Whatever you do, steer clear of the iced coffee!
Lately, I have come across several blogs/boards and articles on people getting ‘the runs’ after having an Iced Coffee from McDonald’s, so I decided to investigate. Turns out this ‘iced coffee’, as they like to call it is really $1.79 worth of cleverly disguised chemicals. They should actually pay you to ingest this stuff!
Right off the Mc.Donald’s website is a listing of ingredients in their Vanilla Iced Coffee:
Premium roast coffee, light cream (skim milk, sodium phosphate, sodium polyphosphate, DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, sodium citrate, carrageenan), vanilla syrup (Sugar, water, fructose, natural (plant source) and artificial flavor, caramel color (with sulfites), potassium sorbate (preservative), citric acid, malic acid
If that’s not enough to make you sick, here’s a quick breakdown of some of the offending additives:
sodium phosphate: is used to treat constipation and to clean the bowel before surgery, x-rays, endoscopy, or other intestinal procedures. Sodium biphosphate and sodium phosphate enemas are also used for general care after surgery and to help relieve impacted bowels. AH HA!!
sodium polyphosphate: used as an emulsifier, leavening agent, to prevent color/flavor deterioration of foods, to improve performance of detergent, as a whitening agent
DATEM (Diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglyceride): used as an emulsifier
sodium stearoyl lactylate: emulsifier, stabilizer. A solid powder irritating to eyes and skin, and hazardous in case of inhalation.
tetra sodium pyrophosphate: used as a buffering agent, an emulsifier, and a thickening agent, and is often used as a food additive. when ingested it can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Sodium citrate: an anti-coagulant. Adverse reactions include: diarrhea as an adverse reaction. It should also be “used with caution in patients with cardiac failure, hypertension, impaired renal function, peripheral and pulmonary edema, and toxemia of pregnancy.”
Need I go on? It seems pretty clear to me that this toxic sludge is something that needs to be avoided. How can selling this stuff for human consumption even be legal?? I’d be interested in hearing if anyone has experienced any side effects from drinking one of these?
7 Comments
I’m ashamed to admit it but I have periodically rewarded myself with one of these iced coffees (the hazelnut one to be exact) on my way home from the gym after a hard workout. I didn’t piece it all together until having read this. Within the hour of having finished one of these drinks I always found myself running to the washroom with loose stool. I just always thought that my body didn’t react kindly to caffeine, but I so enjoy the taste of this affordable coffee drink. This has shed a new (sad) light on my post workout reward. Does anyone have a healthier, yet still coffee alternative?
Comment by Suzie on June 10, 2009 at 9:41 pmSuzie
That is very disgusting, but really when you think about it, how about all that other processed junk that is out there. Have you seen the ingredients of a twinkie.
Comment by Zae on June 11, 2009 at 7:16 pmthank god i have never tried these nor will i. i like my coffee hot and black.
Comment by Tommi on June 14, 2009 at 8:24 amIs it only McDonald’s iced coffee that does this? I came across this because I was doing a search as to why I get a diarrhea attack every time I drink iced coffee but not with hot coffee. I have been treating myself to a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee about once a week and each time had the attack. Last night I tried Tim Horton’s to see if it was just DD and had the same result. Now I keep reading about McDonald’s and wondered if it is all the same reason?
Comment by Jayne on August 7, 2009 at 6:50 amIt’s interesting that you bring that up Jayne. I will occasionally treat myself to a Tim Horton’s Iced Cappuccino so I went on a quest to find the ingredients. The Tim Horton’s site doesn’t divulge much so I called them. They told me that they use 100% real cream (18%!) and mix it with water, sucrose, coffee extract (similar to vanilla extract- could be extracted with alcohol), nat/art flavor.caramel color. I’m not sure about their iced coffee what it definitely be worth a call. Please share any findings with us here.
Comment by lea on August 7, 2009 at 7:53 amI am so grateful i was able to look this up on the net. I also love the drink but was under the impression that the caffeine was giving me the runs…….not only did i suffer from that, but also nausea to the point that i was so physically exhausted………i will no longer be able to drink these…….thanks for the info
Comment by kathy on January 24, 2010 at 6:23 ami used to drink it everday and would have terrible diarrhea it was bad so i decided to look on the internet after i quit drinking it for a week then went and got one and had to run to the bathroom so i decided to search to see if anyone else had this after consumption and found all this info its been about a year since i had one and no more diarrhea it should be illegal to sell this so called drink
Comment by lisa on June 25, 2010 at 6:27 pm