Oh man alive you will not believe what’s in the McRib

[n2doc]

BY JESS ZIMMERMAN
28 OCT 2011 9:22 AM

McDonald's McRib sandwich has kind of a cult following, like Phish if they were only around for like a month every year instead of seemingly forever. And like Phish, it is jam-packed with synthetic ingredients. (I kid, I kid. I'm sure all of Phish's enhancement is purely herbal.) For instance, one of the bun ingredients is azodicarbonamide, which Time describes as "a flour-bleaching agent that is most commonly used in the manufacture of foamed plastics like in gym mats and the soles of shoes."

The compound is banned in Europe and Australia as a food additive. (England's Health and Safety Executive classified it as a "respiratory sensitizer" that potentially contributes to asthma through occupational exposure.) The U.S. limits azodicarbonamide to 45 parts per million in commercial flour products, based on analysis of lab testing.

Now, in the concentrations found in a McRib, azodicarbonamide probably won't hurt you. Nor will its buddies, ammonium sulfate and polysorbate 80, or any of the other 70-plus ingredients that go into the sandwich. And to be fair, if you break down almost anything, you can find a component that sounds a little startling. I mean, my dinner last night was Swiss chard, squash, and chicken sausage, but it still contained sodium (a caustic metal!!) and chlorine (a poison gas!!), on account of I put salt on it.

However: Dude, there are over 70 ingredients in this supposed "rib" "sandwich"! That's ingredients listed on the website, not ingredients that some whole-foods advocate ginned up to sound worse than they are. And one of them's also an ingredient in SHOES. That has to give you pause.

http://www.grist.org/list/2011-10-27-oh-man-alive-you-will-not-believe-whats-in-the-mcrib

[H2O Man]

1. Is it entering

the republican primaries?

[Retrograde]

4. If it does, it will be at 25% by next week (n/t)

[H2O Man]

14. The fact that it

is only flipped once will help the campaign.

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. *snort*

I heart you.

[WheelWalker]

25. DUzy !!

:kick:

[cui bono]

42. Yes but it is actually made of flip-flop material.

So it's a wash.

[spanone]

20. bwahahahahahaaaa

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[gkhouston]

No, you're thinking of that mythical Democratic challenger, McSpine. n/t

[malaise]

57. LOL

:rofl:

[hobbit709]

2. The ONE thing it doesn't have is actual rib meat.

[Initech]

50. I don't think it has actual meat.

[quinnox]

3. no wonder it tastes so horrible n/t

[mysuzuki2]

5. I ate one once.

I lived.

[AnneD]

19. I ate one once....

I learned from my mistake. :spray:

I might eat the pickle and onion, but that is all I want off the sandwich thank you very much.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

23. So far.

[yawnmaster]

6. I haven't tried one yet. How are they? eom

[Mnemosyne]

7. Obvious question; do they make good shoes? n/t

[Boojatta]

9. Good enough to eat?

You Tube Video of Charlie Chaplin eating his shoe from The Gold Rush

[Mnemosyne]

48. I think I would eat my sandals before that gross 'sandwich'. I do love some Chaplin!

:rofl::hi:

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. I have never had a McRib just because of the fake look of the damn thing. It just looks GROSS!

Now I know I will NEVER eat one. :puke:

[Octafish]

44. It's got bumps where the ribs would be.

[in_cog_ni_to]

55. THAT'S what I'm talkin' about! Would you look at that damn thing?

:puke:

[Initech]

51. I tried one just out of morbid curiosity - it was something I definitely regretted later.

:puke:

[AngkorWot]

10. "azodicarbonamide, a flour bleaching agent"

So, if you've got bleached flour at home, or white bread, or any kind of baked produced with bleached flour, you've probably got azodicarbonamide, or some related bleaching agent.

ammonium sulfate- another simple salt, not unlike sodium chloride which you already mentioned.

polysortbate 80- an emuslifier. Probably used in the sauce.

"And one of them's also an ingredient in SHOES."

There's dihydrogen monoxide in shoes. It doesn't give me that much pause.

[quinnox]

15. Have you ever tried one?

I wouldn't recommend it if you haven't.

[AngkorWot]

33. I've had two in the current run.

Not great, but the sauce isn't terrible.

[baldguy]

11. Old-timey butchers once said they "used everything but the squeal"

But they didn't expect people to buy it all as food.

[tridim]

12. Does it really have a cult following?

Or is it kind of a pseudo-corporate-commerical-enhanced cult following?

I don't know anyone who likes them any more than anything else on the McD's menu.

[jtrockville]

13. Give the saying "put your foot in your mouth" a whole new meaning.

Personally, I try to eat only food. It's getting harder and harder.

[SomethingFishy]

16. McShit.

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. "I can live forever in formaldehyde", he said. -The Residents, "Harry the Head"

[onethatcares]

18. once mickeyds puts out an ad saying there's a shortage of them

they'll be people standing in line overnite to buy them. Probably pitching tents on sidewalks too, but they won't get beanbagged or tazered.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. okay, it sucks. Don't eat it, I wouldn't. But why take the random potshots at Phish?

