A big part of the appeal of fast food, at least for this late-night shame-eater, is that you don't really know too much about the "cooking" process. What you experience, of course, is the end result: the creamy soft serve, the salty grill-marked burger, the giant ice-cold fountain soda.

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A disturbing new AskReddit thread attempts to lift the veil on some of the most popular fast-food orders. Here, current and former fast-food workers offered the items you should definitely stop ordering, whether because they're unsanitary, bad values, or just plain annoying to make.

Fountain soda

"I worked in a local coffee and donut shop and nobody ever cleaned the soda machines. They were so gross the first time I cleaned them. I asked if anyone knew how to do it and nobody knew; nobody had ever done it."

Iced cappuccino

"The ice capp machine never gets cleaned. Never ever."

Bread twists

"For the love of god, stop ordering our bread twists. (Unless you want the cinnamon ones). You can order the Parmesan bread bites. It’s the same amount of dough in total for like three bucks cheaper."

Nachos

"For the same price as a burger, or pasta, or literally anything else on the menu, you got a fistful of cheese on top of some chips."

"The cheese comes in a can that looks like a super gross paint can."

Coffee

"Do not buy the coffee unless it's early morning when we first open. Otherwise you're gonna drink coffee that's been sitting out for a solid five hours, at least."

Decaf coffee

"Maybe this was just the one I worked at, but we didn’t actually brew any decaf. Whenever someone ordered it, my manager would just have me water down the regular coffee."

Shrimp entrées

"Don't buy any shrimp entrées if you actually want to a full meal. They purposely use a smaller serving spoon to make it appear you're getting a lot of food. I believe it was six shrimps per serving max was the the policy."

White mocha anything

"Nobody who values their health should order a white mocha anything. It's absurdly unhealthy and disgusting to work with."

Anything with ice

"Ice machines do not get deep cleaned. They get sanitized, but that's superficial, and the inner-workings (the ice tray, water tubes) are impossible to clean without running a full cycle with a heavy chemical meant to utterly strip the bollocks out of the machine."

"You really shouldn't be using any restaurant's ice dispensers. They're almost never cleaned and when tested have tons of bacteria."

Spaghetti

"Spaghetti is probably the worst value. Not because it's particularly bad, but it's just bulk-buy spaghetti, too much salt, and some oil for almost as much as any of the other, actually complicated pastas."

Sweet tea

"Sweet tea or any tea variation in the metal containers. They just get rinsed out and often times, when whoever is making it, they drop the giant spoon to mix it and fish it out with their bare hands."

Rolled chicken tacos

"Y’all need to stop ordering the rolled chicken tacos. I’m begging you. I’ve tried them, without sauce, and they are 100% flavorless. The flavor comes from whatever shorty side sauce you order."

Personal pan pizzas

"Don’t get the personal pans. It’s overpriced. You can get a medium pizza with 1 to 2 toppings for the same price or maybe a dollar more."

Burger with lettuce wrap

"Please, for the love of god, don’t order a lettuce wrap. There’s nothing gross or anything, it’s just so annoying to put together and to put toppings on."

Tuna salad

"The tuna isn't even refrigerated. It comes in a bag as a pink rectangle that we break apart. It's one part tuna to two parts mayo (and then customers will order even more mayo with it. We go through so much mayo per day that it makes me want to vomit.) The only thing I would advise against eating is the tuna."