Author Archive | Jennie Lyon

I am still reeling from the fact that McDonald’s confirmed that it has eliminated the use of ammonium hydroxide (an ingredient found in household cleaners, fertilizers and some explosives) in it’s hamburger meat, a.k.a. meat scraps. You remember ammonium hydroxide right? It’s that ‘pink slime’ that was flooding the interwebs months ago. You would like eliminating it would make me happy – right? Wrong. I am reeling because why, WHY would they EVER think this was an option in the first place?

Even though McDonald’s denies that its decision had anything to do with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s months-long food revolution campaign to remove ammonium hydroxide ‘pink slime’ meat from the United States food supply – I know better. I give props to Jamie for stepping up and making a large impact on how America views and consumes food. Bravo! According to Jamie he found the use of treated scrap meat “shocking” and that “basically we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it ‘fit’ for humans.” Unbelievable.

So let’s get back to this pink slime. In case you aren’t familiar, besides being used as a household cleaner and fertilizer, it also releases flammable vapors which when added to certain acids can turn into ammonium nitrate – an ingredient found in homemade bombs. However, the Department of U.S. Agriculture classifies it as “generally recognized as safe”. Are they crazy? When would it ever be considered safe to consume chemicals found in household cleaners, fertilizers and explosives?

Making Changes at Home

Thankfully eight years ago, after watching Super Size Me – my family dramatically changed the way that we consumed packaged and fast food. Anyone who watched that documentary and saw what happened to Morgan Spurlock’s health after one month of a McDonald’s diet could see that this type of food is not not what we want our families eating. My family took it a step further and removed most of the packaged foods that we purchased and switched to organics at that time. In fact, I think Morgan Spurlock and Jamie Oliver would be happy to hear that we had our own food revolution.

Anyhow, back to McDonald’s – in a statement McDonald’s stated that it stopped using “select lean beef trimmings” – otherwise known as scrap meat soaks in ammonium hydroxide, then ground into pink “meat like” slime at the beginning of last year.

Regardless, my family has not consumed anything from McDonald’s in YEARS and will not in the future. What corners will they cut next since their pink slime cash cow has been taken away?

McDonald’s Isn’t the Only One

As you may know, McDonald’s is not the only fast-food restaurant that has used ‘pink slime’ meat. There are others including; Taco Bell and Burger King. So why am I being so tough on McDonald’s? My main issue with McDonald’s is that they aggressively market directly to children. My own son thinks he will love McDonald’s based on their advertising and I swear once in a while I hear him humming their jingle in the back seat of the car. It infuriates me! Children do not understand the impact that modified, unhealthy foods can and will have on their health – not to mention the impact on our environment. And of course, they are going to want to go to the restaurant that has the latest and greatest toy in the kids’ meal. This leaves us as parents telling our children no to something that they view as healthy and fun.

What Can You Do? 

If your family does consume meats, consider only purchasing meats that are fresh and organic and cook your own meat at home. You can find tips for saving money on organics here and coupons for organics here. Consider eating more fresh vegetarian meals and skipping fast food all together. This way you have more control over what your family is consuming – since ‘mechanically seperated’, ‘meat product’ or ‘pink slime’ will not be on the label of anything that you purchase.

Ammonia-based ‘pink slime’ meats are a HUGE disappointment. Between this, GMO’s, pesticides, artificial ingredients, colors and additives – we are poisoning ourselves and our children – I find this to be unforgivable. 

What are your thoughts?
Has your family unknowingly consumed pink slime meat?

photo credit happymealy

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We have never been fans of the USDA school lunch program in our home. In fact, when Eben was in public school he never ate school lunch, we have always packed a healthy and delicious lunch for him. The very idea of pizza being the vegetable on a school lunch menu makes me cringe. And remember when a Chicago public school banned homemade lunches to encourage their idea of healthy eating? For the most part, school lunches contain too much fat, sodium, artificial flavors and colors that it rivals fast food. However, it looks as though things are about to change, the USDA is making the first changes to the school lunch menus in 15 years.

The new standards are meant to be consistent with the healthy food choices that many families are already trying to implement in their own homes including:

• Students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week.
• Substantially increasing the offerings of whole grain foods.
• Students are offered only fat-free or low-fat milk.
• Ensuring proper portion size by limiting calories based on the age of the children being served.
• Increasing the focus on saturated fat, trans fats and sodium reduction.  
• Foods and beverages sold in vending machines on school campuses will also contribute to a healthy diet. 

These new school lunch rules were built around recommendations from a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine – a gold standard for evidence-based health analysis. You can see a sample lunch program menu with the before and after comparsion here.

Sounds pretty great, right? However, their are challenges that the new rules face including:

•  A $3.2 billion expense to school meal costs over the next 5 years – when school budgets are at an all-time low. 
• Taking a three-year period to implement the key changes in the nutrition standards to schools.
• The ease of Congress allowing these key changes being implemented. 

What your thoughts? If you pack a healthy school lunch for your child everyday – will you allow them to eat school lunch once the program is implemented in your school?

If your child eats school lunch, are you happy with the changes that are being made?

Intro photo via Ben + Sam, 2nd photo via USDAgov