DeShazo and Bigler's work is published in the American Journal of Medicine. This is what they saw: 
 
 (University of Mississippi) 
 
 The nugget from the first restaurant (breading not included) was approximately 50 percent muscle. The other half was primarily fat, with some blood vessels and nerve, as well as "generous quantities of epithelium [from skin and visceral organs] and associated supportive tissue." That broke down overall to 56 percent fat, 25 percent carbohydrates, and 19 percent protein. 
 
 The nugget from the second restaurant was 40 percent skeletal muscle, as well as "generous quantities of fat and other tissue, including connective tissue and bone." That was 58 percent fat, 24 percent carbs, and 18 percent protein. 
 
 "We've taken a very healthy product—lean, white meat—and processed it, goo-ed it up with fat, sugar, and salt [in the breading]," he said. "Kids love that combination." So do non-kids. 
 
 DeShazo and Bigler's conclusion: "Chicken nuggets are mostly fat, and their name is a misnomer." That is, "because the predominant components aren't chicken." At least, not in the sense that chicken implies meat (not fat and skin). 
 
 "When chicken is processed, there's some chicken left on the bone," deShazo—who also hosts a wellness program on the local public radio affiliate— explained. "You can actually vibrate that stuff off, and you get these chicken leftovers, and you can put it together, mix it up with other substances, and come out with a goo that you can fry and call a chicken nugget. It's a combination of chicken, carbohydrates, and fats, and other substances that make it glue together. It's almost like super glue that we're eating. In some fast-food restaurants." 
 
 Chef Jamie Oliver made nuggets that way a few years ago on his television show Food Revolution, in front of kids, chopping and blending a remnant carcass. The feckless children screamed, but still asked to eat the nuggets. "We've brainwashed our kids so brilliantly," Oliver said, "that even though they know something is disgusting and gross, they'll still eat it if it's in that friendly little shape." 
 
 The National Chicken Council (NCC) is unimpressed by deShazo's work. "Chicken nuggets are an excellent source of protein," Dr. Ashley Peterson, NCC's vice president of science and technology, told Reuters. "Especially for kids who might be picky eaters. This study evaluates only two chicken nugget samples out of the billions of chicken nuggets that are made every year." 
 
 The NCC maintains, in an appeal to food nostalgia, "Mechanically separated chicken has been used in poultry products since 1969." What's more, emphasis theirs, "[Mechanically separated chicken] is NOT typically used in chicken nuggets or patties. Mechanically separated poultry is regulated and inspected by USDA and products containing it must declare it as an ingredient on the label. Mechanical systems prevent waste of nutritious meat and avoid the repetitive motion that would be required to perform close trimming by hand." ||||| NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Stand-up comedians have long joked that some things, like the actual components of chicken nuggets, are better left mysterious. 
 
 Recently, Mississippi researchers found out why: two nuggets they examined consisted of 50 percent or less chicken muscle tissue, the breast or thigh meat that comes to mind when a customer thinks of "chicken." 
 
 The nuggets came from two national fast food chains in Jackson. The three researchers selected one nugget from each box, preserved, dissected and stained the nuggets, then looked at them under a microscope. 
 
 The first nugget was about half muscle, with the rest a mix of fat, blood vessels and nerves. Close inspection revealed cells that line the skin and internal organs of the bird, the authors write in the American Journal of Medicine. 
 
 The second nugget was only 40 percent muscle, and the remainder was fat, cartilage and pieces of bone. 
 
 "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. 
 
 "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," deShazo told Reuters Health. 
 
 "It is really a chicken by-product high in calories, salt, sugar and fat that is a very unhealthy choice. Even worse, it tastes great and kids love it and it is marketed to them." 
 
 The nuggets he examined would be okay to eat occasionally, but he worries that since they are cheap, convenient and taste good, kids eat them often. His own grandchildren "beg" for chicken nuggets all the time, and he compromises by making them at home by pan-frying chicken breasts with a small amount of oil, deShazo said. 
 
 "Chicken nuggets are an excellent source of protein, especially for kids who might be picky eaters," said Ashley Peterson, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the National Chicken Council (NCC), a non-profit trade group representing the U.S. chicken industry. 
 
 According to the NCC, its member producers and processors account for about 95 percent of the chicken produced in the U.S. 
 
 "This study evaluates only two chicken nugget samples out of the billions of chicken nuggets that are made every year," Peterson said. A sample size of two nuggets is simply too small to generalize to an entire category of food, she told Reuters Health. 
 
 Two nuggets is a small sample size, deShazo acknowledged, and some chains have begun to use primarily white meat in their nuggets - just not the particular restaurants he visited. 
 
 "Chicken nuggets tend to have an elevated fat content because they are breaded and fried. But it's no secret what is in a chicken nugget - most quick service restaurants have nutritional information posted in the store or on their website," Peterson said. 
 
 "And every package of chicken nuggets in the grocery store by law contains an ingredient list and a complete nutritional profile, including fat content," she said. 
 
 The brief chicken nugget exploration was not meant to be an exposé of the chicken industry or fast food generally, but to remind consumers that "not everything that tastes good is good for you," deShazo said. 
 
 He and his colleagues chose not to reveal which chain restaurants they visited. 
 
 Consumers aren't necessarily being misled, since much of the nutritional information they need is readily available, he said. 
 
 "We just don't take the time to understand basic nutritional facts." 
 
 SOURCE: bit.ly/16Inpg8 American Journal of Medicine, online September 13, 2013.
– According to two University of Mississippi researchers, we shouldn't really call chicken nuggets "chicken." That's because the word "chicken" implies meat, and when the researchers dissected two nuggets (from unnamed fast-food chains, but the Atlantic says one was likely a McDonald's McNugget) and analyzed what they actually contained, well... One was 50% muscle (the actual meat) and the other half was mostly fat, along with some blood vessels, some nerves, and "generous quantities of epithelium [from skin of visceral organs] and associated supportive tissue." Totals: 56% fat, 25% carbs, 19% protein. (The breading was not analyzed in either sample.) The other was 40% muscle, plus "generous quantities of fat and other tissue, including connective tissue and bone." Totals: 58% fat, 24% carbs, 18% protein. "Chicken nuggets are mostly fat," the researchers conclude. Adds one, "We've taken a very healthy product—lean, white meat—and processed it, goo-ed it up with fat, sugar, and salt [in the breading]. Kids love that combination." He says he was "astounded" at what he saw, and compares the mix of ingredients to "super glue." Of course, the National Chicken Council begs to differ, with a VP insisting to Reuters that "chicken nuggets are an excellent source of protein, especially for kids who might be picky eaters." And one researcher concedes that some fast-food chains are better than others at using real meat; KFC and Chick-fil-A both claim their nuggets are 100% breast meat.