McDonald's McRib sandwich

As any fast food connoisseur worth his weight knows, the McDonald's McRib is back for a limited time (through November 14th!), but some people are set on taking the fun out of the 500-calorie marketing gimmick. While we all know the McRib doesn't actually contain rib, do we really want to know what it does contain? Whether you like it or not, we're about to find out.

Reportedly the sandwich's ingredients include "a flour-bleaching agent used to make the soles of shoes... and foamed plastics like gym mats." Hungry for more? Mixed in with all of those slivered onions, dill pickles and tangy barbecue sauce, there are roughly 70 other ingredients, with the bun alone containing 34, jam packed with chemicals that we can't pronounce. And then there's the "meat"...

The McRib, at its heart, is, well... heart. The slab of "restructured meat product" consists of salt (980 mg, more than half your recommended daily intake) and pig innards, like tripe, heart, and scalded stomach. And yet, its return continues to excite, every time:

Blink and it's gone. The ephemeral McRib sandwich appears at McDonald's infrequently and only for a limited time. If you haven't indulged in one yet, here's what you're missing: azodicarbonamide, ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80 — those are just three of the 70 ingredients (34 in the bun alone) that go into the BBQ pork sandwich, according to the restaurant's website.

These components are in small enough quantities to be innocuous. But it's still a little disconcerting to know that, for example, azodicarbonamide, a flour-bleaching agent that is most commonly used in the manufacture of foamed plastics like in gym mats and the soles of shoes, is found in the McRib bun. The compound is banned in Europe and Australia as a food additive. (England's Health and Safety Executive classified it as a "respiratory sensitizer" that potentially contributes to asthma through occupational exposure.) The U.S. limits azodicarbonamide to 45 parts per million in commercial flour products, based on analysis of lab testing.

If the chemistry-lab ingredient list isn't enough to put you off the McRib's saucy allure, perhaps the nutrition information will: with 980 mg of sodium (more than half your recommended daily intake) and 10 g of saturated fat, the sandwich is, quite literally, not for the faint of heart.


more @ http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/27/why-lovin-the-mcrib-isnt-a-heart-smart-idea/#ixzz1cY40WYoM