What's really in a McDonald's hamburger

by Robin Konie on be nourished

Want a juicy, hamburger? Maybe a cheeseburger… with a 100% beef patty that’s seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper, topped with melty cheese, tangy pickles, minced onions, and (of course) ketchup and mustard? Sounds pretty good, right? This is how the McDonad’s hamburger is advertised. Sounds simple enough. And from a real food perspective, it sounds… well, real. But what’s really is in a McDonald’s hamburger?

Ah, I’m glad you asked.

A quick look at their nutritional information shows a fairly harmless ingredient list:

• 100% beef patty
• regular bun
• pastuerized process American cheese
• ketchup
• mustard
• pickle slices
• onions

Despite what many Americans think, I don’t see hamburgers as the typical  “junk food” villain. Under the right circumstances I am totally game for a real hamburger. And by “real” I mean that the beef is grass-fed, the cheese isn’t processed, the bun is sourdough or sprouted, and the condiments are not full of nasty stuff.

Not too surprising, but the McDonald’s hamburger isn’t quite so real. In fact, you have to scroll down their 30 page nutritional information guide to get the whole scary truth.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Ingredients: 100% pure USDA inspected beef; no fillers, no extenders. Prepared with grill seasoning (salt, black pepper).

Thankfully, McDonald’s and several other chains recently stopped using the “pink slime” in their beef. But the vast majority of fast food beef comes from CAFO (concentrated agricultural feeding operation) cows. Not only is this horrible for the animals and the environment, but eating meat from sick animals will only make you sick.  Eat a McDonald’s hamburger and you might be getting a mouth full of antibiotics, hormones, and dangerous bacteria.

Ingredients: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide), sorbic acid, calcium propionate and/or sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Oh boy. Where do I start? How about we just look at the length of this ingredient list. All of this for a bun? Did you know you can make your own bread using just flour, salt, and water? Seriously. The extra 20 – 30 ingredients here is stuff your body doesn’t need.

Lets look at just a few of the above ingredients:

• Ammonium chloride… sounds tasty right? Did you know it is also an ingredient in fireworks, safety matches and contact explosives? Eat up.
• Ammonium sulfate is used most commonly as an artificial fertilizer for alkaline soils. It’s also in flame retardant materials. Ammonium sulfate activates yeast, so it helps to get industrially produced bread to rise.
• The soybean and/or canola oil used here are most likely GMO. They are also foods I generally avoid for a number of reasons.
• The high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), despite the desperate marketing strategies to persuade otherwise, is not natural. And because it’s in so much of our processed foods, not only is it hard to avoid, but it can be doing major damage to your health.
• “Enriched” flour sounds harmless enough. But “enriched” just means that all the nutrition was taken out in the first place. Refined flours are also hard for your body to digest, even before the mess of chemicals are added to it.

I can’t even get through this whole list. But I think you get the point. Nothing really healthy or real here.

Ingredients: Tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavors (vegetable source)

As if HFCS isn’t enough… let’s add some regular corn syrup to the mix! Not to mention that most corn is GMO. Did you know that recently the first long term study on the effects of GMO was released? You can find it here. The part that should freak you out: Massive tumors in rats who are fed GMO corn for two years. What do I mean by massive? Check this out:

That’s after two years. GMOs have been in our market for 20.

Let’s talk about the “natural flavors.” What does that really mean? For me it means “don’t eat.” The term “natural flavors” can be used for a number of not-so-natural and definitely not-so-healthy ingredients including things like MSG, Aspartame and bugs(yes, bugs).

Ingredients: Distilled vinegar, water, mustard seed, salt, turmeric, paprika, spice extractive.

Okay, these look familiar. Except maybe “spice extractive.” What does that mean? Could be a number of things… a little “iffy” for sure.

Ingredients: Milk, water, milkfat, cheese culture, sodium citrate, salt, citric acid, sorbic acid (preservative), sodium phosphate, color added, lactic acid, acetic acid, enzymes, soy lecithin (added for slice separation)

Let’s just start with the name. I mean, come on. Cheese is milk’s chance for immortality and “pasteurized process American cheese” just sounds nasty.

Why are we messing with something so good? Pasteurization kills living enzymes. Although in this case it’s probably good since it can also kill the bad stuff that comes from milk from sick cows in horrific factories.

With all the added colors, preservatives, and other “goodies” I think I’ll skip the cheeseburger.

Ingredients: Cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, calcium chloride, alum, potassium sorbate (preservative), natural flavors (plant source), polysorbate 80, extractives of turmeric (color)

Another handful of chemicals. Let’s just highlight the polysorbate 80 for a moment. In general this chemical is considered safe and well tolerated. Although a small number of people may be sensitive to it, and it may be harmful to people with Crohn’s disease. (But don’t worry, that only affects between 400,000 and 600,000 people in North America. Ouch.)

Ingredients: Chopped onions.

Finally. An ingredient list I can get behind. Of course, I prefer my veggies organic (locally grown is even better) to avoid pesticides. But so far the onions are your safest bet.

Well for an ingredient list with 50+ questionable items… I think I’ll pass on the McDonad’s hamburger. Forever. And before you think I have something against McDonald’s, realize that this list will look very similar for any fast food hamburger.

Remember, food is what helps your body thrive. Feed your body sick food and guess how you’ll end up? Sick.

Ultimately, however, it’s not McDonald’s we should be mad at. Nobody is forcing us to eat this garbage. What we need is to help educate people and let them know what they are putting in their bodies. I think Joel Salatin says it well:

Help empower people with information to make better choices. Share what you know. Being willing to change. Your body will thank you.