prAna: Sustainable Clothing

If you’ve ever forgotten about a piece of fruit on the counter or some veggies in the fridge, then you are fully aware that food rots. Bread, when left on the counter, will begin to show signs of mold in less than a week. On the contrary, non-food items generally do not rot, although they may decompose. For example, a paper bag will decompose in one month, and a wool sock will decompose in one year. Knowing all of this, it’s pretty amazing that a hamburger I purchased at McDonald’s seven years ago still exists without mold, insects or stench.

Why on earth might I have an old McDonald’s burger? Back in 2004, I was taking some classes on nutrition where we talked a lot about food and diet. I started wondering about what kinds of chemicals and preservatives exist in the food we eat. At that time I had already shunned fast food; I had read Fast Food Nation and I understood that fast food is full of chemicals and preservatives.

In August of 2004, I purchased a plain McDonald’s hamburger with the goal of seeing how long it could last just sitting in its bag. The burger smelled delicious, and I thought about how the aroma had most likely been manufactured in a plant just off the New Jersey turnpike. I took the bag into my house and stored it in a desk drawer.

The hamburger’s aroma dissipated within the hour, and I didn’t take it out of the bag until a week later. The burger looked exactly the same as it had the day I bought it! Amazing. I put the burger back into the bag and forgot about it for another month or so. When I checked it the second time, it had the same appearance that it did on day one. I noticed that the hamburger no longer had a scent.

How could a hamburger be left out, unrefrigerated, for over a month and not smell or have any signs of mold or bugs? My dog came in the room when I had the hamburger sitting out, and she didn’t even notice it was there. Huh?

Seven years later, I still have this hamburger. It has become dry and brittle. It flakes apart easily when I move it. But still there are no signs of mold, bugs or decay. I am pretty sure that if I don’t touch it, this hamburger will last forever.

I looked at the McDonald’s website to see what is in their food. The burger, they claim, is “100% pure USDA-inspected beef, no fillers, no extenders. Prepared with grill seasoning (salt, pepper).” I’m guessing they used a lot of salt, and thus the burger is preserved after all these years. The bun is another story. The ingredient list for the bun includes:

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Wow. I can’t even pronounce some of those words. Monocalcium phosphate and sodium propionate just don’t sound appetizing. Did you know that ammonium chloride is used as an ingredient in fireworks and safety and contact explosives?

This experiment was done out of curiosity but the impact on my eating habits has been tremendous. I wonder what happens to fast food that isn’t eliminated from the human body? Does it sit there for the rest of your life? I look at processed, chemicalized foods and know that my body probably cannot digest them fully. Our bodies weren’t made for this stuff. We haven’t had enough time to evolve into bodies that can fully process these chemicals. Maybe, in a thousand years, our bodies will know how to handle a McDonald’s burger, but not today. We need to eat whole, natural foods – fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains. We need food that our bodies know how to digest.

This seven year-old burger will continue to sit in its original packaging in my desk drawer. Who knows, seven years from today I may be giving a “Burger Update!” In the meantime, I’ll be eating fresh, natural, organic fruits and vegetables, nuts, beans and whole grains, knowing that I am giving my body the nutrition it needs to be healthy and strong.

~Julia Kalish, prAna Customer

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