13 Fast Food Items You Should Reconsider Buying

Written by: M

Fast food restaurants are full of food that is literally designed to turn people into addicts. Do you really think that it is meant to sustain human life? Just think about the intent behind their existence. People all over the world are starting to be more conscious about the food that they eat.

Ultimately we do have a choice, but it’s also confusing as to why these foods even exist given how bad and toxic most of them are and how they promote so many different diseases. They are often littered with junk and chemically altered for this purpose alone, despite a number of these foods being proven to be detrimental to human health.

You never really know what goes on behind the cash register in some restaurants. Some horrible things go on behind the scenes, and the food we are served isn’t always what we really think it is.

What should we not order at your restaurant, and why not?

NOTE: According to the Huffington Post, none of these claims have been verified but they received thousands of them. Some of these are quite disturbing but not that surprising at all.

1. Anything From the McDonald’s McCafe Menu:

 “I work for McDonald’s and make sure everyone that matters to me never orders anything that comes out of the ‘McCafe’ machine as these are routinely neglected in practically all the McDonald’s. Not only are staff not properly trained in the cleaning and maintenance, at almost every McDonald’s I’ve had experience with, the managers in charge of training them don’t know f*** at all either… All McCafe beverages run through a horrifically dirty machine – we’re talking 5+ inches of uncleaned, liquid bullshit making up its inside parts. ” –Envirometh

I personally would not recommend eating anything at McDonald’s.

The milkshakes at McDonald’s are a handful of ingredients, most of which sound fairly benign (if you exclude the coloring and preservatives). Among those ingredients is “artificial flavor”. What this serves to do is provide a generic bucket into which can be dumped anything and any number of things, like butyric acid (found in rancid butter and vomit), ethyl valerate (green apple flavor derived via a chemical process), and isobutyl anthranilate (when heated, it emits toxic fumes and is “probably” combustible)[3]—all much more difficult to pronounce than “strawberry”.

2. Do Not Order Hot Dogs At Baseball Games

“I used to work in a baseball park concession stand. The short answer is not to order anything, but if you absolutely have to buy something, don’t buy the hot dogs.

Do not. Buy. The hot dogs!

They made it out of the package okay, and might even have been edible after we finished grilling them – and then they went into the water. We kept three pans of water at the back of the grill that held the hot dogs. Any hot dogs left at the end of the day went back into the fridge, and came out again the next day. Me and the other cook put our feet down on throwing out the water and old hot dogs after two full days, but the management didn’t want to let us.” –FreakyCheeseMan

Their main ingredient is usually a “paste-like poultry product”. The most popular hot dog brand of 2011 lists its first ingredient as “mechanically separated turkey”. The USDA describes this as, “paste-like and batter-like poultry product [that is] produced by forcing bones, with attached edible tissue, through a sieve or similar device under high pressure.”

There’s something about gooey meat being churned around, piped out of a tube and slathered with corn syrup that somewhat puts a crimp in our craving for the fast food snack. Traditional hot dogs are a mix of beef, chicken and pork. The meat gets whizzed around until it resembles something pretty gross, then it gets mulched around with water until it resembles something even more gross.

Corn syrup is ladled onto the mix ‘to add a touch of sweetness,’ plus even more water, until finally they are piped into casings and go through a process of racks that reminds us of the factory in Edward Scissorhands.

It takes 35 seconds to produce a chain of hot dogs to span a football field… twice.

Liquid smoke is then piped over the hot dogs, and then they are drenched in cold, salty water.

By the end of it, nothing makes us want to chomp on a hot dog ever again, despite the voice-over describing them as ‘mouthwatering’.

3. Steak & Beans at Taco Bell

“I worked at Taco Bell a little bit ago and I warn everyone to stay away from both the beans and the steak. The beans start out looking like cat food and the directions are, “add water and stir until you can’t see white anymore.” The steak was just the worst on dish duty. If it would sit too long it would become like hair gel. It was the worst.” –Beefcake21 

Taco Bell “beef” pseudo-Mexican delicacies are really made of a gross mixture called “Taco Meat Filling” as shown on their big container’s labels, like the one pictured here. The list of ingredients is gruesome:

(Beef, water, isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin (a polysaccharide that is absorbed as glucose), soybean oil (anti-dusting agent), garlic powder, autolyzed yeast extract, citric acid, caramel color, cocoa powder, silicon dioxide (anti-caking agent), natural flavors, yeast, modified corn starch, natural smoke flavor, salt, sodium phosphate, less than 2% of beef broth, potassium phosphate, and potassium lactate.)

Everything is processed into a mass that actually looks like beef, and packed into big containers labeled as “taco meat filling”. These containers get shipped to Taco Bell’s outlets and cooked into something that looks like beef, is called beef and is advertised as beef by the fast food chain. Until you learn that, according to the Alabama law firm suing Taco Bell, only 36% of that is beef. Thirty-six percent! It looks bad, but passable. The other 64% is mostly tasteless fibers, various industrial additives and some flavoring and coloring.

Can you call beef something that looks like ground beef but it’s 64% lots-of-other-stuff? Taco Bell thinks they can.

That’s the reason why an Alabama law firm is presenting a class action lawsuit for false advertising (they are not asking for any money) saying that the fake Mexican food maker should label their processed cluster-mass of disgust as what it really is in all promotional materials, following USDA laws. It appears that they have a very good point.

