Food Theory: The Many Lies of McDonalds Chicken Nuggets

Thanks, Mat, not even seen the intro yet and already see something I can’t unsee, I just wanted to eat my nuggets in peace without worrying about how they are shaped

I'm enjoying a 20 piece box of lies as I watch this! Mmmm
FYI: I agree that the "boot" is the best. It fits in the dip cup the best

In the 90s, when I was a kid, I was really turned off of McDonald's, because my chicken nuggets always, without doubt had a chewy piece of gristle or bone in it. I finally stopped eating them all together when I finally got a beak in one... And I haven't eaten McDonald's chicken nuggets since.

I was 24 years old when I first tasted chicken nuggets. I always thought they looked kinda dry and disgusting. Was quite surprised to find they're rather tasty.

By 9:33 I finally realized that a portion of my brain was *not completely on board* with what's being taught today.
It started with the sudden thought of
"Wow...nuggets sound disgusting from the description of how it was made, but gosh does it taste decent enough to eat.....I haven't had those in a while..."
and now I'm at:
"Should I get McDonald's for dinner?"

This is the only guy I can watch go in depth why chicken nuggets are a lie, I love this channel

When I was really young, I assumed I was the only person getting nuggets at McDonald's while everyone else was getting burgers. I held it close to me as if I held some "ahead of the curve" secret.

Something interesting about the McNugget was that they originally couldn’t find a supplier but then hedge fund manager ray dailo hooked up both of them. He is the reason that there is a McNugget today.

Phew, for a second there matpat, I thought you were going to overlook Key's omission of evidence that disproved his hypothesis. Many people ignore this. They refuse to consider the possibility that beef and milk don't cause heart disease, for some reason

They taste awesome so that's enough reason for me to keep eating them.
And since I'm not eating a lot of McDonald's in the first place I'm not that worried about anything.

I remember the food pyramid. It was taught to us in school during elementary. I do want Matpat to make that video about how wrong it is.

I liked K-rations when I was a soldier in the 1980s. That was during the time that MREs were first being introduced. If we were going out patrolling carrying backpacks then a weeks worth of MREs left no room for spare socks or underwear. Quartermaster started giving us expired K-rations that were dehydrated, very compact and lightweight. All great when you are carrying them for miles and miles. I thought they tasted great if enough Tabasco was added.

MatPat, you don't "overgrow" a food item, you "outgrow" them.

I once received a whole box of these. The air fryer makes these taste even better. My wife worked for the company that makes these.

I used to make McDonald's nuggets in a factory so I can say right now it's not the actual chicken that is the problem. It's the batter that is strange. The only bag I ever saw that doesn't state the ingredients on it and needs to be stored in the cool room... I always found it quite strange

matpat as a 6 year old: "ooh chikin nugies"
matpat watching himself as a 6 year old: "STOP EATING CRISPY LIES"

In college I was part of a group that did research on the Mediterranean Diet. Studies have found that the foods in the diet lead to "reduced oxidative stress" (reduced being relevant only when compared to the modern American diet of mostly red meat and dairy) oxidative stress is basically what causes aging, it boils down to oxygen atoms causing damage to DNA in cells. Our cells have a lot of extra DNA to reduce damage done this way, called telomeres, and when those telomeres start to take so much damage that they become too small to protect our genomes, we start getting side effects of aging.

The food pyramid wasn't created until 1992. Before that it was simply the four food groups. But MatPat doesn't have to be 100% accurate, I suupose.

Where your food comes from - I mean how it’s bred, fed, housed, processed, etc - is all important. Beef should not be demonized. Mass manufacturing of animals should be demonized. Meat grown by your local ranchers and farms is not the bad stuff. It’s the stuff you buy commercially that was raised improperly that is hurting the environment and bad for your health...

I remember reading a Canadian news article that said McDonalds chicken (not just the nugz) weren't 100% chicken but had 20 percent "mystery" filler that the McDonald's corporation refused to identify.

I would consider myself a Mcdonalds fan and as addressed at 0:16, the boot nugget is supposedly a favorite. The boot also happens to be my favorite because when flipped upside down, the protruding piece of chicken can be used as a handle when dipping. I hope my opinion has shed some light on the reason that Boots are the public's favorite shape.

The boot used to be my favourite (before I went vegetarian) because it was easy to scoop the last bit of sauce out of the pots

And yet the real dietary villain, SUGAR, isn't mentioned once.

