Part of being prepared is keeping ourselves healthy. That may sound easy enough, but eating a healthy diet can be super challenging in our fast-paced world. Taking time to make our own food has become less of priority. Yet it’s a priority we need to get back!

My family loves French fries, and we’ve gotten fast-food French fries all too often in the past. Not anymore. It’s important to really know what is in the food we’re eating, especially if we are not making the food ourselves.

You may think that fast food French fries should have just simple ingredients like potatoes, salt and oil. However, if you think that about McDonalds French fries, you would be quite mistaken.

In an attempt to market their food products to the increasingly health conscious folks, McDonalds began a marketing campaign to show “transparency” and hopefully boost their image in social media. Unfortunately, it more or less backfired as people began sharing more (via hashtags) how disgusting they felt the food was rather than how much they were “lovin’ it.”

So how many ingredients do you think are in their French fries?  A whopping 17!

Here are a 11 of those ingredients:

1. Potatoes

These are okay, we like potatoes.

2. Canola Oil

A genetically modified oil (GMO), not so good.

3. Hydrogenated Soybean Oil

Another GMO? A bonus with this in that it’s hydrogenated so that it can be even more of a health risk than leaving it in its natural form.

4. Safflower Oil

This oil has a high amount of Omega 6 fatty acids and no Omega 3’s. Too much Omega 6 fatty acids consumed causes inflammation and inflammation is the key cause of most diseases. Find out more here.

5. Something called “Natural Flavor”

These natural flavors that McDonalds includes are acquired through a vegetable source. Using the term “Natural” has no true meaning because it may potentially contain MSG (monosodium glutamate), a nerve and brain toxin.

6. A Type of Sugar: Dextrose

Why do French fries need sugar?

7. Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate

An ingredient to help keep the nice golden color of the French fries. The safety data sheets from this chemicals industry lists this item as hazardous for ingesting. Inflammation is just one thing is causes, and eating too much of this leads to higher blood phosphorus levels that can contribute to osteoporosis.

8. Citric Acid

They could be using lemon juice for this. Yet it’s more likely that they are using GMO black mold, a more profitable choice like many sister corporations are using as well.  Learn more about this deception here.

9. Dimethylpolysiloxane

This is found in practically every fast food fried item. You can also find this in hair products, caulking, contact lenses, silly putty, nail polishes, cosmetics and more. Sound healthy to you? Read more about it here.

10. Vegetable Oil

This is oil for frying and is a combination of 7 that includes many ingredients already listed above like: soybean oil which is a GMO, citric acid (GMO), canola oil (GMO), hydrogenated soybean oil another GMO, and dimethylpolysiloxane.

11. A Petroleum Based Preservative called TBHQ

This preservative has been liked to hormone disruption, damage to DNA, cancer, skin conditions, and asthma. Eighteen of McDonalds menu items contain this additive and it is potentially lethal.  Don’t fret though, the FDA claims that it’s regarded as safe (GRAS).  Read more about this petroleum byproduct here.

Are you convinced yet to give up fast food French fries?

Check out this very informative video where New York Times bestselling author of the book “Cooked”, Michael Pollan shares the outrageous story of how McDonald’s French fries are made. If you’re short on time, try skipping ahead to the time of 3:10 in the video and prepare to be horrified.

Sources:

http://www.realfarmacy.com/mcdonalds-transparency-campaign/

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fats-and-oils/573/2

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/shocking-ingredients-in-mcdonalds-french-fries.html