Researchers Study Chicken Nuggets, Discover Very Little Chicken Meat- Gristle-y Discovery Of 50% Bones, Nerve Cells, Fat, Blood

Researchers studying chicken nuggets came to a gristle-y discovery.

Chicken nuggets are not meat, apparently-- or not as much meat as they should be, anyway.

Scientists took a close look at the chicken nugget and found that it's not full of what we might call "meat", per se-more, uh, meat-like products.

A new study, which was published online in September in the American Journal of Medicine-entitled, amusingly enough, "The Autopsy of Chicken Nuggets Reads 'Chicken Little'" had researchers study chicken nuggets.

The study's results revealed that two chicken nuggets from fast food chains in Jackson, Miss. contained only about half of what most people would consider actual chicken meat.

The first chicken nugget was about 50 percent muscle tissue, such found on the breast or thigh, which is what most people think of when they think of chicken "meat". The rest of the chicken nugget was made of fat, blood vessels and nerves, e.g. the cells that line the chicken's internal organs and skin.

The second nugget was only 40 percent muscle, and the rest was composed of fat, cartilage and bone.

Mmmm. Delicious.

"We all know white chicken meat to be one of the best sources of lean protein available and encourage our patients to eat it," lead author Dr. Richard D. deShazo of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said to press. "What has happened is that some companies have chosen to use an artificial mixture of chicken parts rather than low-fat chicken white meat, batter it up and fry it and still call it chicken."

Scientists conducted the research by preserving, dissecting, and staining chicken nuggets, then examining the parts under a microscope.

They didn't announce which chains the chicken came from.

However, the study shows that chicken nuggets are actually cheap chicken by-product made of salt, sugar, and fat-all of which rack up calories. And, DeShazo added, nuggets are marketed to children as healthy because they're tasty and inexpensive.

The chicken industry weighed in. National Chicken Council (NCC), a non-profit trade group representing the U.S. chicken industry, said to press that the study only looked at two chicken nuggets and that they are a good source of protein.

They added that if consumers want to know how much calories or fat is in the nuggets, nutritional information is readily available. However, nutrition information doesn't actually list how much of each component is in the nuggets.

DeShazo admitted that the sample size was fairly small and that some chains now exclusively use white meat in their nuggets.

What do you think of this? Are you surprised chicken nuggets aren't made of much actual meat? Sound off below!