11 Fast Food Facts ! You May Change Your Opinion About It !!

11 Fast Food Facts ! You May Change Your Opinion About It !!

Fast food has its perks. It’s normally pretty cheap. And as the name implies, the meals arrive swiftly: perfect for those times when we just have to eat. Plus, burgers, fries, shakes and chicken nuggets taste great. But many of our favorite quick-service selections come with a catch – in terms of calories and fat. For this and other reasons, then, you might want to pass on the following 20 fast-food favorites…

11. Don’t dress your salad

Many fast-food salads come with a full slate of healthy ingredients. And a drizzle of dressing over the top ties the whole bowl together. Personal trainer Arndt told HealthyWay that there’s a simple reason why chain restaurants tend to pour their dressings generously, too. Simply put, they taste really good.

However, salad dressings can ruin an otherwise healthy fast-food bowl. Arndt suggested, “Always get the dressing on the side and add in only a limited amount.” That way, you can control the additional calories and fats that come with such sauces. Best of all, a moderate amount of dressing will give you all the flavor you need to enjoy your fast-food salad.

10. Domino’s Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch is a bad bet

Domino’s has a whopping 11,000 locations dotting the world. So it’s safe to say that the pizza chain slings quite a few pies. Internationally, in fact, all of the Domino’s franchises combined prepare roughly 1.5 million pizzas a day for their consumers. In the U.S., that adds up to about 400 million pizzas sold per year, according to Forbes.

No matter where in the world you’re ordering Domino’s from, though, you might want to skip the Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch pie. The hand-tossed pizza packs 520 calories and 26 grams of fat per slice. Worse yet, the same portion contains half of your daily sodium intake quota and 0.5g of trans fat. The latter substance can damage your heart health in excessive quantities.

9. Breakfast is brought to you by butter

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day – and that means you probably deserve more than a fast-food version. After all, many quick-service chains have some sort of morning platter that features sausage or bacon, eggs, hash browns and biscuits. It sounds tasty – and maybe even well-balanced – but don’t be deceived by these rapidly served meals.

According to certified personal trainer Hope Pedraza, everyone should “take a closer look” at fast-food breakfast platters. She told HealthyWay that in most cases “everything on the plate has been cooked with a ton of butter.” Plus, these meals tend to come with “more fat than you should have in your entire day.” So opt for something lighter, like a breakfast wrap or a smaller sandwich.

8. Skip the shake

Everyone should indulge from time to time – just make sure your choice of sweet is worth it. That’s why you should ask before ordering a milkshake at a fast-food restaurant to ensure they use real ice cream. Otherwise, you could be getting something entirely different – and we promise you don’t want to be eating it.

An anonymous former fast-food employee spoke to Forbes and said that their one-time employer used a mix rather than real ice cream. Worse yet, the workers were reportedly told to gather up the run-off from the machine and re-use it later in the week. Yet even if a restaurant operates in a more sanitary fashion than this, you should still opt for fresh milkshakes over ones that pour out of a designated machine.

7. Don’t dip your nuggets in ketchup

It’s hard to imagine a fast-food meal without a bit of ketchup. Tomato sauce is the perfect condiment to slather onto your burgers, after all, and your nuggets don’t taste the same without you plunging them into ketchup first. Sadly, though, it’s possible to have too much of a good thing – even when it comes to your dips.

Like many consumers, you perhaps grab a handful of ketchup packets after ordering a McDonald’s. Yet each one adds 90 milligrams of sodium and two grams of sugar to your meal as well as ten calories. And it’s notoriously hard to stick to using a single packet. This means your ketchup habit can seriously spike your sodium and sugar intake during each fast-food meal.

6. Say “no” to A&W gravy

You have a lot of menu items to sift through if you visit A&W. After all, it’s not just root beer for which the brand has become famous. The fast-food restaurants also serve up floats as well as hot dogs, burgers, chicken fingers and more. If you happen to pop into a Canada-based franchise, though, we suggest you skip the gravy.

A former A&W employee revealed to Delish that the eatery’s gravy has a secret ingredient – one that you may wish you had never found out. Apparently, chefs pour a full ladle of oil from the chicken fryer into the vat of gravy. The staffer remarked, “It’s really quite gross.” We can’t help but agree.

5. Subway can leave you extra salty

In the early 2000s Subway earned a reputation as the fast-food spot for health-minded diners. Some people even followed the Subway diet, eating the subs daily as part of a weight-loss plan. After a closer look at the subs and their ingredients, however, you’ll find they’re not necessarily as healthy as once imagined.

All processed meats, including cold cuts, can boost a person’s risk of developing cancer, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research. On top of that, these slices contain blood pressure-spiking levels of sodium, meaning a six-inch Subway cold cut combo could have nearly half of your daily recommended intake. So you might want to grab your sandwiches from somewhere else – or whip them up at home.

4. Chipotle tacos don’t offer the best value

Chipotle gets a lot of points when it comes to the quality of its ingredients. The company has made it its mission to work closely with farmers to ensure they treat the environment and their animals with respect. For instance, Chipotle sources free-range meat from animals that have not been given hormones.

3. Orange you glad you didn’t order the chicken

Among the fast-food, Asian-inspired options on the Panda Express menu, one reigns supreme: the orange chicken. One employee told Delish that the dish stands as the restaurant’s most popular offering. And yet there’s a little detail about its preparation that’ll have you thinking twice about ordering it next time you visit.

Supposedly, Panda Express won’t whip up a new batch of orange chicken if its latest vat starts to dry up. Instead, staffers pour uncooked sauce on top of the meat so that it’s re-moisturized. Worse yet, Delish’s source said that their manager told them to perform the task when consumers weren’t looking. You can do better; find somewhere to buy fresh orange chicken instead.

2. Grilled chicken isn’t so great

Fast-food restaurants know that you want options aside from burgers. So many of them have added grilled chicken patties into the mix. And you might opt for a poultry patty instead of one made of red meat because it seems so much healthier than its beef-based counterpart. Unfortunately, though, you’ll now have to think again.

1. McDonald’s ice cream is almost worth the wait

We say worth the wait because, let’s face it, McDonald’s ice cream machines don’t have the best reputation. The fact that they’re often broken – thus rendering consumers unable to order cones and McFlurries – has become an internet meme. If you’re lucky enough to find a McD’s with a working machine, though, skip the dipped cones.

At first, it seems perfect. The only thing better than ice cream, after all, is ice cream covered in a chocolate shell. However, one employee alleged via Reddit that their McDonald’s location left the dipping chocolate out all day long. They wrote, “The top layer will congeal, and they just mix [it] back up and still use it.” No one wants dirty chocolate, so stick to plain cones if you want to indulge.