Checking Ingredients

Different weight loss programs will tell you about different ways to lose weight.  One thing they may all tell you is to check the ingredients of the foods that you eat.  There are a few things you may want to look for when checking packaged food ingredients.  If it is something that you recognize like “water” then it is safe, if it is something that is questionable like “hydrogenated cottonseed oil” you should probably leave it on the shelf.

The following isn't a packaged food, but a fast food item.  If you are watching what you eat, the same principle applies when it comes to restaurant food if you can get a hold of the ingredients. This is the amount of stuff that they put in one McDonalds chicken sandwich:

McChicken® Patty:
Chicken, water, salt, sodium phosphates.  Battered and breaded with:  bleached wheat flour, water, wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, spices, wheat gluten, paprika, dextrose, yeast, garlic powder, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and cottonseed oil with mono -and diglycerides, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), natural flavor (plant source) with extractives of paprika.  Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness).  Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent

There are many things that bother me about the ingredients in this sandwich.  First of all, that is a lot of stuff to put in one silly chicken sandwich.  Secondly, some of these ingredients don’t even sound like food.  I’ve made chicken sandwiches before, NONE of them needed monocalcium phosphate or an antifoaming agent.  I would want to know why theirs do need it.  Thirdly, there is sometimes hidden MSG in food flavoring even if it is “natural flavoring” and even if it wasn’t, why does a chicken sandwich NEED flavoring?  Aren’t we just looking for a chicken flavor?  If so, what ever happened to just adding simple spices to kick up the flavor?

As always questions, comments and furthermores are valued and welcome.