While fast food restaurants may be everywhere, sometimes weeding out the good from the bad
and the ugly is a bit harder to do.
So, here are the top 10 most shocking fast food facts!
Dirty Ice Drinks
One of our favorite things that has happened at fast-food restaurants over the last little
while is how many of them have moved the fountain drink machines to the public space and given
us the ability to fill our own cups.
(Finally!)
Not only does this allow us to mix sodas together for our individual versions of, what the kids
call, “Swamp juice,” but it also means we can go back for free refills.
But the question is, should we be drinking the soda in the first place.
Hmmm, and well, the answer is yes, as long as you’re okay with all the sugar and you
don’t put ice in it.
(Dun, dun, dun!)
The huge amount of sugar in sodas probably won’t shock anyone, but the cleanliness
of the ice sure will.
And we can thank 12-year-old Floridian Jasmine Roberts for this one.
In an award-winning science project, the pre-teen compared the ice water at fast-food restaurants
to the toilet water at those same restaurants and what she found was, well….prepare to
be shocked!
She discovered that 70 percent of the time, ice from fast-food restaurants was dirtier
than the toilet water!
This means that 7 out of 10 times it would have been better to drink from the toilet
than fill your cup with ice from the ice dispenser.
And just in case you still were thinking about putting ice in your drink, Roberts found that,
in a number of cases, the ice tested positive for E. coli bacteria, which as we know comes
from human waste.
(Ick, yuck, and blech!)
The Colors You Crave
What do the Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and In-N-Out logos all have
in common?
You may not have noticed this before, but all of them, (and many others), feature the
colors red and yellow.
And many of these restaurants also use these colors as part of the interior decor.
And no, this isn’t just some crazy coincidence.
There is a scientific method to their madness.
As it turns out, those color palettes have been shown to do exactly what a fast food
joint is looking to do.
Red and yellow grab consumers' attention, they help stimulate your appetite, they can
increase the speed at which we eat and they will make us crave all things of convenience,
which is pretty much the definition of fast food no?
So, to avoid giving yourself indigestion by eating too much food too fast, may we suggest
using the drive-thru?
This removes much of that red and yellow stimuli and may keep your cravings and portions somewhat
in check (although you will even notice it on many of the drive-thru menus).
While we don’t know whether wearing sunglasses that mute the colors will do anything as far
as muting the psychological effects of the colors and the decor, we do know that there
is a complete science behind the colors you see at fast-food restaurants.
Medium Soda Isn’t Really Medium
Okay, so yes, it is medium in the sense that it is the size in between small and large,
but it sometimes isn’t the medium you might think it is.
Confused?
Allow us to explain.
You see, it is a well-known fact that people, when given three options (small, medium and
large), tend to select the middle option.
It’s just human nature!
So, with that in mind, these restaurants figured out a way to use that fact to their advantage
and get more money from us.
And they sometimes do that by putting more ounces of soda in each size.
So, what was medium before now has been filled with a “large” amount of soda.
This means that they can now charge more for it, and it costs them so little to add a few
ounces that the extra profit is well worth it.
Well, it’s worth it for them, but probably not for us.
Those extra ounces of sugar and the extra cost are two things we don’t need.
So, if you really want a soda with your meal, and sometimes there really is nothing better
with a burger and fries, try to stick to the small size.
Not only is it healthier, but at some fast-food joints ordering the small is actually getting
the medium size we wanted in the first place.
McDonald’s Doesn’t Go Bad
We all do it.
We go through our fridge every week or two and get rid of the food that’s gone bad.
The moldy cheese, the smelly milk, the leftovers that have gotten a little, shall we say, fuzzy!
Sure, it's a little gross, but we understand that’s what happens to food.
Well, apparently not all food.
You see, back in 2010, New York photographer Sally Davies conducted an experiment of sorts
in which she had two jars.
In one jar, she placed a McDonald’s hamburger and some fries, and in the other she put French
fries from Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Well, cut to five months later, and while the KFC fries were, as you would expect, covered
with mold, the Mickey D’s dinner still looked as edible as it did five months prior.
As disturbing as that sounds, Davies kept taking photos of the meal and not one, not
two, not three, but five years later, in July of 2015, you would be hard-pressed to see
any real difference between what it looked like when it was first put in the jar.
(Eek!)
Besides shocking, what does this mean about the food?
Well, according to an expert in the field, McDonald’s would need to be using "a lot
of sodium propionate to prevent bacterial or mold growth."
Talk about standing the test of time.
The Words They Use
How many of us have walked into a fast-food restaurant determined to order something light
and healthy and ended up sitting down with a tray piled high with hamburgers, french
fries and an ice cream sundae?
Well, don’t blame yourself.
From the moment you walked up to the counter and looked up at the menu, you were being
set up to fail in your healthy quest.
And much of it comes down to the words used on the menu.
Words are a powerful tool and fast-food restaurants and food marketers use them wisely in order
to push us towards the items they want us to order.
Words and phrases like, “hot n' juicy,” “crispy” and “fresh” all work to increase
consumer cravings for particular items - the items the restaurant wants us to buy.
And the reason they tend to push the less healthy items is because those are more likely
to hook you and bring you back again and again.
The numbers on this are pretty amazing.
Researchers at Cornell University found that customers are 27 percent more likely to order
an item if it's described with yummy-sounding adjectives.
