BY DAVID STEINMAN

So, how did I end up lost somewhere off California’s Highway 101, with three hungry kids in tow, desperately searching for a place to eat that wasn’t fast food and wouldn’t make me feel like I was betraying everything I believed in?

“I should’ve packed more snacks,” I admitted to my partner as we pulled away from the historic Mission San Antonio de Padua—nestled deep within miles and miles of sandy valley land.

The visit was part of the twins’ fourth-grade curriculum of California history. But while the Mission’s isolation preserved a sense of authenticity, it also meant no restaurants, no gas stations, and not a single store in sight. Just the 18th-century adobe fading in the rearview—and a backseat full of hungry cubs.

Dust swirled around us as wind gusts rocked Rupert—our black 1999 4Runner with protective grills over the headlights—carrying us back toward civilization.

“We’re really hungry, Dad,” groaned Sharla, my eight-year-old daughter.

“Let’s get Indian food,” suggested Spense, the oldest.

“Yeah, curry in a hurry!” Hunter chimed in.

“Do we have any water?” Sharla asked.

“I should’ve packed more water too,” I sighed.

We lumbered into Soledad. The brightly glowering, glimmering drive-thru signs of McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s lured us into the fast food jungle. In the moment, I felt like the only parent in the world concerned more about chemicals than calories, carbs, or convenience.

But I’m not alone. According to Food Safety News, seven in ten parents report concern about unsafe chemicals in their children’s food. And yet, despite parents worrying more, our kids are eating less healthily than ever. In fact, more than one-third of children and teens eat fast food on any given day. That uptick brings with it a heavier load of hormones, phthalates, bisphenols, toluene, benzene, and PFAS—also known as “forever chemicals.”

How can I feed that to my cubs? Fast food beef ranks among the worst in the world. Almost all the beef for chains such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s is “from cattle ranches right here in North America,”—a phrase that sounds reassuring until you consider that most US cattle are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and routinely treated with growth hormones.

Eating fast food numbs our children to the realities of factory farming and blurs their understanding of right and wrong. We know in our heart of hearts that farm animals deserve to be treated humanely. But fast food is the ultimate stealth desensitizer—serving up sickness in kid-friendly packaging.

Strip away the marketing and what you’re left with is a beef patty of indeterminate estrogenicity (due to synthetic hormones) fit between two slices of a distinctly unnatural white bun loaded with organophosphate pesticide nerve toxins that were developed from chemical warfare in Germany in the 1930s.

According to the FDA’s Total Diet Study—an annual assessment that monitors nutrients and contaminants in the core foods consumed by Americans, from infants to adults—researchers detected 386 chemical residues in just forty-four fast food samples. Among the worst offenders? The all-American favorite: the Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

Each bite of a quarter pounder with cheese had close to nine chemical residues, including notably high amounts of pesticides such as DDT and related compounds that mimic estrogen in the human body.

Beef tacos and tostadas didn’t fare much better. According to the same FDA study, they carried 334 chemicals in the forty-four samples tested, including pesticides and even traces of packaging materials.

“Dad, did you hear me? We’re starving!” Sharla cried out. “There must be something you’d approve!”

We found a green and yellow sign that screamed Subway. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination but at least it wasn’t the disaster that most of the fast food chains we passed would be.

We trooped inside, huddled up against the cold wind.

Hunter wanted the cold-cut combo, but the meat was cured with nitrite—a common additive in processed and cured meats that is converted into cancerous nitrosamines in the body. Sharla asked for the BMT—which stands for bigger, meatier, tastier, I learned. Nitrite was present there too. Spenser wanted to go with turkey, a smarter choice.

The kids yielded to my swift attempt at an educational sermon and ended up getting turkey and chicken breast—all nitrite free. Also, no dressing. They got their sandwiches with sliced avocado, oil, and vinegar—all relatively safer.

Once back on Highway 101, leaving behind the valley, we rose in elevation. The mountains were all around us. The cubs were asleep. My partner was smiling, and everything was okay. While the meal was far from ideal, it turned into a valuable lesson about navigating and minimizing exposure to toxins—and sometimes, that’s good enough.

A Family Protection Plan

If you find yourself in a similar situation as mine, the following fast-casual options may offer safer choices to keep in mind:

• Shake Shack operates more than 370 locations across North America and globally. The company has made public commitments to humane farming and sources meat from animals raised without antibiotics or added hormones.

• BurgerFi is another chain prioritizing animal welfare. Their beef comes from cattle raised without hormones or steroids, and they maintain humane-farming standards. With over 120 locations—they offer a promising alternative to conventional fast food.

• Panera Bread features a relatively low-toxin menu and adheres to animal welfare policies that prohibit antibiotics, hormones, and growth stimulants. Their clean-label commitment also excludes artificial preservatives, sweeteners, and flavors from most menu items.

• Chipotle has thousands of locations and remains one of the better-known brands for sourcing higher-quality ingredients. They prioritize meat from animals raised without antibiotics or added hormones and use organic produce “when possible.”

If these chains aren’t available and you must pull in someplace, here are a few simple ways to make sure your kids eat as healthily and safely as possible considering the limited options:

• Substitute with poultry. No hormones are approved for use in raising poultry in the United States, making it a generally safer bet than beef. Poultry is also leaner, which means it accumulates fewer fat-loving chemicals like DDT. According to the FDA’s Total Diet Study, turkey tends to carry lower levels of chemical residues.

• Skip the nuggets. Whenever possible, opt for grilled over battered. That crispy coating may be tasty, but it’s also a sponge for organophosphate (OP) pesticides. Chicken nuggets, according to the FDA’s Total Diet Study, were found to contain 266 toxic chemical residues across forty-four samples.

