Fury At Milk And Wheat In McDonalds' French Fries
Featured ArticleMain Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Allergy; Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 20 Feb 2006 - 15:00 PDT
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When McDonalds serves its French Fries, everyone believes they contain just potatoes and cooking oil - even people who are vegan (eat no animal product at all) or allergic to wheat. We trust the company and believe everything they say. Because that is what they have been saying - that their fries are gluten-free.
It has been revealed that McDonald's fries do contain an animal product - Milk. They also contain wheat. There are thousands and thousands of people around the world who are allergic to wheat (mainly because of the gluten in wheat). Surely, out of respect for people who get ill when consuming wheat, the company could have let us know that wheat and milk were being added to its French Fries.
So far, three people in the USA are suing McDonald's because of this.
Debra Moffatt, from Chicago, has celiac disease. She cannot consume gluten, which is present in wheat. If she consumes wheat she experiences serious gastrointestinal problems.
Mark and Theresa Chimiak have a 5-year-old girl who is gluten-intolerant. The little girl, Annalise, became seriously ill after eating French fries in McDonalds. Mark and Theresa, from Florida, are also suing McDonald's.
Nadia Sugich, a vegan, is also suing McDonald's. Vegans do not eat any animal products at all (vegetarians include dairy and eggs in their diet, vegans don't). Had she known the product contained milk she would not have touched them.
What many people find incredible is that McDonald's claimed its fries were free of gluten and milk. It has just added in its web site that its fries do, in fact, contain wheat and milk ingredients - now that people are starting to take it to court.
What is the consumer to do if claims made by fast food centers are completely untrue? How can a parent protect a child if that child has a serious allergy? One minute they claim something is not present, then they say it is after lawyers start saying they are going to be sued.
Now, McDonald's Vice-President is saying that wheat and milk were added to enhance the flavour of the French Fries. There is nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is not telling people about it. Even worse, is telling people there is no gluten in a product when there is - that is dangerous.
Apparently, there is a third ingredient we knew nothing about in McDonald's French fries - a trans fat.
Here are some comments from our readers:
"I am vegan. I have eaten their vegetable burger with fries for many years. I will never do it again. I really hope their vegetable burgers were animal free."
"I really do not know where to take my children any more. I thought these companies had to work under certain rules - rules laid down to protect the public."
"I cannot believe they would deliberately add a potentially dangerous ingredient and still claim their product is free of it. I cannot eat gluten, I get very ill if I do. Each time I go out to eat now, I am going to feel uneasy."
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
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11 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/38082.php>
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Visitor Opinions In Chronological Order (13)
Get Over It
posted by Mary Jane Peck on 20 Feb 2006 at 5:09 pmOkay so now we know! Milk and Wheat products are in the French fries...I am tired of the Whining. I am sure that if you check...Burger King, and all the fast food joints have similar issues. Did Mcdonalds...Lie...not sure...Maybe they just did not know.......Get over it!
Your child allergic?
posted by Mary Palem on 20 Feb 2006 at 8:51 pmDear Mary Jane
I challenge you to look after my son for a year. He is allergic to wheat and milk. I have taken him to McDonald's twice, and twice he has had to go to hospital because of an allergic reation - the second time his heart stopped. Fortunately, they managed to revive him.
Perhaps you are so crass that you think getting over this kind of thing is a typical American reaction - the ostrich syndrome so many Americans suffer from and we in the rest of the world have to put up with.
By the way - he has never had this kind of reaction in Burger King.
I suggest McDonald's pack up its bags and confine itself to American shores.
Eat fresh food!
posted by Sam Bartlett on 20 Feb 2006 at 9:19 pmI am very sympathetic with people who have allergies but I have no sympathey at all with 'vegans'. However, I don't know how anyone can take a child, let alone themselves, to McDonalds or any other 'burger joint' when it is so easy to prepare fresh, exciting, wholseome food at home in less time than it takes to go to McDonalds, and for the same or a cheaper price. I ate a hamburger at McDonalds in Tulsa, OK in 1976 and vowed that it would be my last! I know someone who broke a tooth on a McDonalds hamburger in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia!
a big con
posted by Scott Geller on 21 Feb 2006 at 3:41 amA cardiac arrest from eating fries....I don't believe this lady at all. I smell a scam....perpetuated by American lawyers who smell big money. Exactly how many micrograms of wheat are there?? Yes, micrograms. And milk??? If it's cooked it's protein structure is not the same. How many milligrams per portion?? And where are all the reports of these poor sick people before this 'horrible' thing was revealed??? 40 years of.......micrograms of wheat and milk........and no one even noticed?? How could that be??? I'm sure now many mothers will claim their kids had cardiac arrests........follow the money.