McNuggets were actually created by a French chef named Rene Arand who was the first executive chef McDonald's ever hired to design a food. He also went through hundreds of different sauce creations before landing on the main three.

I always watch food theory when I'm having lunch. Why? because it's the only time I can watch these videos and not actively crave what's on-screen. if I'm already eating I can watch it peacefully

As someone literally called "nugget" I am happy to announce MatPat has said nugget in a video over 25 times!

Had to pause this half way through, didn't know you were doing more than Game Theory now. Just wanted to say this is an insanely nice very well done video my man, great editing and research on the topic

I could count on one hand how many times I have had chicken nuggets in my half a century of life.

I refused to eat nuggets as a child because no-one could show me which part of the chicken a nugget comes from.
I still refuse to eat them.

I'm about to drive my way to McDonald's drive through and order me a 10 or 12 piece chicken nugget order with a large sweet tea and rewatch this whole video again. Now that's priceless.

Here’s a question: would gingerbread really make a good life sized house? And if not, what food or combination of foods would make the best house?

I enjoy eating chicken nuggets for nostalgia, but I was always aware while eating them that they were unlikely to be fully (or even mostly) chicken. Kind of like you know that grape soda is not made with grapes. It's all just tasty junk.

This was great. If you haven't already, you should do a video on margarine too.

With regards to Keys's not publishing his data that contradicts his main theory, it should be pointed out that it could be as much due to the publishers and not the researcher. In order for a researcher to publish their findings, they must first find somewhere (typically a peer-reviewed journal) to publish it. They can't just unilaterally will it or make it happen and instead, must rely on the publisher must first agreeing to publish the material. It is known that there is a bias towards publishing positive findings (i.e. findings that are statistically significant) rather than findings that aren't; in part due to there often being more material being submitted than the journal and publisher can publish.

I love Chicken Nuggets from Macdonald's. It's easily one of my favorite meals, and if I could eat them each day, I would.

Makes you wonder how many people are going to keep eating McNuggets after watching this

I chose to stop eating nuggets when I was a pre-teen as I had a couple that had some cartilage or bone and had heard some stories of other people finding that kind of stuff or worse in them. Never looked back.

every time I watch food theory I find something new about food and it annoys me because I never look at food the same way after I watch a food theory video

I learned how nuggets were made back in the early 90s still my favorite item with dipping souce I dont care how they are made does not stop me from loving them

this is so well done and condensed. great video

Speaking of health lies, I bought a breakfast muffin from the supermarket recently because it said “healthy” in the title. I looked at the label when I got home and… yeah… It looked exactly like the labels on my usual doughnut or sugary cereal. Can you put the word “healthy” on ANYTHING? Are there no guidelines? Just wondering if I can say I have a “healthy” diet while wrist deep in my second Pringles can.

What about the shredded chicks? I thought it would be addressed but I still wonder if it's a myth or not. I remember this one video going viral and since then the general consensus seems to be that they're made of shredded chicks.

Great video - I still love good beef but I'm more concerned these days of how environmentally wasteful it is - the amount of water and food a cow consumes for that delicious protein is very inefficient .

Ah yes the standard that if it has some percentage of real food in it its "Healthy"

speaking of sweet and sour sauce, they switched up their packaging and im pretty sure they switched up the recipe as well because it tastes wayyyy different.

Fun fact about the 7 countries study: it was a scam. He started with dozens of countries and threw out all the ones that didn't fit his preconceived notions.

I already knew that mcnuggets were never really food but the animation is too cute and funny to pass up. If it came to starvation versus mcnuggets I'll become a vegetarian.

I love Chicken McNuggets! Maybe once or twice a year I will eat them to get that fix in and then feel guilty for doing it.

Actually, I never really liked the mc-nuggets so I don't have a found memory. Not that McDonalds taste great anyway( aside from the breakfast)

Well, honestly I never knew Chicken Nuggets were supposed to be a healthier option. I thought a lot of people just liked chicken. If anything, I have to admit... I like having a burger and nuggets instead of a burger and fries. That is, sometimes I would replace the fries with nuggets rather than the burger.

When I worked at McDonald’s I loved how on the ingredients it said ( chicken parts ).

I think you should do a video on different regions and how different areas’s people sort of evolved to better take adapt to it. Like how some do better with more red meat in their diet vs how others do better with more fish.