• Fish sandwiches didn’t fare much better—battered versions contained 199 chemical residues in the same number of samples. But don’t blame the haddock; much of the contamination stems from the batter itself. When it comes to fast food, no chicken or fish should be eaten breaded.

• Give French fries to the enemy. French fries (“cancer sticks”) round out one of the highest toxic fast foods with 321 chemicals detected in just forty-four samples. In addition to pesticides, fast food fries are a source of the industrial carcinogen acrylamide.

According to FDA testing, fries from Popeyes and Fuddruckers had the highest acrylamide levels. If your kids are craving fries, baking them at home is the safest option.

Fast-Food Packaging

Fast food itself is problematic—but what it’s packaged in can pose equally serious risks, often harboring hidden chemicals that are easy to overlook.

My friend Brenda Hampton learned this firsthand. She grew up in the town of Courtland, Alabama, along the Tennessee River. There was once a time her stretch of the river teemed with life—home to more than a hundred species of freshwater mussels. In those days, divers could earn as much as $500 a day harvesting them.

But in the 1960s, 3M built a sprawling plant along the river and began producing fast food packaging and other goods using PFAS chemicals. These substances, designed to repel grease and moisture, came with a hidden cost: they turned out to be hazardous to both the ecosystem and human health.

“The mussels all but disappeared by the 1990s,” Brenda told me.

“Many of the divers who once made a living from harvesting them have long passed or are still dying in their sixties and seventies from river cancer.”

Brenda’s children, nieces, and nephews—and many residents throughout the town—began experiencing kidney disease and cancer.

“It seemed like there was a new kidney dialysis clinic popping up on every corner,” Brenda lamented.

It wasn’t until 2016 that Brenda learned her home’s water had been contaminated with PFAS for over forty years. The upstream plant, which was using PFAS for manufacturing oil-, heat-, and moisture-resistant containers for the fast-food industry, was contaminating the river that provided her family with their drinking water.

In 2018, she joined with the nonprofit activist group Toxic-Free Future and Change.org. After sharing her story online, the public responded with seventy-five thousand signatures for a petition demanding McDonald’s stop using PFAS in their packaging.

McDonald’s finally relented in 2022, pledging to phase out PFAS from its packaging by 2025.

PFAS Exposure—and What You Can Do About It

So how much PFAS is in our children’s bodies from fast food containers? That depends—on how often they eat fast food and which establishments they frequent.

A 2019 study found that PFAS levels in human blood were significantly higher among individuals who regularly consumed fast food and takeout pizza, compared to those who primarily ate meals prepared at home.

In 2021, Consumer Reports tested fast-food packaging across restaurants in Connecticut, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, and Texas, measuring levels of total organic fluorine—a marker of PFAS contamination.

The results, published in 2022, were troubling: packaging from dozens of major takeout chains and supermarkets contained measurable levels of fluorine, suggesting widespread use of PFAS laced materials in burger wrappers, salad bowls, plates, and bags—even from companies that had claimed to phase them out. If you plan to order takeout, there are simple steps you can follow to make the experience safer and healthier for your family:

• Bring your own container (BYOC). Use stainless steel, glass, or polypropylene takeout containers instead of the styrene and PFAS-infused options you still usually get.

• Some states like California give consumers the right to bring reusable takeout containers into restaurants. Most restaurants value your business and are happy to accept your containers. I also have reusable mugs in our car for the kids when we order hot and cold takeout beverages.

• Shop smart. DeliverZero.com is the go-to website for the growing network of conscientious takeout and restaurant delivery services offering reusable, PFAS-free containers. ForeverWare.org partners with eateries in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New Hampshire to supply takeout in reusable, PFAS-free containers.

• Vote with your dollar. If you plan to have takeout, opt for restaurants that are committed to using PFAS-free packaging, including Shake Shack, Sweetgreen, Chipotle, BurgerFi, and Panera.

My daughter, Sharla, brought home Shake Shack burgers for us to share as a treat. A lot of what we tell our kids when they’re young seems to make no impression on them. Then, one day, they surprise you.

She set the burgers on the table, and our muddy-pawed collies gathered around, instinctively taking their usual spots. Black-and-white snouts slid into strategic positions, their eyes locked on us with well-practiced sympathy. That burger piled with sweet onions felt special to share with my daughter.

“You got Shake Shack?” I said to Sharla with a mixture of surprise and satisfaction.

“Yeah, after you telling us that we were going to get all contaminated by the burgers we really love, I thought I’d get these. I figured it would make you happy and cut short the lecture.”

“And if you were getting a burger for yourself?” I asked.

Sharla took a bite of the burger and thought about it. “I don’t feel like I’m missing out. It tastes good and we’re not eating junk—so, win-win.”

Sometimes, fathers and mothers really do know best. And trust the collies—they know a good treat when they smell one.

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David Steinman is the author and coauthor of the groundbreaking bestsellers Diet for a Poisoned Planet and The Safe Shopper’s Bible. He was featured as one of the experts and activists in the HBO Max documentary Not So Pretty.

His investigative reporting and writing have won awards from Best of the West, California Newspaper Publishers’ Association, Sierra Club, and the Green Book Festival. He serves as director of the nonprofit Healthy Living Foundation, a public interest environmental and consumer advocacy organization that takes legal action and litigates on behalf of consumers and the environment.

Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Chemical Toxins by David Steinman. Copyright © 2024 by David Steinman and reprinted with permission from the
author.