Happy Meal at time of purchase. Scroll down to see the same Happy Meal one year later. (Joann Bruso)
Blogger and nutritionist Joann Bruso celebrated an unusual birthday this past March: the one-year anniversary of a Happy Meal on her office shelf.
Exactly one year ago, Bruso purchased a McDonald's Happy Meal --something the nutritionist probably wouldn't dream of eating or feeding to a child-- for the sake of conducting a bit of a scientific experiment. The test was simple: place the Happy Meal on a shelf, right behind the computer where she does her writing, and wait.
And wait she did, for one entire year, as the burger, fries and drink moldered away on the shelf. Only, contrary to what one would expect of food left out in the air for twelve months, the Happy Meal didn't gather any actual mold.
In fact, the Happy Meal looks mysteriously similar to how it looked one year ago. Bruso describes the miniscule changes that have occurred:
The bread is crusty and if you look closely, you will see a crack across the top. The hamburger has shrunk a bit and still resembles a hockey puck. Yet, the French fries look yummy enough to eat. I never had an odor problem, after a couple of weeks, I couldn’t even smell the fries."
After one year, the Happy Meal shows very little decomposition.
Bruso realizes that a Happy Meal exhibiting few changes after an entire year is not a good thing. Real food is meant to break down inside the body. If a burger can't be decomposed even by microbes, then it is true, she asserts, that "your child's body can't properly metabolize it either."
The reason for the lack of change in the year-old McDonald's Happy Meal is the number of preservatives in the food. While McDonald's has attempted to counter claims about its unhealthiness by posting calorie counts and featuring some slightly healthier menu items, the actual ingredients are something you won't hear them touting in their ad campaigns.
While McDonald's insists that they use no preservatives in their hamburger patty, the bun, pickle and french fries are a whole different story. In fact, for such a simple item, the list of ingredients for the humble pickle slice is lengthy: cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate (preservative), natural flavor (vegetable source), alum, polysorbate 80, turmeric.
The Happy Meal hamburger bun's ingredient list is sadly too long to reproduce, but includes the preservative calcium propionate (which is what keeps that year-old bun looking daisy fresh), along with ominous sounding ingredients such as calcium peroxide and azodicarbonamide. Yum!
The next time you think about buying a Happy Meal for your kids, consider the fact that it might just contain some of the same ingredients as the toy it comes with.
Order Joann's book Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater
If you'd like to feed your children food that actually breaks down into its nutritive components and nourishes their bodies, visit these healthy food resources in Knoxville, Tennessee:
Three Rivers Market for organic, vegetarian and locally-produced food
Earth Fare for healthier grocery items
Veg-o-Rama for Knoxville's only fully vegetarian restaurant
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Comments
This is absolutely disturbing. I really cannot think of anything else to say about it, disturbing.
It really is. I gotta keep my kids away from fast food....
Bloody hell you have some willpower not eating that for a year! What a waste!!!
doesn't it produce some kinda bad smell?how can you work for a year with a bad smell?
This is a great experiment! I should try this at my workplace...heh heh
That is weird! I would have thought it would get moldy and stinky! Oh well, I don't eat McDonald's food anyway:)
Oh man. What a story, Elizabeth. I tried to keep my kids away from that. One of the first McDonald's was in my home town. It may well be the oldest still standing. I remember when they cheeseburgers tasted a lot like In and Out burgers do now. Now they don't even taste like real food.
I used extra lean beef and mild cheddar to make cheeseburgers at home, but my kids still wanted McDonald's. I have always maintained they would have had better nutrition eating a shoe like Charlie Chaplin.
I really think there is something addictive about them. I think it's like the poisoned tribbles on Star Trek. What they ate blocked the nutrition from being absorbed and just made them hungrier. I think the grease on fast food does that, the grease and the starch.
I bet you love Jamie Oliver's new show. So do I. I had to feed K-1 students a sugar filled snack and then get them to do homework right after. School district rules founded on guidelines from the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind.
