The Wild Wild Wild West of School Lunches #6: Corn Dogs

Yesterday I thought I'd take a chance and eat school lunch. Most days at this particular school the offerings are actually somewhat healthy. But when I wandered into the kitchen I was greeted by the sight of an enormous pan of corn dogs.The idea seems fun, perhaps even sound. A hot dog dipped in corn batter seems innocuous. I love cornbread. I love healthy hot dogs.What harm could there be in that? It it was just cornflour and meat, it might be okay but like the rest of our industrial supply things are never quite that simple. I quickly changed my mind about partaking of the school lunch. On the way of the kitchen I spotted several boxes that the corn dogs had come in.

I became curious.

Making sure nobody was looking,and sneaking around like a thief, I secreted the contraband box up to my office and started reading.This is what I found. This is the complete ingredient list:

Enriched flour:( wheat, malted barley niacin iron, thiamine mononitrate) ,ribolflavin  folic acid sugar, yellow corn,Enriched degermed yellow corn meal:( yellow corn meal, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate), riboflavin,folic acid, Sodium acid pyrophosphate.Soybean oil,Salt,Egg yolk,Potato flour,Egg white,Dried honey,Artificial flavor,Fried in vegetable oil

Chicken

Mechanically separated chicken

2% or less corn syrup solids,

 potassium lactate: , sodium lactate, spices, sodium phosphate, sodium diacetate, flavorings ,sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite: 

CONTAINS WHEAT SOY EGGS AND GLUTEN

Hmmm.

In addition to having an inherent mistrust of "brown" food I have come to wholeheartedly mistrust  the food substitute  known as "mechanically separated chicken." Years ago when I was evolving into an enlightened omnivore I ate chicken sausage because I thought it presented a healthy alternative to beef. Eventually, however, I started  wondering what "mechanically separated chicken" looked like. I envisioned an entire chicken going into the poultry industry equivalent of wood chipper beak first with feathers, beak and feet included.

I wasn't that far off.

Mechanically separated chicken is all that stuff left over after the chicken has been butchered. It's ground into a paste and various fillers and binding agents are added to make it appear to be meat. But by law it cannot be labeled as meat. Another mystery solved. If you've ever eaten a chicken leg, think about all the various parts that are meat like (gristle and small bones). That's the stuff that goes into your corn dog, Mcnuggets and almost all other industrial chicken products.

So that's the "meat" part of your school's corn dog.

With my personal guidelines on reading labels I quickly discarded the notion of enjoying a tasty dog: With a product like corn dogs, the first two ingredients should be something like meat and corn flour. For the intrepid epicurean, however, I took the time to research some of those strange sounding names in the ingredients list. I noticed that the manufacturer (eating note: when you refer to a food supplier as a manufacturer rather than a grower or farmer, take caution) took great pains to highlight Wheat, Soy, Eggs, Gluten which might actually be the healthiest part of that tasty treat. These products are highlighted to warn people with allergies and intolerances to those substances. Strangely the manufacturer felt no need to warn us all about five different types of salt in their product.

For the curious, here are some of the highlights of what I found:

sodium nitrite: "The jury is out on how harmful these substances are. Sodium nitrite reacts with stomach acid and other chemicals in the stomach to produce nitrosamines, which have been shown to cause cancer in animals when consumed in large quantities.

Sodium bicarbonate "contains a large amount of sodium. If you are on a sodium restricted diet or have high blood pressure talk to your health care professional before taking sodium bicarbonate."

Sodium acid pyrophosphate :
Ingestion:
Causes irritation to the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Phosphates are slowly and incompletely absorbed when ingested, and seldom result in systemic effects. Such effects, however, have occurred. Symptoms may include vomiting, lethargy, diarrhea, blood chemistry effects, heart disturbances and central nervous system effects. The toxicity of phosphates is because of their ability to sequester calcium.
Skin Contact:
Causes irritation to skin. Symptoms include redness, itching, and pain.
Eye Contact:
Causes irritation, redness, and pain.
Chronic Exposure:
Chronic ingestion or inhalation may induce systemic phosphorous poisoning. Liver damage, kidney damage, jaw/tooth abnormalities, blood disorders and cardiovascular effects can result.
Aggravation of Pre-existing Conditions:
Persons with pre-existing skin disorders or eye problems, jaw/tooth abnormalities, or impaired liver, kidney or respiratory function may be more susceptible to the effects of the substance. 


Yummy!


I don't wish to bore you with all the grim details of the rest of the ingredients but I encourage you to research one or two and see what it does to your body.Post your findings in the comments section. I tend to shy away from ingredients that include the word "pyro." Isn't that slang for someone who like to set fires? "Phosphate?" Isn't that the stuff in laundry detergent that causes all the problems in our water supply? Why is there so much salt? What does "degermed" mean? Enriched" means that they take all the good stuff out and put other stuff in.I don't know. Maybe I just have too many questions.

But let's end on a positive note. It is possible to enjoy a healthy corn dog.