Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

What’s Hiding in Your Fast Food?

October 27, 2023 By The Editors

By ShutterOK @ Shutterstock.com

What’s hiding in your fast food? Not nutrition, according to Dr. Joseph Mercola. Mercola explains on his blog, Mercola.com, that fast food is loaded with antibiotics, hormones, and heavy metals but little in the way of nutritious value. He writes:

While high amounts of linoleic acid (LA) is one of the primary reasons why processed foods and fast food are so bad for your health, contaminants like veterinary drugs, antibiotics, hormones and heavy metals — combined with inferior amounts of essential nutrients — are other highly-ranked reasons to steer clear of.

8 of 10 Fast Food Meals Contain Veterinary Drugs

In September 2023, Moms Across America (MAA) submitted food samples from 10 fast food chains to the Health Research Institute, a nonprofit laboratory that tests food for nutrient content, contaminants and toxins. Each food sample was tested for the presence of 104 of the most common veterinary drugs and hormones. You can read the certificate of analysis here.1

Fast food restaurants sampled included McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Dunkin’, Wendy’s and Domino’s. Of these, only Chipotle and Subway tested negative for veterinary drugs.

This isn’t all that surprising, considering most chain restaurants rely on beef and chicken from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where veterinary drugs are routinely used. As explained by MAA:2

“Due to large, industry, confined animal feeding operation conditions, which include extremely close quarters, unsanitary spaces, and high incidence of disease, most of America’s nonorganic meat comes from livestock that is heavily treated with antibiotics, growth hormones, and an anti-parasitic which is also a known aviary contraceptive.”

6 of 10 Contain Potentially Risky Antibiotics

Six of the 10 fast food samples (Taco Bell, Dunkin’, Wendy’s, Domino’s, Burger King and McDonald’s)3 contained a veterinary antibiotic ionophore called monensin, which is not approved for human use as it can cause severe harm. The sample with the highest concentration (Taco Bell) contained 0.64 micrograms (mcg). The “acceptable” daily intake is 12.5 mcg/kg of body weight per day.

Monensin also has a number of side effects in animals, including anorexia, diarrhea, depression, ataxia, degeneration of heart and skeletal muscles, necrosis and death.

The antibiotic ionophore narasin, which has the same side effects in animals as monensin, was found in 4 of the 10 samples (Wendy’s, Dunkin’, Domino’s and Starbucks). The highest concentration, 1.53 mcg, was found in a Wendy’s cheeseburger. The three others contained only trace concentrations. The “acceptable” daily intake is 5 mcg/kg per day.

Both monensin and narasin are toxic to dogs and horses and can cause paralysis of the hind legs at extremely low levels. They can also cause acute cardiac rhabdomyocyte degeneration and necrosis in beef and dairy cattle. The reason they’re used in cattle is because they encourage weight gain. MAA commented on these findings:4

“Moms Across America is gravely concerned about our population, especially children, unknowingly eating unprescribed antibiotic ionophores livestock, even at low levels, consistently because of potential damage to the microbiome as well as the risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria growth.

We question if the side effects of these ionophores in dogs and horses, leaving their hind legs dysfunctional, might be related to millions of Americans presenting with restless leg syndrome and neuropathy, conditions unknown to most humans just a generation or two ago … Until proven safe, we urge our regulatory agencies, such as the USDA and FDA, to disallow the use of these drugs in our livestock.”

Read more here.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Food Inc.
  • Food Born Bacteria
  • Food Shortages
  • World's Most Complete Food
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
The Editors
The Editors
The Editors
Latest posts by The Editors (see all)
  • Are California Politicians Abetting the Violence? - June 11, 2025
  • Democrats Slowly Realizing Transgender Campaign Was a Mistake - June 9, 2025
  • Memorial Day Remembrance - May 26, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money
  • FARM AMERICA: New York City’s Finest Cheesemongers
  • How Can You Maximize Natural Immunity to Viruses?
  • BEYOND RUSSIA: America Strengthens India Ties to Counter China
  • Your Odds with Statins: 500 to 1?
  • Mises and Rothbard Finally Get Their Due
  • Americans Must Demand an End to the Welfare-Warfare State
  • You Need to Seek Some Shelter for When Things Get Ugly
  • The Four Most Important Words in Investing
  • BLOOD THINNERS: Is a Big Advance Imminent?

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Whoa, Hang on Here. There’s Trouble in Culver City
  • Is Salt Bad for You?
  • RON PAUL: Can Musk and Trump Reconcile?
  • $25 Million Down; $175 Million to Go
  • Saving Western Civilization
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #19: A Teacher for Life
  • No More NSAIDS for Back Pain?
  • There Are Only Two Ways to Cut Entitlements
  • The Federal Reserve Finally Killed the Penny
  • Ukraine’s Attack Underlines Need for Trump-Style Border Control

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Graduating from Work to Retirement Special Bonus: God Only Knows
  • US Secures LNG Export Deals Worth $200 Billion
  • High-Voltage Cable Crunch Hits Global Electrification
  • May PPI Lower than Expected
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #20: Life in Reverse
  • US Inflation Eases to 0.1% in May
  • DOE Focuses on Nuclear and AI Innovation
  • Trump Delivers Lower Inflation and Rising Wages
  • Natural Gas Power Growth Slows, but Big Gains Possible by 2028
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #19: A Teacher for Life

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Graduating from Work to Retirement Special Bonus: God Only Knows
  • Private Equity: Moody’s Warns There’s Ample Cause for Concern
  • Your Survival Guy: Castle Hill, Newport
  • Containerized Missiles and the New Rules of War
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #20: Life in Reverse
  • America’s Silent Army with 423M Guns
  • Top 10 Reasons to Own an AR-15
  • Graduating from Work to Retirement #19: A Teacher for Life
  • Can Luxury Ride AI to Success?
  • Market Timing Could Be Hazardous to Your Portfolio

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives