still unimpressive

This is exactly what I hate about all of the eat-organic-everything, germophobic, tree fornicating and chain-mail believing people out there.

Read this article: http://bestwellnessconsultant.com/2008/09/23/1996-mcdonalds-hamburger-karen-hanrahan-best-of-mother-earth.aspx

Now a comment from that page:

Ben wrote:

I have doubts of your method. I am not defending McDonald’s, but I do not like unnecessary scaring over nothing. We do not need scare tactics to tell people McD food is bad for them.

Let’s go over the evidence in your experiment. First, the burger you purchased twelve years ago was put into a jelly container. I suspect the container to be airtight as jelly is susceptible to mold, bacteria, etc.

Second, you mention in the article that the burger was starting to crumble. This would imply that the burger has little to no water in it.

Third, I am assuming you bought your burger from a McD that met all health regulations.

Your conclusion from this evidence is that McD burgers are bad because they withstand the test of time. However, I disagree with this conclusion. I would argue that the burger was preserved because it was in an airtight, waterless environment removed from mold and bacteria. If there was sufficient water in the container, mold and bacteria would most likely flourish.

Now, I am not saying you are wrong that McD food is bad in regards to health. It is a fattening food whose only nutritional value is the amount of calories it contains. But I am saying your experiment does not support the conclusion that McD food is bad.

Furthermore, and this is simply personal sentiments, I do not like the tone of the article that engineered foods are bad. Chemically altering foods is a two way street. There is potential to make a healthier food that has more nutritional value than it’s predecessor (see: Banana) or simply make a food that last longer but has loses that value (see: commercial Tomato).

Author’s reply:

That’s OK.

I don’t claim to be a scientist.

This is a simple show and tell that I use to educate parents.

What a load of doohicky. It is dumb and unscientific people like this that love to use FUD to make themselves feel as if they’re better educated while deriding others.

There is nothing wrong with the world. If there is something wrong, FDAs got it take care of. And cut down that god damn tree in berkeley to build the damn parking garage or whatever. There are millions more trees to climb and shit.