Review

Eaten in a slurry

FAST FOOD FACTS: A SURVIVAL GUIDE TO THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE REALLY UGLY OF FAST FOODS
Tim Lobstein
Camden Press, £4.95

Tim Lobstein of the London Food Commission spent three years sifting through dustbins and company reports to glean information on an industry that hides behind a ‘curtain of silence.’ He acknowledges fast food can be convenient and cheap, but argues that consumers deserve a better deal.

’Lean meat’ beefburgers might contain gristle, sinew and ‘mechanically recovered’ offal slurry. Yellow dye, not egg, colours fish batter. Chips are often fried in beef fat and dipped in sugar to speed up browning. Breaded chicken and fish contain mono-sodium glutamate. A Wimply large milkshake contains the equivalent of 13 sugar lumps, and a MacDonalds’ cola has 21.

One manufacturer admitted: ‘If we didn’t add colour to our soft drinks, the customer would see that they’re just sugar and water.’ Packed food now has ingrediant labels, but fast food does not.

Frightening facts emerge. Of 100 children born today, 95 will have dental decay by age 15, 49 will eventually die of heart disease. With saturated fat a leading cause of heart disease, high-fat fast food is a prime culprit.

Nutritional analyses of common fast foods are given, with pointers towards the healthier ones and suggestions on how to balance your diet.

The wooing of children by Ronald MacDonald type fantasy figures is dwelt on, as is the destruction of the ozone layer and the distortion of third worold agriculture to grow crops for multinational food chains.

US consumers have forced firms to disclose more nutritional information, indirectly bringing improvements — MacDonalds USA now uses vegetable oils and has introduced salad bars. ‘What you can do’, the last chapter, gives addresses and suggestions on how we in the UK can apply pressure as consumers. A fascinating, useful book, to be dipped into constantly.