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Chick-fil-A or Chemical-Fil-A?

Are you getting hungry just looking at this?

This week I posted a picture of the ingredients in a Chick-Fil-A sandwich on my personal and Food Babe Facebook Page– I was curious to see the reaction from my family, friends and Food Babe readers. I found that some people were shocked and some people downright didn’t care and even celebrated the deliciousness in Chick-fil-A’s signature sandwich. You see – The number (close to 100) and type of ingredients are typical for fast food and for many chain restaurants. If you eat out and eat at these type of places, you are feeling the effects of these ingredients, whether you realize it or not. Ever wonder why you have to dose yourself with caffeine after lunch to stay awake? Or have uncontrollable cravings? Or why no matter how hard you work in the gym, you still carry around 10 extra pounds? Or experience depressed moods? Or have joint pain? Or headaches? Or can’t clear up your skin? Or have asthma and/or allergies?

There are close to 100 ingredients in a typical Chick-fil-A sandwhich, majority of them with serious health consequences

I’ve already talked about some of the ingredients found in a Chick-fil-A sandwich – food coloring, refined grains, MSG, GMO Corn in past posts. I want to talk about some of the other preservatives here today. I honestly can’t believe that there are 18 (if I counted right and didn’t miss one) added chemical preservatives to this sandwich. The FDA allows food companies to add these preservatives in limited quantities, however, they do not prohibit companies from adding different preservatives all together by letting them combine different food items that make one big whopping dose. For example, let’s take TBHQ which stands for “Tertiary Butylhydroquinone” – an ingredient that is listed twice, once in the chicken and once in the bun. TBHQ is a chemical made from butane (a very toxic gas) and can only be used at a rate of 0.02 percent of the total oil in a product. Why is there a limit to this? Maybe because eating only 1 gram of this toxic preservative has been shown to cause all sorts of issues, from ADHD in children, to asthma, allergies and dermatitis to dizziness and even has caused stomach cancer in laboratory animals. Limiting TBHQ to a certain percentage, is the same logic the FDA made when allowing a product to still contain 0.5 grams of transfat and be labeled “transfat free.” If you are consuming processed foods, eating at fast food restaurants or chains that use processed foods you are consuming an overload of preservatives and other chemicals. The high dosage is a huge factor contributing to increased auto immune disorders, rising health care and cancer in America. I don’t eat out very often, it’s been about 11 days since I ate out. The reason for this is because when you make your own food, you see what goes in it, making me enjoy it ten times more. I want to feel the best I possibly can in life, with abundant energy and radiating vibrancy. I don’t want to feel sick, always with some aliment or some health issue to complain about. God forbid, if I ever got sick, I want to know I did everything I could to prevent it. When I grow old, I don’t want to burden my family to take care of me because I didn’t care of myself. I didn’t write this post because I was angry or mad at the people that celebrated eating Chick-fil-A after seeing how many ingredients there are. It’s the opposite. It saddens me that people choose to continue to harm themselves and their families by ingesting these chemicals after acquiring this knowledge. IMO, they are walking around half dead. I am, however, hopeful that my blog and leading by example, will turn the lights on in someone new and they won’t ever look at a Chick-Fil-A sandwich ever again.

Wishing you a healthy, long and joyful life!

UPDATES: If you really like Chick-fil-A and loathed me for writing this – Check out my organic homemade version. You have no excuses now. Click Here for the Recipe – Chick-fil-A Now Open on Sunday For a even more comprehensive look into this controversial fast food chain – check out my investigation called “Why Chick-fil-A?”.

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324 responses to “Chick-fil-A or Chemical-Fil-A?

  1. Chic Fila company prides itself of being a Christian Company, yet the ingredients they use are harmful to its consumers. Yes, many other restaurants do the same, BUT the difference between McDonalds and Chic Fila is that McDonalds does not boast itself as a Christian company.

    Christians are taught to love your neighbor as you love yourself, so serving food with HARMFUL ingredients is not showing LOVE to your fellow man and woman.

    1. Can, I get an amen! Road trip Chik-fil-a is how I discovered many of my food sensitivities. Their ingredient list became like a most wanted poster in the months to come in figuring out what other foods I should avoid. Nothing like your throat closing up mid “ABC game” with your kids. Thanks, chemical-fil-a!

  2. Hi, Vanilla,

    Thanks for the very informative article. Quite surprising and disappointing.

    I have been wondering if the chicken at CFA is fed anything that has been sprayed with pesticides; not that it would change my decision to no longer consume CFA– just curious. I have been unable to find that info anywhere. Thanks.

  3. I am wondering if Chic-fil-A has chemicals in the ice. I get ice only sometimes, and when some ice has melted, I drink the water. It tastes horrible, just like chemicals.

  4. I wondered why I started having intestinal and stomach issues when i ate Chic-fil-A regularly. I stopped it completely and just cant eat it anymore. I am glad someone is writing about it. Thanks

  5. Idk why but I was just curious to google is Chick fil La healthy “ because I literally just had some from the mall and I felt like I ate so unhealthy despite the promotion of it being 10x better than McDonald’s or burger. Sadly the gut feeling I felt was correct (no pun intended lol) .It’s to many chemicals for it to be even called food .Instead it should be named “A quick stop for delicious preservatives “ . My tummy usually always hurts after Popeyes or chick fil La now I am a 1000 percent certain on why. The pricing on the food can definitely lead you to thinking you are paying for quality food because it costs more than the average food chain like Wendy’s or White Castle….. Sigh eating in 7 days a week it is Thanks good babe 🙂

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