4. Wendy’s Chili

“I used to work at Wendy’s. The meat used in the chili, yeah that comes from the meat on the grill top that expires and dries up that’s put in to a warming drawer until you have enough for a batch of chili, which we first freeze and then thaw the next day. Also, if the chili sitting in the warmer doesn’t sell fast enough, we just added hot water to it to mix it up.” -Anonymous

Wendy’s claims their chili has an “award-winning taste”. Maybe that’s because it has silicon dioxide in it. Also known as silica, silicon dioxide can be found in quartz or sand. It also serves as an “anti-caking agent,” allowing the chili to stay looking fresh.

5. Don’t Order Anything Off Of The Starbucks “Secret Menu”

“Former Starbucks worker here. Please don’t order anything off the ‘Secret Menu’. It doesn’t exist. If you want a Snickerdoodle, Nuttella, or Captain Crunch Frappuchino (or whatever other overly-sugary thing someone has since come out with), know the base drink and the modifications, and order that. If you just say the name, it’s up to the Barista to come up with what’s in the drink, and it may not be what the last Barista you ordered from put in there.” – Stac52 

6. Movie Theater Popcorn

“I worked at a theater, don’t get popcorn for the first movie showings – that’s all just last night’s popcorn put into giant garbage bags and then reheated in the warmers in the morning.

Oh yeah, and remember that sticky floor in the aisle of the theater? Well what do you think would happen if you had that at your house. YES THAT’S HOW YOU GET ANTS… and cockroaches, and everything else. Plus it’s in the dark most of the time. It’s like a bug buffet once the lights go out and the movie starts.” – YouAteYourParents

As you probably know, some theaters buy pre-popped popcorn, which is warmed up using lights in the theater. Pre-popped popcorn is typically cooked in unhealthy trans fat oils, and flavored and colored with artificial ingredients, often including MSG. And because this kind of popcorn is popped first, then stored for an unknown amount of time, it has preservatives added.

A bag of popcorn popped in the theater typically contains four individual concession stand supply products, including the popping corn, cooking oil, “butter” and seasoning salt. The corn itself is grown using insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants and other chemicals used to “treat” the corn.

The oil used for popping theater popcorn also contains artificial butter flavoring. The National Academy of Sciences has stated publicly that there is no safe level of trans fat consumption, and that it should be totally eliminated from the human diet. That’s why when you ask for no butter, the popcorn still tastes like fake butter, and still has a weird yellow color. Most movie theater popcorn is cooked in an oil product that is mostly hydrogenated coconut oil, a highly toxic trans fat.

In fact, they’re popping the corn in partially hydrogenated canola shortening, which is also a trans fat. Some theaters boast of popcorn cooked in canola oil, which is supposed to be a health benefit.

So if you order movie theater popcorn with no butter and no salt, that’s what you’re getting: corn that has been compromised by insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants and other chemicals, as well as trans fats, artificial flavors and probably preservatives as well.

7. Skip The Pasta At Panera, Stick To The Sandwiches

“Panera pasta; it’s all microwaved, this includes mac and cheese. Smoothies/frozen drinks- nasty base crap that smells and it’s sticky. Cupcakes/coffee cakes- all come frozen. Best items are the real sandwich/ salads. Real ingredients and usually fresh.” – President_Pancake

8. Always Ask For “Fresh” Chicken Nuggets At McDonald’s

“I used to work at McDonald’s. If you order anything, especially chicken nuggets, just ask for them fresh. Otherwise they’ve been just sitting in their container in the heat. They have a timer, but 9/10 times when that timer goes off, people just reset the timer instead of making new ones. This could go on until all the nuggets are sold.” – Ritch88

9. Steer Clear Of Beans At Taco John’s

“Taco John’s reporting for all you mid-westerners. I would steer clear of the beans, at least outside of peak hours, because they sit on the hot table for a long long time and when they dry out, just add water. Everything else is pretty solid though. Worked there a couple years back in 2007-2009 and still love going back to get my fix.” –clamslammer707

10. BBQ Sandwiches At KFC

“Worked at KFC for ~4 years. The BBQ sandwich is actually made from chicken too old and stale to give to the homeless shelters, so they soak it in BBQ sauce until it can be pulled and then they keep it on the heater for a month.” -Anonymous

11. The Eggs At Einstein’s

“I worked at Einstein’s bagel place, which is basically fast food. Don’t order anything with eggs, they aren’t real eggs and if business is slow they could have been sitting in a container for hours after they are microwaved.” – Thedudeiscj

12. Gas Station Slurpees

“Gas station Slurpee’s. The amount of mold in those machines would crush your childhood to a pulp.” – MarTank666

13. The Doughnuts At Dunkin’

“[I’m] Currently employed at Dunkin’ Donuts and it’s sad but true, all the doughnuts and baked goods there come to us frozen.”- Ass_in_assasain 

Dunkin’ Donuts used to make the doughnuts fresh, every hour, on the premises. What happened to “Time to make the doughnuts?”

Now, Dunkin’ Donuts has their doughnuts trucked in, no longer being made fresh, and most often there is a very poor selection of doughnuts on hand in their stores.

In an apparent rush to gain bigger profits, they failed to realize exactly what made them number one in the first place, and now are trying to find ways to recoup their losses. Like sandwiches, and everything but donuts.

Sources:

“Employees Confess: 13 Fast Food & Restaurant Items You Should Never Order.” EatLocalGrown. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. <>.