Damaging "Poison" found in popular Fries.

Published on February 19, 2006 By Janders In Current Events

Link

I read the above article this morning in SHOCK. I have celiac disease that requires I stick to a strict gluten free diet. McDonalds has been representing their fries as gluten free for years.
I probably eat their fries 3 times a week. I am so upset as I am finding today they contain gluten! This after double checking several times a year that the fries were gluten free.

I have been having trouble keeping on weight. When I eat gluten it causes damage to my samll intestine, which results in malabsorbtion, and weight loss. I have been dropping a pound here and there, and am now down to 95lbs. For someone who is 5'8" that is not a good thing.

I am so angry to find that McDonalds has been secrectly posioning me. No wonder I can't gain weight. There poision gluten containing fries have been eating away at me. To hide such a dangerous ingredient is irresponsible and wrong.

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Comments (Page 1)

Trudygolightly

on Feb 19, 2006

Do you have any plans to wite to the corporation Janders? or the newspaper?
Alerting the media isn't such a bad idea.

Good Lord, what a blow to your health!

Trudygolightly

on Feb 19, 2006

Do you have any plans to wite to the corporation Janders? or the newspaper?
Alerting the media isn't such a bad idea.

Good Lord, what a blow to your health!

Trudygolightly

on Feb 19, 2006

Do you have any plans to wite to the corporation Janders? or the newspaper?
Alerting the media isn't such a bad idea.

Good Lord, what a blow to your health!

bakerstreet

on Feb 19, 2006

Hold up. Milk and wheat products aren't poison. I understand your problem and I sympathize, but in reality if McDonalds handn't claimed that they weren't gluten free, you'd never be making this point. Most people don't have problems with gluten, so in reality you can't call it a 'damaging poison'.

This is like people with MSG allergies. I understand the need to know what is in food, and I think McDonald's was wrong to claim the fries were gluten free if indeed they knew they weren't. Hyping this as poison doesn't make much sense, though, does it?

To me, stories like this are asking for action in return from McDonalds. Dairy isn't poison, it just happens to be something like and allergen to you.

Janders

on Feb 19, 2006

Hmm... Gluten causes severe burns to my small intestine, and can result in you basically dying of malnutrition....

While Gluten may not be a poison to all, to those of us with Celiac, consuming it on a regular basis can result in malnutrition and even death.

I am using poison in a figurtive sense not a technical.... It causes severe damage to me. The same way somone may say a certian type of music is "poisoning" a generation. Get it?

As far as most people not having a problem, Wheat is one of the top 6 allergens, and one in every 133 people has a gluten intolerance... to me thats a lot of people.

bakerstreet

on Feb 19, 2006

No I agree, I have Crohn's disease, and through that I know people who have Celiac as well. I understand how harmful that can be to you. If they wanted to have these ingredients in their fries, they wouldn't be poisoning people, though.

The problem is you had an assurance that it didn't, and it is heinous that they would mislead people. I'm not excusing them or downplaying your suffering at all. I think the implication here for some people may be, though, that this stuff shouldn't be in food at all. That McDonald's is wrong to sell anything but gluten-free fries.

Instead this is a matter of a false statement concerning the ingredients. It isn't the gluten, it is the claim of the product being gluten-free. That's why I think maybe the poison thing doesn't ring true, even figuratively.

If you think restaurants should be forced to remove gluten from their food, that's a different matter entirely.

Janders

on Feb 19, 2006

I don't think restraunts need to remove gluten, far from it. But don't add it to food and not tell people. It's dangerous.

Janders

on Feb 19, 2006

I don't think restraunts need to remove gluten, far from it. But don't add it to food and not tell people. It's dangerous.

bakerstreet

on Feb 19, 2006

With that I agree wholeheartedly. There's just a lot of people floating around out there that believe that restaurants should cater to everyone with their food. I didn't think you meant that, but your title made it seem like the gluten shouldn't be in their food at all.