And it’s not just the words but how those words are presented, that can affect what
we order.
Everything from the font used to the colors and even the graphic choices can help sway
consumers one way or another.
It Isn’t As Cheap As We Think
Besides being fast, one of the reasons many of us end up eating fast food as much as we
do is the perceived lower cost of doing so.
We are willing to forgo our diets and down some fast food if it means saving some sweet
moolah for other things in our lives (cha-ching!).
But the question then becomes how much cash are we actually saving.
Sure, in 1972 you could get a Big Mac for $0.55 cents and a small order of fries for
only $0.20 cents more.
But it’s not 1972 anymore and the prices at fast food joints have gone up significantly.
Now, yes a fast food meal will put less strain on your wallet then say, going to your local
steakhouse for a ribeye with all the fixings.
But for most families of four you can expect to spend about $30 dollars to eat at McDonald’s,
or more if you all get dessert - or, like some people we know, need an extra burger
and six McNuggets to feel full.
Fast-food isn’t as cheap as we make it out to be and the cost definitely adds up!
It’s Kinda Made of Silly Putty
Okay, so technically, fast food isn’t made of Silly Putty, but we weren’t coming entirely
out of left field when we made that overly-shocking statement.
Let's look at some fast-food favorites and you’ll see where we’re coming from.
Take the McNuggets and Filet-O-Fish from McDonald’s and the Spicy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe from
Chick-fil-A. What do these three tasty menu items have in common?
Well that would be a little something called dimethylpolysiloxane.
(Dimethyl-what-now?!)
Dimethylpolysiloxane is a form of silicone used as an antifoaming agent in food.
We’re not sure which part is less appetizing.
The silicone or the antifoaming.
Or maybe it's the fact that this silicone compound is also used in cosmetics, aquarium
sealant and Silly Putty.
Now, we should say that dimethylpolysiloxane is FDA approved as a “secondary direct food
additive,” and, as far as we know, it poses no serious health risks.
Although, we can say that it does cause us to have a slightly upset stomach just thinking
about ingesting something that shares a common ingredient with shampoos, conditioners, other
various skin care products and yes, Silly Putty.
Thank Walter Anderson and Billy Ingram
Who are Walter Anderson and Billy Ingram, and what do we have to thank them for you
ask?
Well, they are the two men who created White Castle and opened their first location in
Wichita, Kansas in the 1920s.
Before Walter and Billy opened the first White Castle location, hamburgers weren’t really
a thing people went to restaurants to eat.
They were generally made from slaughterhouse scraps and were thought of as low-quality
food sold at fairs, circuses, and from lunch carts.
But Anderson and Ingram had a vision of good burgers and set out to change that negative
perception by making their kitchens visible to the public and by painting the restaurants
white, which was meant to make customers feel like the place was clean.
And that was just the beginning.
Once hamburgers started to be seen in a different light we can trace a direct line from that
to the total flood of fast food joints we all now find ourselves surrounded by on a
day to day basis.
Although, if you’re Harold and Kumar the closest “White Castle” isn’t close enough.
Happy Meal Equals Weight Loss
You don’t need to be a kid or even have a kid in order to enjoy a McDonald’s Happy
Meal.
In fact, it might just be the best option for you and your waistline.
And yes, there’s research to back that up.
Logically, most of us can understand that eating the smaller portions of a Happy Meal
as opposed to a regular McDonald’s order is better for your weight.
However, the research takes this idea one step further by showing that, even though
people consumed less food and fewer calories with the Happy Meal, they tended not to overcompensate
later on in the day.
Meaning they didn’t stuff more food down their throat later to make up for the smaller
Happy Meal.
While the health factor is important, as it turns out, it’s that toy that comes with
the Happy Meal which is a major factor in why anyone, not just kids, decide to purchase
said option.
Researchers have shown that even a small, non-food gift is enough to motivate someone
to select a smaller-portioned meal.
It’s very interesting to note that the half-sized portion and a non-food gift combo stimulates
the same part of the brain (the area responsible for reward, desire, and motivation), as the
full portion meal on its own.
Regardless of how hungry the person is!
There Are Some “Healthy” Choices
Yes, it would appear that you can go to a fast-food restaurant and eat healthy.
Unfortunately, you can’t do that by ordering Whoppers, Big Macs, and large fries and washing
it all down with a soda (dang!).
It takes some careful navigating of the menu, but even some dieticians have discussed the
possibility of stopping at a fast-food joint and eating pretty much guilt-free.
Often a chicken wrap is a decent choice.
Salads are good but, as you may already know, you will have to avoid the dressing.
As one of the few McDonald’s items that is actually made with a real freshly cracked
egg, an Egg McMuffin is a better choice than you may have thought as well.
But, we will also point out that often, the items you assume are healthy aren’t.
A good example of this is fast food oatmeal.
While it definitely sounds healthy and part of a good morning breakfast, the oatmeal you
get at fast-food restaurants is often filled with a whole lot of sugar.
One report put the amount of sugar in a bowl of fast-food oatmeal as higher than what you
would get in a whole bag of M&Ms.
And let's get real here, if we are going to put that much sugar in our bodies we’re
going to do it via a bag of M&Ms instead of a bowl of oatmeal.
Priorities, people!
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