McNuggetsworld

(AP)  Police say an Ohio woman punched through a McDonald's drive-through window because she couldn't get Chicken McNuggets.

Twenty-four-year-old Melodi Dushane has pleaded not guilty to a vandalism charge in Toledo. Police were called Friday to the restaurant where she allegedly became upset because chicken nuggets weren't available.

Police say Dushane was treated for injuries, then jailed. She was released on a recognizance bond and ordered not to have contact with the restaurant. The phone number for her home address isn't listed.


She say she are the manager! I'm an occasional McNugget man myself (w/honey mustard) but admit to be taken slightly aback at the apparent disproportionate impact they have on people's life in America. What makes the little munchables so darn good? Well how about tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill."

According to Michael Pollian's Omnivore's dilemma, Nuggets are primarily made of corn, almost 56%. The corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

They also contain  "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. This is the chemical found in Silly Putty. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable.

British McNuggets are healthier all around with 170 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 1 gram of saturated fat for 4 pieces. (Stateside McNuggets have 190 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 2 grams of saturated fat for 4 pieces.)

Serving size 10 pieces (159 g)
Energy 485 kcal (2,030 kJ)
Carbohydrates 27 g (9%)
Sugars 0 g
Dietary fiber 0 g
Fat 29 g (44%)
saturated 5 g (25%)
Protein 24 g
Vitamin A equiv. 0 μg (0%)
Vitamin C 1 mg (2%)
Calcium 20 mg (2%)
Iron 1 mg (8%)
Sodium 1000 mg (43%)
Energy from fat 260 kcal (1,100 kJ)
Cholesterol 70 mg (23%)

Watch out for the chicken heads!