The New York Daily News today proclaims “U.S. has saltiest fast food: McNuggets have twice the sodium as those in U.K., says study”:
What makes fast food taste all-American? Salt, and lots of it.
In fact, the fast food in the U.S. may be the saltiest in the world, according to a Canadian health journal.
Researchers found that foods from popular fast-food chains, including McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Domino’s, Subway and Pizza Hut, contain more sodium in certain countries.
For example, after analyzing McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets in the U.K., France, Canada, New Zealand the the U.S., scientists found that American McNuggets had the highest sodium content, with 1.6 grams of salt per 100 grams.
McNuggets in the U.K. contained 0.6 grams of salt per 100 grams, less than half what was in America’s chicken bites.
Those behind the study were quick to add that avoiding fast food isn’t a surefire way to lower salt intake. Foods and products with sky-high sodium levels are everywhere.
Not long ago salt and meat were cherished luxuries. (And in much of the world they still are.) Yet today they’re the foundation of our diets. And in the 21st century-style recession somehow the opposite of starvation has happened. Now instead of “the poor” starving to death they choose to save money by eating high calorie, unhealthy food.
Related: This is how much we’ve been spoiled by the riches of our freedom. “Nonprofit” “consumer advocacy” groups trying to make it illegal to market fast food to children:
A San Francisco judge has dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit that sought to stop McDonald’s Corp. from using toys to market its meals to children in the Golden State.
The suit had been filed in late 2010 by Monet Parham, a California mother of two, and The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
The suit had claimed that the world’s biggest hamburger chain was violating consumer protection laws by using toys to lure them to eat nutritionally unbalanced meal. The lawsuit did not seek damages.
What would famished Irish families fleeing starvation at the close of the 18th century think if they could see us now?
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