Easy for you to say!
posted by D. Lewis on 21 Feb 2006 at 3:47 amMary Jane & all,
You dont understand...Yes, BK & other FF joints have cross contamination issues with fries (they fry their chicken nuggets, etc in the same oil, so it gets contaminated with gluten), McDonalds was the only FF place that did not. Shouldn't parents of kids with allergies have at least ONE PLACE where we could take our kids, at least once in a while when we were too tired to cook!?
Yes, I know that fresh, home-cooked meals are better for my kids, and I have read all the moralizing within these comments about that recommendation. Believe me, being intolerant to both gluten and casein, I cook most everything for my son. But, once in a great while I would like a little break and be able to take the family out for a quick bite. I am not the biggest fan of Micky-Ds, but it was the only place the kept their oil "clean" of gluten. Now, we find out that the fries are not "clean" of gluten or casein.
My DS has had reactions the last several times he has eaten there...not thinking that there was a problem with McDonalds, I assumed that maybe he had a virus, or had picked something up at school. I have now finally put "2 and 2" together and realized what the problem was!
You have no idea how many kids like my DS there are...celiac, autistic, (or the myriad of other fast-rising developmental disabilities in this country) etc who are on gluten free-casein free diets! This is a major blow for us as families. And we are very tired families at that. Taking away this one, little break we get once in a while is a big deal!
You get over it and think about what it is like to be in our shoes. Do a little research! google GFCF diet, autism, celiac disease, and see what these kids/parents deal with on a daily basis!
Heart Problems And Celiac Is Real Not A Scam
posted by K. Aldrige on 10 Dec 2007 at 10:32 amMr. Geller,
No heart probems in association with people who need to adhere to a Gluten Free diet is not a "scam" as you put it or a myth.
There is a direct connection with Cardiomyopothy and heart arrythmias and exposure to wheat. I was in the hospital last year and almost died as a result of exposure to wheat, while i was there I met another patient who was diagnosed with cardiomyopothy (critical enlargement of the heart) in association with her wheat exposure.
As for how you measure the amount of wheat in a product it is done in parts per million or PPM for short and people with this problem cannot handle more than 200ppm, that is what was decided by the Federal Food and Drug Administration!!! Many people with this disorder cannot ingest milk as well. It is an autoimmune disorder and it has been around but not properly diagnosed for hundreds of years. It was once considered rare and obscure, when I was diagonsed with it in 1981 it was considered to effect only 1 in 500,000 people. The CDC now considers it to be 1 in every 100 people have it.
You need to educate yourself before you spout off and ridicule and put down those of us who live with this condition which is a serious and life threating disorder if exposed and left untreated.
why do you go to mcdonalds anyway
posted by tom orlando on 30 Jun 2010 at 6:03 pmI just do not understand people complaining about a ny fast food place, it makes no sense. You must know that this food is just sooo bad for you... I hear, I take my kids here, I can't take my kids here any more, where are we going to eat now.
I can't believe they serve this bad food and so on and so forth. HELLO! stop eating this crap or eat it, feed your kids this crap and then DO NOT complain when you and them get ill, obeast, high fat, cholesterol, doctor and hospital bills.
Listen, this food is disgusting, not wholesome, not real food, very very unhealthy, if you do not know this then you are just blind or don't care about you or your children. Stop saying "I didn't know" come on, how can you not know that a hamburger and fries is bad for you, no less fried and why would you even think that a fast food place is serving quality. Silly, just plain silly!!!
mcdonalds french fries
posted by jayson on 21 Sep 2010 at 11:42 am1st of all I frequent McDonald's once every 2 weeks as a treat for my 2 little ones,that being said whenever they eat the fries they get almost immediate diarrhea..anyone else have that problem?
mcdonalds french fries
posted by Poca on 29 Sep 2010 at 10:07 amWhenever on roadtrips I pull into mcdonalds... Sure its not so good for you but sometimes its the only food available on the road (wishing for a Veggie King). Every visit when my child would eat fries, he would begin coughing hysterically.... I just shrugged it off thinking he had problems chewing the fries. Now that I think of it he would always have increased phlegm after eating. Anyway... we just stopped giving him the fries because he always had such a hard time with them. I never would have thought milk AND wheat of all things.... My son is allergic to wheat and milk. Whats next? peanuts in burgers?
McDonalds as a treat?
posted by Julie G on 3 Oct 2010 at 1:53 pmI always find it odd that people take their kids to McDonald's "as a treat". Really - that kind of food is a treat?
Bottom line for me is that it's bad food and I have no expectations of it other than it will make me feel sluggish, fat, ill or all of the above. I don't expect much more of fast food joints - they are not (nor have they ever) been known for their nutrition. So stop going if you want good health and to feel good every day. It's like going to a porto potty at a rock concert and whining that it wasn't clean. Don't have great expectations of something with low standards. Take control over your own actions and stop patroning these places! If you are on the road, go to Panera or a quick stop at a grocery store for fresh breads, fruit and veg!
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