Study Shows Fast Food Burgers Can Contain As Little As 2 % Actual Meat

A study recently published in the journal Annals of Diagnostic Pathology determined that some fast food hamburgers may contain as little as 2 % actual meat(1). If that’s the case, what makes up the rest of it?

The purpose of the study was to assess the content of 8 fast food hamburger brands using histologic methods. Americans consume about 5 billion hamburgers a year, and most of the people eating them assume that they are comprised primarily of meat. Researchers also found the need to search for brain tissue, fortunately they didn’t find any.  Truth is, meat content within fast food hamburgers is very low. Here is a breakdown of what you might find in a fast food hamburger, according to the study:

• Water content by weight ranged from 37.7 to 62.4 percent, an average of 49 percent
• Meat content in the hamburgers ranged from 2.1 percent to 14.8 percent, an average of 12.1 percent
• Electron microscopy revealed the existence of preserved skeletal muscle
• Connective tissues
• Blood vessels
• Peripheral nerves
• Adipose Tissue
• Plant material
• Cartilage
• Bone

Fast food hamburgers are comprised of little meat (median 12.1 percent). Approximately half of their weight is made up of water. Unexpected tissue types found in some hamburgers included bone, cartilage, and plant material;no brain tissue was present. Sarcocystis parasites were discovered in 2 hamburgers (1)

Many  mystery ingredients in fast foods are often industrial chemicals. I wanted to post this to let fast food meat eaters know they aren’t really consuming much meat; and even the meat they are consuming very low grade. Billions of animals are murdered every year for the food industry. Our modern day food industry is not one that promotes health, but rather promotes sickness.  The industry will do everything it can to turn you into an addict, but in the end the choice is yours. Hopefully this inspires you to further investigate what you are actually putting into your body on a daily basis. It’s time we start asking ourselves, what are we REALLY eating?

Sources:

(1) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1092913408000622

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18995204