I must apologize… after receiving much valid criticism, it came to my attention that an unfinished draft of my recent article “Anatomy of a Big Mac” was published by mistake, by an intern currently working in my office doing research.  It was a careless error and definitely one for which there is no excuse.  The corrected article is now posted.

Still, I would like to address the fact that many of the responses inaccurately characterized my intent as “scare tactics.”  This was definitely not my intent; rather, my intent was to make the reader question whether or not it is a wise decision to knowingly eat food that has unnecessary chemicals added to it that provide no nutritional value and, in some cases, have been banned in markets outside the U.S. for use in food products.

Much of the feedback argued that, in today’s world, virtually everything contains some form of toxins or contamination and our bodies are fully equipped to handle this and, therefore, the additives in McDonald’s food are of no consequence.  I do agree that there are toxins and contaminants everywhere and that a healthy body can do an amazing job of processing and eliminating toxins; however, I disagree that it’s a good idea to purposely eat additional potential toxins.  And I disagree that our bodies are fully equipped to handle the tremendous amounts of chemicals and toxins that we are currently being exposed to.

I am hardly the only one covering questionable ingredients in McDonald’s food. As previously noted, The Independent, Bloomberg, and CNN have also covered this topic in the past couple of years. With McDonald’s moving into more and more countries, a different type of “food” is becoming available to their citizens… and many individuals are questioning the wisdom of choosing these food products to put into their bodies.

Exactly what the potential health risks are is clearly up for continuing debate.  However, I stand by my opinion that it’s best to avoid unnecessary chemicals whenever possible.

Perhaps these videos will help readers come to their own conclusions about whether McDonald’s “food” is something they want to put into their bodies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htnvzLU1I1o