Fast food is more than just food served up quickly, it’s comfort food for many people. The problem with fast food is the secret ingredients. Maybe it would be more accurate to call them hidden fast food ingredients, but wither way you get the point. There are things in the fast food we eat are so disgusting you may just want to purge after reading this or try a laxative or two to attain some level of colon cleanliness. Most people don’t care what kind of fast food fillers are being used – myself included – but others get very concerned about it. If you have a weak stomach or absolutely do not want to know what you are really putting in your mouth when you eat certain fast food menu items, just don’t read any further. It really is that simple.

Please keep in mind, every disgusting detail about what is in these fast food menu items is from the manufacturers them self that THEY disclose to the FDA. Anyone can pull these details up without filing special forms or requests – you just need an internet connection and know how to Google. Disclaimers noted, on with the gross fast food items.

Since way too many people think that any sandwich you get at Subway must be healthy, let’s take a look at the salami that goes into their sandwiches as an appetizer. Try this quiz on for size – is salami made from beef or pork? The answer is both and possibly other critter remnants. Salami is the end result of slaughterhouse leftovers. Parts of the pig or cow that can’t be used in any other way (aside from making a Slim Jim perhaps) compose salami. Even though what is termed as an “Advanced Meat Recovery System” is used to harvest the leftovers compressed into salami, things beside beef and pork will sometimes get into the salami bin. The parts are then cured with lactic acid which is a bacteria byproduct and are then cured with around 15 salts and spices.

Taco Bell has some nastiness going on beyond the hotly debated binding agents in their beef – how about the shredded cheese used in pretty much…everything? Did you know that Taco Bell shredded cheese contains sawdust? Yup, sawdust is ground down to a very fine consistency and used to keep the shredded cheese from clumping. To be fair though – sawdust is used in this manner in pretty much all pre-packaged shredded cheese you can get anywhere. None-the-less, it still has that gak factor.

McDonald’s chicken nuggets and Wendy’s fries have something in common – E-900. E-900 is also known as polydimethylsiloxane. Aside from turning in in those tasty bites, E-900 is found in lubricants, Silly Putty, cosmetics, skin moisturizers, shampoo, heat resistant tiles, Rain-X, de-foaming agents, some older breast implants, and various polishes and mold releasing agents. Basically it is a mostly harmless polymeric organosilicon that keeps foods from foaming. It just sounds really gross.

Wendy’s chili uses a little something called silicon dioxide in their chili to keep it from caking up so it can – one can only assume – last over a heater for who knows how long. If you recall anything from high school chemistry, you may very well recall that what is in the chili is sand. Not beach sand with the funky smells and bits of broken glass or anything, but a more purified eater friendly versuon . Not that it makes things any better.

Pick any fast food place that serves something with vanilla ice cream, you know, like a McDonald’s soft serve vanilla cone? That ice cream contains what is termed castoreum. Most people have no idea what that is so let’s break it down. Castoreum is nothing more than the anal secretions of a beaver mixed with beaver urine. On the weekend it doubles as a raspberry flavoring and sometimes it shows up in perfume. Hey, don’t be surprised, animal urine is used in tons of things, like Premarin (Pregnant Mare Urine) for instance. It’s perfectly harmless, it’s just nasty to think about eating beaver anal secretions.

Then just wrap your mind around this – a buttload of commercially made bread contains L-Cyestine. That is marketed as a dough softening agent, which admittedly sounds perfectly innocent. The catch is that L-Cyestine is made from human hair! Does that make you a cannibal for chowing down on a Whopper or something?

Here’s the thing – most any food has some chemical that may or may not cause you harm. Fast foods especially have things that sound totally gross in them but taste pretty damn good sometimes. The best advice is to chow down in moderation and forget that things used in tar, cigarettes, foaming agents, and even car bumpers may also be in your food.