Month: August 2014

When people talk about using chemicals on the farm, oftentimes they use the word “pesticides.” To people outside agriculture, pesticides tends to be the catch-all category for any and all chemical compound we spray on our crops. And honestly, that is…

Charleigh Matice lost her appetite when she found a swastika made from butter on the bun of a chicken sandwich at McDonald’s.

Matice says she discovered the unappetizing symbol while putting mayo on a sandwich purchased at a McDonald’s in Morehead City, North Carolina.

“Is this a joke? Does somebody really think they’re funny?” Matice told WCTI-TV. “Many people died because of that symbol and it’s not something that should be taken lightly. It’s not something that should be thrown around.”

It was especially offensive to Matice, whose grandfather fought in World War II.

Although McDonald’s employees offered to replace the sandwich, presumedly with a bun not alluding to Nazi atrocities, Matice declined.

“I really didn’t have an appetite at that point so I said I rather have my money back,” she said, according to ABC News.

But Matice wasn’t satisfied with just the money, so she contacted McDonald’s corporate headquarters about her swastika bun beef.

Shortly after her complaint, she received a letter from Dulcy Purcell, the owner of the Morehead City McDonald’s, stating that the employee who allegedly put the swastika on the bun has been fired.

“We do not tolerate that kind of behavior at McDonald’s, and it’s not what we stand for personally as owners,” Purcell wrote, according to UPI.com. “It is about providing the best level of service and care to our customers, and anything less than that is unacceptable to us.”

Matice has since accepted the apology and plans to eat at McDonald’s again.

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There’s no shortage of horror stories about fast food: Chicken nuggets made out of bone-carcass-chemical goop; minced beef for tacos that resembles slabs of poop; sausages crafted from the blood and guts of pigs; a hamburger patty that looks exactly the same after sitting around for more than a decade.

In a food universe where the label “100 percent [insert name of preferred meat]” doesn’t necessarily mean what we think it does (makers of the controversial “pink slime,” for instance, have insisted that the product is “100 percent beef“), the actual contents of the meat products served at fast-food restaurants is sometimes a big mystery.

To highlight this gruesome phenomenon, visual artist Peter Augustus has launched a new project entitled “Mystery Meat,” in which he presents popular fast-food items — but with a deliberate (and grisly) twist.

(Story continues below.)

Augustus, who was born in Texas but now resides in Hong Kong, says it was, in part, his new home that inspired him to start thinking about food in a different way. “Arriving in Hong Kong for the first time, a city overloaded with visual stimulation, one of the most impactful scenes for me was the meat shops found in my neighborhood of Sai Ying Pun,” he wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “[In the West] most of us seldom see anything that even closely represents what kind of animal we are eating when we purchase it — it is always pre-packaged, nice and neat, showcased in an air-conditioned supermarket. Being forced to pass by these meat shops on a daily bases [sic] with their pig heads, intestines, eyeballs and hearts hung on hooks out in the open led me to challenge myself to view these shops as a normal place where actual food was being sourced every day, that ended up in my meal at a local restaurant.”

In his “Mystery Meat” project, which is ongoing, Augustus says he hopes to explore what seems to be the disconnect between many people in the West and the food they consume. His aim is to challenge viewers to think twice about where their meal has come from. “[With these photos] I hope to cause the viewer to take into account what the natural form of their food looks like. I think the work highlights a number of important debates, and it is not meant to be repulsive — just to raise awareness,” he said. “It also touches on the longstanding debate of the quality of chicken and meat products and the use of unnatural fillers and hormones in the animal products we eat daily.”

As for Augustus’ own eating habits, he told HuffPost that while he does eat meat, he avoids fast food. “I seriously doubt that the executives at America’s beloved chains actually eat their own products,” he said.

Augustus added that working on this project has definitely changed the way he approaches meat in his own life. “I now make an effort to know where and how the animal I am eating was raised and the results do dictate if I end up eating it,” he said. “Not to sound preachy, but I think if more meat eaters did that, I think there would be less animosity from overly passionate vegans.”

Morning meals are traditionally packed with empty calories. But substitute a few ingredients and you can enjoy the same tastes and textures with fewer carbs, more protein, and just as many pancakes.

My team at Men’s Fitness has compiled a list of ea…

Who knew a little dog could perform such an extensive balancing act?

In this video, the ever-adorable Maymo the Lemon Beagle attempts to balance a diverse array of 100 fruits and vegetables on his head in 100 seconds.

Although Maymo experiences var…

While Restaurant Week inspires a frenzy of reservation snatching from delighted deal-seekers, there are also plenty of diners who would prefer to stay as far away as possible from the crowded dining rooms and limited menus. Fortunately, Restaurant Week can also be a quieter time to visit otherwise packed places that aren’t participating in the promotion. Here are 15 Y&H-approved […]