The chicken nugget has become one of America’s most popular mystery meats. They’re cheap; they’re easy; they’re fast. Nuggets may end up killing you off later on in life, but in the mean time chicken nuggets are ever so convenient and easily welcomed into our bellies. Chicken nuggets are among the most favored foods of bratty and messy toddlers, worn-out mothers who don’t want to do any real cooking, and hopeful house pets waiting for a nugget to be dropped on the floor.

It’s no news that nuggets are of the most criticized foods on the market due to the fact that no one seems to be certain about what the Hell they consist of. There are so many nugget questions: What planet did they come from? How’d they get their shape? Did the chicken exercise when it was alive? Is there actually any chicken in this nugget? What secrets lie underneath all this breading!?

Some very curious researchers from Mississippi decided to take a close look at the interior of chicken nuggets in order to see what they may be hiding. The researchers decided to examine the insides of nuggets from two fast food chains. Via microscopic examination, the researchers found exactly what you would expect to find in any delicious, addictive fast food: stuff that sounds absolutely disgusting outside the context of a nugget.

Researchers found that the nuggets contained fifty percent muscle with much of  the rest of the nugget consisting of fat, blood vessels, small pieces of bones, cartilage, and nerves. In place of producing nuggets of the preferred white meat chicken, companies have settled for producing nuggets from chicken parts and then neatly wrapping them in cozy coverings of fried batter. Yum.

As if you didn’t know already, the chicken by-product found in many nugget brands  is high in fat, sugar, and salt, and thus is extremely unhealthy. However, regardless of their nightmarish components, these meaty concoctions are extremely tempting and delicious and have the taste potential to remain a preferred food for hungry Americans.

Video via Youtube.com

Image via Wikimedia Commons