I love how his picture of the steak isn't bright red like we see in the supermarket.

Ansel Keyes was a charlatan and a liar. Meat is the healthiest food you can eat. Cholesterol is not bad.
Carbs, sugar and seed oils, not to mention overeating and eating for fun instead of health are the main problems.

I'm surprised he hasn't done a food theory yet about that weird controversy about how what was
"Inside" The nuggets

I live how he just subtly and casually announced ‘Science Theory’ at 6:02 and no one’s even realized

One time I was eating a chicken McNugget and when I was chewing I chewed on something hard….. never had a nugget since and it’s been years

Thank you, Food Theorists, for exposing the lies. Someday you need to look into what makes Ronald such a creepy clown. (He is in The Creepy Clown Hall of Fame, you know, the one I just made up...because someone had to!)

"And no amount of sweet and sour sauce is going to make this one taste any better"
Me: oh yeah, I'll bet on that! (Puts tiny chicken nugget in a giant bowl filled with 30 gallons worth of sweet and sour sauce and drinks the whole thing)

The longevity of Italians actually has nothing to do with health or diet.
It’s the fact that so many elderly Italians lost their birth certificate and misreport their ages.
There’s a neat video here on Flash-Player explaining the facts

I don't have any rebuttals or denials or personal stories other than this: These videos are awesome!

Problem with your thesis, the Filet-O-Fish had been on the menu since 1962. I will admit that Chicken McNuggets were the first serious attempt to market a non-beef to kids. Really enjoy seeing how "nutrition" in the US is largely marketing. You should work in the public schools. You can serve kids ANYTHING! Just as long as it says "whole grain" on the label.

I once ate 50 of these suckers in one sitting...and when I was done I was still hungry for 50 more So I ate 50 more.
To be fair, I'd just recovered from the flu and was absolutely famished.

My favorite nugget shape is the ball. Id love to request a 10 piece chicken nugget with just the circle nuggets

"Santa invented Sprite" this and "McDonald's chicken nuggets" that. *I* wanna know how you get the peanut butter in Reese's cups to be like that. Like, it's not in the form we usually see peanut butter in (smooth and sticky); it's a bit crumbly. And yet it tastes SO good. I want answers to what kind of magic happens in getting the peanut butter inside the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

I WAS JUST TAUGHT THIS IN FOOD TECH YESTERDAY THANK YOU MATPAT I ALREADY KNEW ANSWERS TOO QUESTIONS :D

"it's almost like sharing all of the information both for and against your hypothesis is important for the education of the masses"
Yet, here we are in 2022 still acting like the science is settled on our most pressing issues. No wonder the public is so hard to convince, they've seen this all before.

Mat: everyone remembers eating a chicken mcnugget
Me, a fricking vegetarian: Hah, I wish

I miss the early 80s nuggets that were made with dark meat and came in the yellow styrofoam box with the tray for the sauce

I honestly wish Mat would have a History Theory Channel, especially since there's less people caring about history nowadays. Alot of misleading things also. So, ima start a
Day 1 of asking MatPat to do a History Channel
If anyone has a good history channel that similar to how MatPat does he's channel plz tell me as well

i watch this channel bc i can hear about all of mcdonald’s conspiracy while seeing jokes from brokeback mountain the range is just incredible

I recently found nuggets exactly like these in my local frozen food store. Same shapes & everything. £1.59 for 20 - bargain.

I guess that explains the McMarlboro they had for a while🤔🤣. Another winner MatPat

Dipping them in the honey sauce makes them healthier!😋

As much as I love their chicken nuggets their old nuggets were even better (around 2003 or before) I remember they changed at least their oil and I think their nuggets too to be slightly more healthy. Ofc the older less healthy version tasted even better.

i’m one of those people who goes like “i dont care what its made from, as long as it tastes good, im eating it”

You would have to pay me to eat and swallow a chicken nugget from McDonald’s. Me and my wife have never tried McDonald’s nuggets we figured we would give it a try and see but upon chewing we spat it out immediately. So my question would be why are they nasty to us… we’ve tried veggie nuggets and surprisingly those were good 👍
We like chicken nuggets but just not from McDonald’s 🤮

Interesting, except I felt sure that the video would've touched on the nuggets having plastic and/or rubber in them. Perhaps they don't, but that's what I've heard

I liked the older McNuggets, before the so called healthy improved one. Wendy's has awesome nuggets along with their honey mustard dip mmm mmm mm, BK is good too.