I hope something good comes from this. MSG is a huge problem, too, when restaurants buying ingredients from vendors and not even realizing what they were selling had it in it. Businesses need to know that their claims are accurate before making them. I hope this teaches them a lesson. There was a big hubbub in India a while back when they found out that the fries had beef products in them after they claimed they didn't. You'd think they'd have learned.

KarmaGirl

on Feb 20, 2006

Well, that's just another reason not to eat at McDeath's.

If you have a food allergy, or have food choices (like being vegetarian/vegan) your best bet is to not eat out very much and to prepare as much food from scratch as possible. It's really the only way that you can really know what is in it.

Restaurants are supposed to disclose all their ingredients, but I doubt that few do.

DJBandit

on Feb 20, 2006

I feel for you. But I can never understand why people who can't eat certain things would eat out at places like McDonalds and Burger King. I mean they are already known for getting you fat and being bad for your health, why would you risk eating there when you have an allergy problem. How can you really besure what you are eating simply because they tell you what they have in it? How could you trust a company whose soul idea is to make money and will try anything to make it, even lie as McDonald has a few times already.

If I had some kind of allergy to certain types of foods or ingredients I would not be eating outdoors unless it was a restaurant where I know the owners and cooks and would trust in them not serving me something I can't eat if I request it and they are willing to make it. And yet I would not make it a habit either. It is just too risky.

So I have to say that I would not only blame McDonalds for lying but I would also blame you for taking the chance knowing what kind of company McDonalds is and the lies they have said before about their food.

JMO. Still you should do something about it. Make a claim, talk to a lawyer, send a letter to your senator or something. Just don't sit there and stop eating McDonalds as if that solves the problem. Like I said, JMO.

Gideon MacLeish

on Feb 20, 2006

But don't add it to food and not tell people. It's dangerous.

I might add, McDonald's ALSO claimed that it was no longer using TFA's (trans-fatty acids) to fry their fried, but this, too, turned out not to be true.

There's a difference between selling unhealthy foods to the consumer and doing so after you've claimed to change them when you haven't. Because McD's has claimed to make these changes but hasn't, there IS a problem here.

KarmaGirl

on Feb 20, 2006

Because McD's has claimed to make these changes but hasn't, there IS a problem here.

I'm sure they only made the claim to boost sales. What do they have on their menu that isn't unhealthy in any way?

I also had to chuckle at the cnn report where one lady (who says she doesn't eat any animal products) is suing because she found out that the fries have dairy in them. I thought it was a fairly well known fact that they use beef stock as a "natural" flavor. So, now that she knows it also has dairy it becomes an issue? It's not like McD's cares about vegetarians/vegans. Why would somebody who is against animal product use support a place like McD's anyway?

Caracarn1

on Feb 20, 2006

Are you a twin, my roomate is and he cannot have gluten either, he said it was most common amongst twins. Not sure if this is true or not.

But I agree with you, if they say that there is none, there shoudn't be.

Even ice cream shops have to warn you that there are peanuts about now a days.....why should this be different. I bet you could get some gluten free dough out of them.

Janders

on Feb 20, 2006

also had to chuckle at the cnn report where one lady (who says she doesn't eat any animal products) is suing because she found out that the fries have dairy in them. I thought it was a fairly well known fact that they use beef stock as a "natural" flavor. So, now that she knows it also has dairy it becomes an issue? It's not like McD's cares about vegetarians/vegans. Why would somebody who is against animal product use support a place like McD's anyway?

That I agree with (your opinion not the cnn lady) What at Mcdonalds is Vegan. Nothing.

As far as pp telling me to make all my food at home, and that I am to blame for eating there ect, ect.

I NEVER said McDonalds was a healthy place to eat (im not that stupid), but it is the LAW to disclose allergy information. I am asking them to follow the law.
I think it unfair to tell me eat at home all the time. Why do we eat out? COnvience, socialazation and entertainment are a few reasons. Why should I not get to enjoy that like everyone else. I already have to live wiht a chronic illness, I guess I should not be allowed to eat where you do.

Like Gideon pointed out. I am by no means asking restraunts to make food gluten free, I am asking them to disclose ingredients so that I may enjoy the limited food choices I have.

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