There is no doubt that McDonald’s is the biggest player in the fast-food industry. With 68 million customers served every day and more than 35,000 restaurants worldwide, McDonald’s is easily accessible. With so many places to eat, there’s no shame in driving to the drive-through for breakfast, lunch or dinner – unless you plan to order one of these 20 products.
1. Buttermilk and the crispy chicken burger is disastrous for your health
In fast-food chains, “crispy” simply means “breaded with sugar and fried in fat”. Not only does this burger have a fried chicken patty, but it is also made with buttermilk, which is extremely fatty and topped with a ball of mayonnaise vinaigrette. It is therefore ultra bad for your health.
2. A traditional big lunch
If you’re looking to eat all your fat, sodium and sugar in one day, this breakfast is perfect for you. With 5 grams more than the recommended daily intake of saturated fat and enough calories to cover breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you can start your day on the wrong foot.
3. The ranch salad with 3 bacons and crispy buttermilk chicken is not as healthy as it looks
If you think you’re making a healthier choice by ordering a salad, think again. It is served with two of the fattiest foods on the menu: crispy buttermilk chicken and Newman’s Ranch dressing.
4. Forget your efforts at the gym with McFlurry with M&M’s
McFlurry may be an iconic dessert at McDonald’s, but with a sweetened ice cream base and even more, mixed sugar, this product contains 86 grams of sugar – almost as much as seven McDonald’s apple pies! Since the FDA does not recommend more than 50 grams of added sugar per day, this product is not recommended.
5. The quarter-pound with bacon and cheese is worse than a Big Mac
This burger is a monster of calories, fat, sodium and carbohydrates. If you’re looking for a less bad hamburger, choose the classic Big Mac to consume a smaller amount of calories and sodium.
6. Pancakes with syrup contain too many carbohydrates
This meal seems quite simple, but it contains almost all your day’s sugar and more than 100 grams of carbohydrates. It is, therefore, better to avoid such a meal.
7. McCafe Chocolate Shake has a lot of calories
Even if you order the smallest size, you’ll still get more calories than a double cheeseburger and as much sugar as seven Krispy Kreme frozen donuts. In comparison, a small chocolate Frosty at Wendy’s has only 340 calories.
8. This Egg McMuffin with steak, eggs, and cheese is to be avoided
Not only does this sandwich contain half the amount of fat you need in a day, but it’s also a sodium can. At 1,490 milligrams, it contains the highest amount of sodium of all the dishes on the main menu.
9. Your double quarter pound with cheese is very fat
A quarter-pound with cheese is quite high in calories; doubling this sandwich gives you half a pound of beef and more saturated fat than you need in a day. There’s no reason to eat so much beef. Do your body a favor and avoid this dish.
10. Your Happy Meal apple slices are old
When the company finally mobilized to stop the increase in childhood obesity by putting apple slices in its famous Happy Meal in 2011, an entire industry was transformed almost overnight. Almost immediately, McDonald’s became the largest buyer of apples in the United States.
But it turns out these pre-washed, skinless, bagged apple slices may have been lying around much longer than you think. The fruit is slow to oxidize and brown thanks to a high intake of calcium ascorbate (a mixture of calcium and vitamin C). In fact, according to McDonald’s corporate dietitian Shaye Arluk, the sliced apples you will find in a Happy Meal have a shelf life of about 14 days.
11. Beef is frozen
If you’ve consumed any type of media in the past year, you’ve probably heard that McDonald’s has started using fresh and never frozen beef in its Signature Crafted sandwiches, as well as in its classic Quarter Pounder line. With competing chains such as Wendy’s and In-N-Out promoting the freshness of their beef in their ads and online, the introduction of fresh, custom-cooked beef made perfect sense for the chain. And so far, the results have been good – although you may have to wait a minute or two more for your quarter-pound cheese or Signature Collection bacon smoker, comments on fresh beef have been generally positive.