I've recently started working at the uk McDonald’s branch and I can confirm the hash browns, fries, chicken nuggets, doughnuts, brownies and cheese dippers arrive frozen there stocked in a giant freezer that is kept at -20 degrees, everything takes 2 minutes to cook in the fryer, the apple pies takes 5 minutes to cook, the brownies are delivered frozen then thawed out and packed up before breakfast menu ends
The bottled drinks such as orange juice, water, milk, and fruit drinks are kept in a giant fridge at -12 degrees,I have seen the new vegan patties (beyond meat patties) being cooked and they smell like something is burning it reeks

The sweet-and-sour sauce with fishing legs made me laugh

One of my favourite things as a child was my mum wouldn’t let me get McDonald’s unless I had this one friend came over so every time she came we always got McDonald’s

The cholesterol in a burger vs. chicken nuggets reminds me of turkey bacon vs pork bacon. Turkey bacon has more cholesterol than pork bacon in the same serving size. More sodium too, I think.

I really miss the old McDonalds dark meat chicken nuggets from the 80’s and 90’s.

I worked at McDonald's back in the 90's, while I was in high school. In the freezer I would see the boxes of the McNuggets and it listed the ingredients. I never counted how many ingredients there were in them, but I was surprised at how long the ingredient list was. The strangest ingredient I remember seeing on the box was Alaskan Cod. Never could get a straight answer out of anyone why fish was one of the ingredients to the McNuggets.

Me: so Mat nuggets taste good enough to eat?
Mat: yeah
Me: so they are clearly fine to eat around every week?
Mat: yeah?
Me: the world won’t be destroyed if I eat them
Mat: well actual-
Me: NO IT WONT

McDonald: When you want to do something, sometimes you end up doing something completely different.

The thumbnail made Me want some McDonald's chicken nuggets 😋

I do have this weird memory of having eaten nuggets made from normal chicken meat as a kid but apparently it couldn't have been McDonalds since they've always been meat paste.
Can't find such in the store either so I don't know if they actually exist.

Yeah, I've seen these shapes before. But I've also had a boot with extra bumps in it, making it look like a chicken, a ball that was perfectly round, and a boot and bowtie attached, making It an 11 piece box. Basically what I'm saying is that I've gotten weird shapen chicken mcnuggets.

I never liked all of the $hit that McDonalds put on their burgers, so I loved when McNuggets were introduced.

....but I didn't know that lies could taste so got dam delicious though...🤤🤤🤤

I was a bit skeptical about 7 minutes in to try to figure out where you were going with this, but you tied it all up nicely in the end. good job on the video, and you were funny as heck!

Wait if the cholesterol study was so impactful that on diets in 50s, why did beef continue to surge and peak in the 1974?

I still somewhat like their nuggets but the thing is, they're always selling a very large quantity of them for very cheap. The chicken isn't of high quality and has a lot of additives. I'm not a massive stickler for those things per se, but I do raise an eyebrow every time I see thosr 20 or 40 nugget deals for dirt cheap.
They used to have their buttermilk tenders a few years ago, which were made to order (I always had to pull up and wait for them). Those were absolutely delcious, especially with their ranch dressing. You could get them covered in barbecue sauce as well, but those to me weren't as good as just the hot chicken by itself and dipped into the sauce. Wish they'd bring them back because the nuggets are not nearly as good as those.

In my WHOLE life, i only got 1 happy meal.
I live at Brazil, so these are REALLY expensive. Honestly it didnt even taste that good :(

Am I having a false memory or did they once use a mix of light and dark meat in McNuggets?

In spite of this I drove to McDonalds as soon as I started the video I paused it and got Chicken Nuggets AND MADE SURE THEY LASTED THOSE 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. YOU CAN NEVER TAKE THESE NUGGETS AWAY FROM ME.

It is interesting how alcohol and cigarettes were never even considered in these early studies when we knew at least that alcohol can cause issues with all sorts of organ failures. Smoking should have been a common sense observation, but the world was addicted and didn't want to know anyway.

I am sitting in the McDonald’s parking lot, just ate a 20 piece nugget. This should be fun to watch. I’m sure there is absolutely nothing here that will make me regret ordering those chicken nuggets