There's a lot of shitty, phony, mass-produced McCorporate crap music out there. Say what you will about Phish, love em or hate em or use them as a convenient shorthand to make fun of OWS protesters (like George Will did) they're not really representative of McDonalds or McRibs or what-the-fuck-have you.

Full Disclosure: I've seen Phish a few times, including back when they were still essentially a bar band. Talented guys, high energy, some good stuff, but not The Grateful Dead IMHO or even anything quite that close. Still, they do have some psychedelic offerings. And they're WAY better than a McRib.

[elias7]

56. I like to see Phish, then get a McRib

and then a big mac, then some chips, some cookies, then some salami from the fridge

[Warren DeMontague]

58. I hope you're doing a lot of dancing at those shows, man

that diet will kill you.

[Warpy]

24. I haven't eaten anything at any of those places for over 30 years

because every time I'd try, I could feel grease oozing out of my pores. While I know I was likely imagining it, it was not pleasant. So I've given them a miss. Real food tastes better once you're used to it, anyway.

[Pacifist Patriot]

26. One of my warm fuzzy moments as a parent was when....

we were driving down the road one day and my then eleven year old said, "hey mom, can we get lunch at McDonalds?" and the five year old pipe's up, "It's a restaurant?!"

Yes of course all of my children have eaten at McDonalds on occasion. But not a one of them refers to the menu items as food. Little pack of snobs. ;-)

[Motown_Johnny]

27. MMMmmmmm.....McRib.....

Now I may need to run out and get myself one, or two.

[SoDesuKa]

28. Sprinkle it With Baking Soda; It HISSES

Don't quote me on this. If you sprinkle a McRib sandwich with baking soda, it hisses. And whatever you do, don't grind up Mentos over one, it might explode.



Mentos make you STRONG.

[Lochloosa]

29. We have a local BBQ joint here named Jenkins BBQ that has a Rib Sandwich

5-6 Pork Ribs slapped between two pieces of white bread w/ homemade mustard based BBQ sauce wrapped in brown paper.

I think I'll stick with that....and I know what I'm having for dinner now.

[TBF]

32. lol ...

you would like Texas, well the BBQ anyway, it is the best!

A couple of my favorites:

http://www.centralbbq.com/
http://www.hickoryhollowrestaurant.com/index.html

I like to order baked potatoes with bbq beef - it's enough food for at least 3-4 meals.

[Lochloosa]

35. BBQ Beef? What the (*^*( is that?

:evilgrin:

[Xithras]

30. Ugh. A buddy of mine is one of those cult followers.

He talked me into trying one once. NASTY. I don't get the appeal.

There's no "ribs" in there, the sauce sucks...AND IT HAS PICKLES!!!!!!!!!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

31. What about McDonald's milkshakes?

I once talked to a guy who said that if I knew what went into their shakes, I'd never have a milkshake again.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

61. Cottonseed oil and other yucky stuff. No real ice cream contained therein.

Like that crap that comes out of the soft serve machine at Dairy Queen.

No way. Nuh-uh..... :(

[hootinholler]

34. Whew! I thought you were going to say pork! n/t

[cleanhippie]

36. I can't believe whats NOT in it.

Like real food.

[RebelOne]

37. Have never eaten a McRib and never will. I am a vegetarian.

In fact, in my meat-eating days, I would never eat anything from McDonald's, because it was pure grease.

[Happyhippychick]

38. Soylent Green?

Nt

[fascisthunter]

39. sick... anything for money

[jberryhill]

40. So it is an ingredient in shoes

So what? That's not particularly informative.

Pork rinds contain an ingredient used to make shoes, and footballs, too.

Chewing gum originally contained latex, also used to make shoes, and some still does.

Defining what an ingredient is, and what its biological effects are, is a better idea than saying things like Caesar salad contains an ingredient used to make SOAP! OMG!

[Spider Jerusalem]

41. I haven't eaten anything from McDonald's in going on 20 years now

don't miss it, either.

[Liberal_in_LA]

43. ewww

[Throd]

45. I like them. They are fantastically disgusting and yummy!

[redqueen]

46. This blog is big on scary chemical names...

but it leaves out the most important part of the Time article it's cribbed and dumbed-down from. It has 10g of saturated fat per serving, and 980mg of sodium.

[dionysus]

54. i betcha the morningstar farms veggie burgers i eat have tons of chemicals, too.

[Liberal In Texas]

47. I'll have 2.

(Probably not.)

[Bigmack]

49. McCoronary...

490 calories... half from fat, 25 g of fat... 8g of it saturated fat, 75mg cholesterol, 11g of sugar, and 37% of your sodium needs for a day. McCoronary!

[PuraVidaDreamin]

52. LEAVE PHISH ALONE!

:cry:

[Warren DeMontague]

59. ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhAOtY0mcyI

[PuraVidaDreamin]

60. I'm so happy you understand!

:P

[Trailrider1951]

53. Man, even if I ate meat (which I don't)

there is no way I'd eat that Frankenfood! :puke:

[kestrel91316]

62. The ultimate in "fake" food. Blech.

[Scuba]

63. I stop there often when travelling, for the convenience...

.. that McUrinals provides.



Hey, those golden arches ARE symbolic!