Recently I read a very interesting book called ‘The End of Overeating’ by David A Kessler. It’s an insightful look into why so many people binge eat. He talks about the fat / sugar / salt combination in modern processed food that is literally irresistible. As fat / salt / sugar were rarely found in nature, consuming them sends pleasure signals to the brain. In this day and age they’re easy to produce, combine the three and you have a recipe for compulsive overeating. Kessler mentions Kentucky Fried Chicken ‘Popcorn Chicken™’ as a typical example. I’ve been vegetarian for the last 20 years and recently became ‘flexitarian’ (look it up in Wikipedia) for a bit of variety. If I eat meat, I choose as ethically as I can. Hence, I had never tried Popcorn Chicken™. Was I missing out?
It was with a certain amount of reluctance that my curious other half Andy and I ventured down to the Leith Walk KFC. I had heard rumours of how it had been shut down before for not cleaning their deep frying filters. The smell when walking past is often quite awful, and I had never bothered going in. But now I had a mission, to find out why Popcorn Chicken™ is so popular and supposedly irresistible.
The mission started rather laughingly when neither Andy nor I knew what on earth to order from the menu – there seemed to be endless combinations of deep fried food and fizzy drinks. So we opted for the Deluxe Boneless Box™. The smallest we could buy had three bags of fries, two boxes of popcorn chicken, six pieces of boneless chicken (aka mini fillets), 1.5L fizzy drink, a tub of coleslaw and two pots of gravy. We both have healthy appetites so were confident we could polish the lot off. We had just sat down when our food was ready. “So quick!” we exclaimed to the rather bemused person behind the counter. Well, of course, it’s fast food, not cooked to order food.
Our tray was overflowing with brown items. Andy and I started munching away, and before I knew it I’d already eaten two of the crumbed boneless bits of chicken. Apparently they make them boneless so people can wolf their food down quicker. It brings to mind the Far Side cartoon of the boneless chicken ranch of a farm with flaccid chooks flopped all over the place.
I certainly didn’t notice the first two bits go down (I don’t think I had to chew), and so when I was on my final mini fillet, I tried pulling the crumbs off the chicken. It looked like chicken underneath anyway, but the crumbs wouldn’t come off, so I stuffed it down crumbs and all. It seemed strange that a whole meal was served without cutlery (except for plastic spoons for the coleslaw). Very Neanderthal. Normally I am a conscious eater, however when it came to KFC I found myself wolfing it down without thinking. Dipped in a sweet gloopy ‘gravy’ that was like no other gravy I’d had before.
Popcorn Chicken™ is a curious thing. I have no idea what part of a chicken is it’s ‘popcorn’, but it’s must be the squishiest bit. It was also very salty. Not that I noticed until I’d nearly finished the box and then started feeling really queasy. Even a paper cup of Tango (yuk) didn’t help. Somehow I’d eaten three chicken breasts and a box of Popcorn Chicken™ without noticing and it suddenly hit my stomach. I think there is definitely some truth in Kesslers fat / salt / sugar combo theory…
Clutching our bloated bellies, we stashed two of the three bags of fries, unopened tub of coleslaw and rest of the 1.5L bottle of Tango in my Real Foods carrier bag (oh the irony!) and headed for home.
Upon arriving home I drank many cups of water trying to rid myself of my salty tongue. It was like I’d swallowed lots of sea water. However we were determined to finish off the meal, so reheated the fries in our oven (I cheated and dabbed the extra oil off with a kitchen towel) and browsed the nutritional information from the KFC website at http://www.kfc.co.uk/nutrition. Unsurprisingly the ingredients weren’t online however the website reassured us that:
“GM Statement
KFC, Having listened to public concerns in the UK over the use of genetically modified foods, is happy to assure our customers that all items on our menu do not contain GM products.
In light of this, and in line with the current legal requirements on consumer products labelling, KFC is not required to label any of its products sold to its customers.”
How very comforting that KFC doesn’t want to reveal the ingredients unless they are directed to by law. It makes me think they have something to hide. And indeed the nutritional info made interesting reading. We couldn’t bear the thought of the coleslaw (lightweights that we are), so did some calculations instead. If we’d eaten the contents of the box between two of us, I would have eaten 60g fat (over 85% of my fat for the day), 1289 calories and 8.7 grams of salt. The maximum recommended level of salt per day is 6 grams. No wonder I felt I’d drunk the Atlantic ocean.
The conclusion? KFC is not real food! But I’m sure you knew that anyway. To find out more about how big food producers engineer processed food to encourage over consumption read the aforementioned book, “The End of Overeating” by David A Kessler.