I do remember hearing about this from my son. Who I will admit had some Happy Meals in his lifetime. Thankfully, not a lot.
Wow, and double Wow! I guess a Happy Meal is a good thing to have in your car just in case you get stuck somewhere. LOL!
I don't believe this, I would have to see it for myself. A year is a long time,
It's terrible! I have read on Project Weight Loss that fast food is bad, but I didn't know it's that bad! Are you sure it's not a joke, I mean, it is posted on April 1st... Well, anyhow, I won't eat from McDonald's ever again.
I'm not surprised. I've spent a lot of time looking at kids' menus even in fancy restaurants since having my lap band and I've yet to order off one. All the kids' meals are breaded, deep fried, or pasta. No wonder all of our kids are fat today!
She put the happy meal in a place where the computer's heat would dehydrate it.
Not a fair test - it doesn't matter what you're trying to rot, mold and rot do not work well without some moisture.
This is a piece of biased journalism designed to scare people.
(Personally, I dislike fast food and avoid it like the plague. But fudging the truth like this isn't necessary to prove fast food isn't healthy.)
My advice would be to try it yourself. I know I've found french fries under a car seat that existed from before we even had that car (so more than two years), and they looked like they could have been under there just a few days. As far as it scaring people: they SHOULD be scared.
this is fake i worked at Mcdonalds as a teenager and i took out he trash daily that stuff rots just like every thing else
While I would never espouse eating McDonalds Happy Meals under any circumstances, the scientific conclusions in this article are very weak.
You can't equate the inside of a digestive system with a dry shelf. Most foods - healthy ones included - left out on a shelf will quickly dry out and remain in a relatively "preserved" state for an extended period of time. If there's no ready supply of moisture and microbes, then no, they won't decompose. Bury that same happy meal in moist, fertile soil and it will vanish completely in a week.
You can't equate a human's digestive system with a dry shelf surrounded by air.
The problem with heavily processed foods like this is not that they can't be metabolized, it's that they are metabolized *far too well*. The calories are *much* more bioavailable than with fresh foods, leading to big problems with child obesity.
it is really interesting how stuff like this ends up on a page that should be dedicated to news, journalism, fact checking.
I guess this would be gonzo journalism then...
Anyway as a few comments already pointed out: preservatives break down in the digestive system far too well. Every food rots safe for putting it in a very cold freezer or in a dry, dry place (like, say, behind a computers fan).
I know, I know, no one likes a troll but please.. put some investigation into stuff and don't just copy-paste and write an agreement under it. People will read this and they'll go "ah yes, this is clearly right" and believe it, people will believe anything.
(btw, put an apple behind your computer for a month, they have so much fruit sugar that the decomposion will set in quite quickly but a dry area will slow it down so much that the apple will look just slightly wrinkly. ZOMG APPLES ARE UNHEALTHY! *facepalm*)
April fools? :') I've left a fast food drink untouched, and it only takes a couple of days before the paper gets saturated and the drink leaks out and creates a mess.
On the point that ALL kids today are fat, I have to disagree. I'm 18, and I'm probably underweight if anything, along with a bunch of my friends (it's genetic, not anorexia). On the point that McDonald's food can sit on a shelf for a year without much change, I wouldn't be surprised. Real food tastes better and can be better for you if you know what you're doing in the kitchen. I made a vow after watching Super Size Me in high school that I would never set foot in another McDonald's, and to this day, I think I'm better for it. I'd rather not pickle my liver, thanks.
Very odd indeed...who would have thought it could have lasted that long without getting moldy.
How scary...
Third culture kids examiner
Seattle stay-at-home moms examiner
FAKE! This toy was just given out about a month ago. Not a year ago.
Then how did she blog about it a year ago, before the follow-up?
W-O-W. Sending this to all my friends. Thanks for this informative story. I had no idea the food had so many preservatives in it.
Knoxville Pug Examiner
Totally shopped.
