Tuesday, July 17, 2012

unseen labels - what's in your fast food

A friend recently posted this picture on their Facebook page.    And I've heard a number of people talking about the "hand-spun" shakes at Chick Fil-A.  I believe hand-spun means nothing more than using an old-fashioned, metal wand device, rather than a blender.  However, with the words home-spun in there it sounds wholesome.  And the picture, of course, makes it look tempting and delicious with a large peach right up front.  The limited time only is, I suppose, there to make you feel that if you don't get yours now you've missed out.

Unfortunately the ingredients tell a different story:

Icedream (whole milk, sugar, nonfat dry milk, cream, corn syrup, natural and artificial flavors, dried whole eggs, cornstarch, mono and diglycerides, disodium phosphate, cellulose gum, carrageenan, sodium phosphate, guar gum, sodium citrate, annatto and caramel colors, artificial color [Yellow 5&6]), peaches, sugar, dextrose, water, citric acid, pectin (pectin, sodium diphosphate, calcium orthophosphate), lemon juice concentrate, salt, turmeric extract (propylene glycol, extractives of turmeric), natural flavor, ascorbic acid, annatto, milkshake base (whole milk, sugar, cream, whey powder (milk), nonfat dry milk, artificial flavor, disodium phosphate, mono and diglycerides, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, guar gum, cellulose gum, carrageenan), whipped cream (cream, milk, sugar, sorbitol, nonfat milk solids, artificial flavor, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, polysorbate 80, mixed tocopherols [vitamin E] to protect flavor, propellant: nitrous oxide), cherry.

Rather than a whole food peach milkshake we have a host of chemicals which include artificial flavors (appearing three times), colors, preservatives and other unhealthy ingredients.

Considering that a traditional peach milkshake has ice cream (choose organic, whole fat and chemical free), milk (again organic and whole fat), and peaches (organic - to avoid pesticides), it's somewhat ridiculous that this lab-experiment-gone-wrong is being promoted as a tasty treat.

My suggestion?  Skip theirs and make your own.


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5 comments:

  1. Karen Langston NutritionistJuly 17, 2012 at 7:50 PM

    Seriously? I wonder how long it took for a bunch of Marketing executives to come off with this?
    Hand-spun? seriously? C'mon!!!
    As always glad you are on top of timely topics Mira!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CindiJuly 17, 2012 at 9:16 PM

    I can't wait to get me a big glass of that corn syrup, natural and artificial flavors, dried whole eggs, cornstarch, mono and diglycerides, disodium phosphate, cellulose gum, carrageenan, sodium phosphate, guar gum, sodium citrate, annatto and caramel colors, artificial color, hand spun drink. Yummy.

    NOT!

    ReplyDelete
  3. SamJuly 18, 2012 at 7:58 AM

    Can you give us the basics of making a fruit milkshake? Like portions of milk to ice cream?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mira DessyJuly 18, 2012 at 9:42 AM

    My preference is for equal parts of vanilla ice cream and fruit and half as much milk. As an example, one serving would be one cup vanilla ice cream, one cup fresh peaches, 1/2 cup milk. It makes it VERY fruit flavored, especially if you have juice ripe fruit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Janet LancasterJuly 18, 2012 at 8:10 PM

    To make it even healthier, use almond milk instead of dairy.

    This inspires me to create a FB group or website where people can post harmful products masquerading as something healthy and wholesome. How irritating! It's like McDonald's bulletin board touting their smoothie "Made with real fruit!" Is there some other kind of fruit?? And if you google chik fil a charitable foundation you'll see they support hate and anti-civil rights groups.

    ReplyDelete

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