You Can't Judge How Healthy Your Food Is by Whether or Not It Rots

Every creature, no matter how noble, is eaten by microbes in the end.Its the circle of life!

It turns out theyre not as immortal as viral Facebook memes would have you believe.

The truth is far less scandalous.

It smells only of cardboard.

We did this experiment to show our patients how unhealthy this food is.

Especially for our growing children!!

There are so many chemicals in this food!

Apples, bananas, carrots, celery….those are real fast food.

My answer: Nothing.

Nope,nope,nope,nope.

McDonalds burgers aremade of the same stuff as any other burger.

The patty is beef with salt and pepper, full stop.

The buns are similar to packaged bread or hamburger buns youd buy at the store.

Yes, its food.

And yes, its also full of chemicals.

In case you missed the first day of chemistry class,everything in the world is made of chemicals.

Water is a chemical.

Protein is a chemical.

But itdoes not threaten your health.

Lets think about this line of reasoning for a minute.

And if growing mold qualifies something as a food, does that mean we can eat shower tile?

McDonalds Burgers Dry Out

The microbes that make food rot need water to live.

Thats whats happening here.

But you dont have to take my word for it.J.

Kenji Lopez-AltofSerious Eatsdid aproper experiment:

Well, well, well.

What does this mean?

It means that theres nothing that strange about a McDonalds burger not rotting.

Any burger of the same shape will act the same way.

And before you go blaming the salt, he included a salt-free burger as well.

That makes sense, since the larger one kept more of its initial moisture.

The dry burger lasted; the contained burger grew mold.

It turns out McDonalds burgers obey the same laws of physics and nature as any other burger.

The story with Twinkies is a little different.

Their alleged shelf life is the territory ofFamily Guy jokes, but there arent viral photos of petrified Twinkies.

Asindependent Twinkie expert Steve Ettlingertells NPR:

Perhaps disappointing to foodies, its mostly flour and sugar.

Real dairy and eggs would make the cakes spoil faster.

So Twinkiesdogo bad, and McDonalds burgers are no less edible than homemade burgers.

Microbes, like us, will eat them if given the chance.

Youre also free to say you just dont like the taste, or dont want to support factory farming.

Illustration by Fruzsina Kuhari.