The experiment was flawed. I give my cat a piece of fresh chicken breast every once in a while and if she doesn't eat it right away, in our dry climate it turns into chicken jerky, no mold, no maggots, nothing. This is not to say that MD sells premium food, just to show that it was not a true experiment under the conditions that would encourage decomposition of unprocessed and untreated foods.
obviously an april fool's joke...wow people are so gullible
I believe it. I've found Macdonald french fries under my car seat (yes, i eat them occasionally) without any change in appearance. They still looked edible, even though who knows how long they were there
I remember hearing about this when Joann published her update a month ago. It caused quite a stir at the time-- which is hardly surprising. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's regardless.
-Dallas Healthy Trends Examiner
-Dallas Ethnic Foods Examiner
This is not fake, I am unsure about the fries and other items but a nutritionist uses a 12 year old untreated Mcdonalds cheeseburger to make her point for eating healthier. Just Google 12 year old Mcdonalds cheesburger.
would you still eat it?
I've got some dogs that would love to hammer that stuff...but I'd be afraid to let them...yuck. Great work, Elizabeth!
For anyone that thinks this is fake, they should try it to see what happens. I don't eat fast food because it's not healthy.
Interesting find, Liz! From the comments, this sounds like quite the controversial subject. In the movie Supersize Me, wasn't there someone who put a McDonald's burger & fries and a burger in a canister and a burger & fries from a mom and pop burger joint in another canister and compare the difference in what happened to each over time? As a recall, the mom & pop burger and fries *did* mold and rot and smell, while the McDonald's products never did change.
True or not - April fool's or not - bread should mold over time.
I bought I burger from macca's once and the bun was slightly mouldy so I took it back and of course got a free meal (because they forgot to throw out that batch of buns).
So this "experiment" is stupid...
That is great, means I can buy in bulk and just warm it up in the micro over time
It's a true experiment. I know a person who did the same thing at the office, and the food never rottened and there was not a single sign of mold. Please don't take your kids to McDonalds!
Speaking of the drinks...it's alss pretty bad...there are acids and artificial colour and flavour...which destropy healthy cells in your body.
Color me gullible, but I believe it. I'm not a McD's fan anyway, thankfully.
Katie, Pearland Easy Meals Examiner
The date on this story is a bit hard to ignore. In fifth grade, my friend Jane and I set up a science experiment to grow mold. We used a slice of whole wheat bread and set up "perfect" conditions for mold growth. Then we waited and waited. Nothing. A month later. No mold. Mold is not a given when food goes stale. Don't get me wrong though - McD's is gross and I wouldn't eat there if you paid me, lol
Try puting a homemade hamburger out for a year and I'm sure it'd would look the same as the picture above. Its not just McDonalds. Come on people......
If you dont belive this experiment try it yourself but compare a homemade burger to mc Ds / as for the fries they will never break down they are nuked . To the those people who belive that these kinds of food are okay to eat go ahead feast on it , you will only make it easier for the rest of us to move on in life by self eliminating the ignorent morons who can see past there own stupidity...Learn to think fools
Gross.
I gave up fast food back in 2002 after watching Super Size Me -- thanks for reaffirming my goals for me!
the cup would of gave away after a few days
Yes, it depends on the humidity and other conditions. One of the driest places I know is behind the computer. I've found organic food behind mine that's passed that test as well as the McDonald's food did.
Very good point. We dried oranges to make special Christmas decorations that way. I'm going to give it a try and put my happy meal out in the garage. I'll bet it will be a moldy mess within a week with the west coast weather.
What is the point of this and who cares!? If you don't want to feed your kids this, then don't.
Well done on the ever predictable choice of food to purchase. As others have stated, even home cooked food may experience similar decomposition especially in such a dry environment.
Wow... does McDonalds have a team of blog commentators who are writing on this thing to try to make us all believe that "REAL" food wouldn't mold or rot in a year? THAT might be even scarier than the fact that the food didn't decompose. Even scarier would be if all of the people above REALLY don't think this is strange and are going out to eat McDonalds just after reading this, but I don't want to ruin my day by believing there are a lot of people that ignorant.
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