According to an article by Food Safety News, McDonald’s recently announced it would no longer use ammonium hydroxide beef in its hamburgers. Referred to as a “pink slime” additive, the ammoniated beef was popularly used in school lunches and pet foods.
Taco Bell and Burger King reportedly have also agreed to no longer use the beef trimmings treated with ammonia and water.
However, Taco Bell was recently investigated for allegedly using only 36 percent meat in its taco filling with the rest being comprised of ingredients only a chemist could pronounce.
We are becoming the guinea pig generation for fast food chains unsure of the health effects of their products. As a busy generation filling the drive-thru lanes of fast-food chains, we can’t be uninformed of the ingredients in the foods we consume.
An article by journalist David Zinczenko reported many popular sodas contained the potentially toxic flame retardant brominated vegetable oil and high-fructose corn syrup.
Many of the genetically modified ingredients in soda have been consumed by the general public for only a short period of time and have not been tested for their long-term effects.
Commercials depicting a wholesome family fast-food experience fail to address the declining health of Americans across the country.
Health concerns such as childhood diabetes are most evidently represented in the number of kid’s meals and booster seat-assisted children capable of ordering off a menu before they can count.
It wasn’t until 2008 fast-food companies began refusing to use trans fats because of their risk of heart disease, and it took the attention of public protest before a number of unhealthy additives were removed from restaurant menus.
Our generation will be the ones to inherit the future health issues of the unnatural foods we consume that are considered safe by today’s fast-food restaurants.
Still, we refuse to even turn over the paper mats atop our restaurant trays to learn the calorie intake of the foods we eat. If we inform ourselves of the effects of the foods we eat, we gain the awareness to change the future consequences of an unhealthy country.