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Friday, June 1, 2012

McDonald's Cherry Berry Chillers - Clean Eating or Another Wolf In Sheep's Clothing?


     Couponers love free stuff. A few weeks ago, there was a coupon ( above ) in the Sunday Parade magazine for a free McDonald's Cherry Berry Chiller. Of course, the couponers have been going nuts to get their hands on these things.

     Now, given what we know about raspberry flavoring,  I thought "Ha, Ha, beaver butt" and went looking online for the ingredients to show to one of the couponers I know who is trying to get as many of these coupons as she can.

Here are the ingredients I found online:


        Cherry Berry Flavored Juice Blend Base

Ingredients: Water, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, natural flavor (botanical source), colored with fruit and vegetable juice, cherry puree, raspberry juice concentrate, citric acid, xanthan gum.


Wow - this drink might actually be Clean! water, fruit juices, real raspberry juice. Huh!

Then I saw the nutritional data. All you've got in there is frozen fruit juice and water. 200 calories? 49 grams of sugar? From where? The fruit juice may add some natural sugar...but NOT 49 grams worth.

 200  Calories  
1g Protein  
0g Fat (0%)
49g Carbs (16%)
25mg Sodium (1%) 

Calories from Fat 0 Dietary Fiber 0g (0%) Calcium 25mg (2%)
Saturated Fat 0g (0%) Sugars 49g Iron 0.5mg (2%)
Trans Fat 0g Vitamin A 0IU (0%) Vitamin C 0mg (0%)












Then I saw it. 

Ingredients: Water, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate, natural flavor (botanical source), colored with fruit and vegetable juice, cherry puree, raspberry juice concentrate, citric acid, xanthan gum.

Sugar comes from a plant. It's a flavoring. It's natural. It's from a botanical souce. Those sneaky S.O.B.s hid the sugar under the guise of "natural flavorings." !!!

If you bothered to look at the ingredients in a Cherry Berry Chiller, you could be fooled into thinking this new drink was quite wholesome. Another example of Fast Food / Large Food Conglomos manipulating data and misrepresenting information to make their product appear healthier.

Drinking this is the equivalent to eating 49 packets of sugar. Gak!

McDonald's Cheery Berry Chiller is a wolf in sheep's clothing - and a great example for beginning Clean Eaters to start really thinking about their food - start examining and questioning the labels of what you are eating, and really understand what you are consuming.