contrary to popular belief, sometimes frozen food is better for you than fresh. Frozen veg, particularly peaches or peas, can actually be more nutritious than the fresh versions. The reason for this is because fresh produce travels so far to get to shops; it is often picked before it is ripe so that it doesn't go rotten along the way.
Frozen produce, on the other hand, can be fully ripened before it's picked since it's getting frozen immediately afterward so there is no worry that it'll go bad before you can buy it.
Almost everything contains beef
It may surprise you to know that almost all fast food products contain some kind of beef extract, even the chicken, fish and salads. The simple reason for this is that beef makes things taste better, apparently.
Just a few surprising areas where you'll find beef in extract or essence form include McDonald's Chicken McNuggets and KFC's Grilled Chicken Sandwich. It also used to be in McDonald's french fries.
Fizzy drink cans cost more to make than the actual drink
If you're reading this drinking a can of Diet Coke, Fanta or Sprite, take a second to think about the fact that the metal can that holds your drink actually cost more to produce than the actual drink it contains.
Fizzy drinks are primarily water mixed with additives, sugar or sweetener, and caffeine. And just to remind you, a can of coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar.
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Comments:
Add a comment
Thursday 25 February
By oulviye
you should have said about chocolate which by law contain I belive 70% bugs
Please keep publishing all these informations Who knows you might even save few lives Thank you
Reply
Thursday 29 July
By kellyhaveago
That`s quite right! The chocolate factory I used to work in had a regular shipment of bugs and was required by law to be 70% of the ingredients net weight.
Apparently it became written into law some time after the airing of Beetlejuice in the House of commons members lounge.
Thursday 29 July
By Robert Wallace
They are just facts about food. Not reasons it is bad for you. Sugar is an important food stuff which we need to live and we can't survive without salt. We have negative attitudes towards maggots and beetles but hapilly eat prawns and other shellfish which feed on bacteria in sewage. The issue isn't what food but how much food.
Reply
Friday 30 July
By Daniel Capstick
I fully agree. Some tribes in far away climes go on anual missions, risking life and limb, to collect salt, because they will die if they dont have it in their diet. And sugar is a naturally growing substance, its a vegetable so technicaly could be one of our five aday.
Thursday 29 July
By gordon
not true
100% pure spuds cooked in sunflower oil from Mcains
and Mcadonalds dont need to coat them in sugar to make them crispy
Reply
Friday 30 July
By ericamary
Wonder why everything that tastes so good is bad for us
Reply
Friday 30 July
By roberto
is there anything we can eat , that doesant have to much sugar or salt or fat in it, everthing that is bad for us tastes so good ?
Reply
Friday 30 July
By Paul
Try watermelon or mango, tow tasty foods that are also full of nothing but goodness.
Friday 30 July
By jacknights
Why is it that potato chips are regarded as junk food if they are prepared in a factory but good and wholesome if you grow the potatoes and cut them into chips and fry them at home. They are exactly the same product. Just stop knocking the food industry - we all depend on it!
Reply
Friday 30 July
By mel11
How would you have survived before the days of cans,ready meals,take aways,frozen and general junk food?.
LEARN TO COOK use non GM fresh ingrediants and you dont need to wory whats in your food-By the way Iam not saying you will live any longer!!