However, all this leads us to wonder… if McDonald’s only uses fresh beef for some of its hamburgers, what does it use for everything else on the menu? For now, at least, McDonald’s still uses hamburger patties that arrive frozen, are cooked without prior thawing (making the beef under-seasoned, liquid and faded) and can stay in the warming drawers for some time before being assembled for your burger.
12. The fries are not very fresh
According to McDonald’s in the United Kingdom, once the chips have been removed from the fryer, they are kept for only five minutes before the leftovers are disposed of and a new order is issued. However, it is doubtful that this rule is true…
Also, when it comes to McDonald’s fries, even five minutes can be far too long. Rigorous and highly scientific tests conducted by The Takeout reveal that McDonald’s French fries can quickly turn into a bag of fat in as little as five minutes.
13. What is the expiry date of your salads?
McDonald’s salads are unhealthy and unhealthy. They are often as high in calories and fat as a cheeseburger once you take into account all the vinaigrette and fried chicken that McDonald’s often includes in its salad line.
Besides, no one seems to be able to determine the expiry date of the salads. Reddit users are filled with stories of employees who apply new expiry date labels to old salads to “extend” the shelf life of these products.
14. Your McNuggets are warmed up too long
When served hot, fresh and dipped in the sauce of your choice, they are delicious. Fortunately, even though they’ve been here for some time, they’re also delicious.
On Reddit, a former McDonald’s employee caused quite a controversy when he made the following accusation: “I worked at McDonald’s. If you order, especially chicken nuggets, ask for them fresh. Otherwise, they stayed in their containers in the heat. They have a timer, but 9 times out of 10 when that timer goes off, people simply reset the timer instead of making new ones. It could continue until all the nuggets are sold.”
15. The pancakes arrive frozen
McDonald’s Canada confirms that its pancakes arrive frozen in a giant cardboard box, are stored in the restaurant freezer and are put in the microwave when a customer orders lunch.
16. Sandwich eggs are made from a mixture and arrive pre-cooked
A quick word on McDonald’s internal egg nomenclature: McDonald’s serves 2 main types of eggs on its breakfast plates, McMuffins, and McGriddles.
There is the “folded egg” used in McGriddle sandwiches, cookies, and bagels, which is made from liquid eggs, cooked and frozen outside the restaurant. These eggs contain acid sodium pyrophosphate, citric acid and monosodium phosphate for color, as well as carrageenan, modified food starch and soybean oil for texture.
The scrambled eggs used on breakfast trays are also made from liquid eggs, although they are cooked in restaurants, and include sour sodium pyrophosphate, citric acid, monosodium phosphate, and nisin.
Finally, there is what is called the “round egg”, used in some McMuffins, which is freshly cracked from USDA Grade A eggs directly in the restaurant. They are also the only eggs in the McDonald’s range that do not contain any additives or stabilizers.
17. Even round eggs are stored for up to 20 minutes
While the standards set by companies tend to guarantee the freshness of products, the human component ensures that things do not always go as planned. McDonald’s Australia insists that after cooking, round eggs cannot be stored in a warming drawer for more than 20 minutes, after which they must be discarded and cooked again for inclusion in a McMuffin. This seems to be a good rule… if it is observed.
18. These onions are dehydrated
According to a thread published on Quora, where McDonald’s insiders reveal top secret information about the secrets behind the chain, these diced onions are not cut fresh at all. They arrive dehydrated and are brought back to life by being soaked in water until they repulp and become onions again.
19. Happy Meal contains far too much salt
To be healthy, your child should not consume more than 1,200 mg of salt per day. But the American diet is full of useless salt. Happy Meal, for example, contains 880 mg of salt. And this is only one meal.
20. The pastries in the McCafe bakery range are questionable
If you want to eat something sweet, avoid McCafe bakery pastries, including chocolate cookies and those famous baked apple pies.
“Our pastries are never really fresh,” said one employee on the Quora yarn. “They are often made early in the morning and stay there for 3-4 hours until another batch is made.”
