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Here are four of the most astonishing facts about chicken nuggets. Yes, they're bite-sized and tasty, but do we really want them in their bodies after learning how they're really made?

YUCK…

Original McNuggets
The chicken nugget craze began with the Mickey D's original Chicken McNuggets back in the 1980s. Anyone who ate them then knows the nuggets weren't always made with white meat. Biting into one treated the consumer to the sight of juicy, grey meat, which is probably what led some people to just start popping the nuggets into their mouths whole. The reason for this coloring? According to Super Size Me, original McNuggets were made from chickens too old and worn out to lay eggs anymore. Basically, they were a way for the golden arches to make money off poultry euthanasia.

Chicken mash
Around 2003, McDonald's began using younger chickens, and McNuggets became all-white meat. The taste improved greatly. But how that flavor found its way to the consumers' mouths hasn't changed all that much. Though no longer old and grey, all the fresh, young chicken meat is ground up into some kind of mash or slurry, according to McDonald's own ad campaign. This is then pressed into the various nugget shapes we all recognize. But don't think that's all that goes into a nugget. That's just the tip of the beak.

Lots of ingredients
Even though they're called chicken nuggets, chicken only makes up about half of a nugget, no matter which fast food chain they come from, according to a study by The American Journal of Medicine. In fact, the abstract of the report says “their name is a misnomer,” as they are usually composed of mostly fat from a list of about 40 other ingredients. To be fair, most of those ingredients are things found in the average grocery store, like paprika, cornstarch, various oils, and baking soda. But some ingredients veer far and clear of the kitchen cupboard.

Incidental ingredients
In addition to the fat and spices (delicious, and a great name for a band), chicken nuggets contain some incidental ingredients as well. They're the kinds of things that should be expected from animals being ground into meat pulp. But that doesn't make them any less disturbing (or enticing, depending on a person's constitution). In the same American Journal of Medicine study, nuggets are said to also contain: cartilage, bone fragments, intestinal tissue, and blood vessels, to name a few. And because that's not enough to get the taste buds humming, other ingredients get thrown in there as well.

Aside from the spices and the incidentals, nuggets also contain components usually only found in university and professional chemistry labs. Chemicals like monocalcium phosphate, dextrose, and hydrogenated soybean oil all go into chicken nugget making. To be fair, while not found in the average kitchen, most of these names appear on soda cans, potato chip bags, or other kinds of food labeling.

We're not sure what to think about chicken nuggets after reading this list. When we're craving a quick, hot and delicious snack, chicken nuggets just can't be beat, but we sure never knew what one of little treats was made up of. They don't seem quite as appetizing now!

Article Source: Grunge