Here Be Treasures

The Peanut is NOT a Nut

Sunday, November 30th, 2008 | food | No Comments

File this under “Things I am surprised to learn”. The peanut, another of those wonderful plants that we have South America to thank for, is actually a legume, hence the ‘pea-’ part of the name. How the peanut develops is actually quite fascinating, starting above the ground like a fruit, then burying itself and developing underground, like a vegetable. What makes this even more curious, is that someone with a peanut allergy might not actually be allergic to nuts, and vice versa. Curious and curiouser!

Learn more at the Wikipedia article on the Peanut.

The Truth About The 1996 McDonald’s Hamburger

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | attention seekers, crass, food | 1 Comment

There’s a lot of comment around the web about this McDonald’s hamburger from 1996. The blog publisher, who offers her services as a nutritionist, claims that she keeps it in a plastic box and takes it out every so often as a prop to demonstrate that fast food contains so much preservatives that the food can’t rot.

In itself it’s an interesting experiment, but she hasn’t kept anything else as comparison. However, reading her ‘bio’ started to creep me out:

My name is Karen Hanrahan. Many of my friends call me Mother Earth…you can too if you like.

No. That’s just creepy new age hippyism at it’s worst.

Anyway, back to McDonald’s. This reproduction of a 1995 McDonald’s Nutrition Information book claims that every burger patty is 100% beef, with no additives, fillers, binders, preservatives or flavour enhancers. That implies that the burger that Mother Earth Karen Hanrahan has in her little box has been preserved due to it’s natural high-fat and -salt content. Ms Hanrahan hasn’t provided any scientific analysis of this burger showing that it contains preservatives, nor does she have any other item for comparison that she has stored in the same conditions.

Need I point out that there are many natural conditions under which organic matter is finely preserved for thousands of years? Heck, even the holy sandwich needed no special treatment to survive. And before we had fridges, meat would be cured in order to store it for long periods of time.

Now, I’m not an apologist for McDonald’s, but producing a photo of a burger and claiming it’s from 1996 is just self-advertising.