SHOCKING Facts McDonald’s Doesn’t Want You To Know

#1 Not The Largest Fast Food Chain

We all think of McDonald's as the largest fast food joint in the world, because they're all over and have been since we were just kids. While they still boast that they are the largest "hamburger" fast food, they no longer hold the title as the largest chain in the world. In 2014, Subway surpassed McDonald's by 33,750 locations, beating of Ronald by 1,112 restaurants. Currently, Subway has 44,000 stores while McDonald's is steady at just over 36,000 locations.

#2 Extra Ingredients

Some people love surprises and others not so much. What both types of people have in common is that neither likes surprises in their food. You wouldn't enjoy the surprise of finding a used bandage in your french fries like Lauren Coleman of Illinois did in 2005. Or George Boss, from Denver, who found a bloody bandaid in his cheeseburger under the bun.

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#3 Extra Ingredients

The fact is that people have been finding all sorts of odd things in their fast food in recent years. But McDonald's is going for a record. Todd Haley, the former Dallas Cowboy Assistant Coach, found a dead rat in his fresh salad in 2006. Foreign objects in food are so common at McDonald's that the company has made public apologies for such things as a human tooth in a stack of pancakes and a 3-inch metal disc found in an oatmeal bowl.

#4 Sugar Galore

If you require a sugar fix but think a chocolate bar is too much, McDonald's can help. In 2016 the company announced plans to remove high fructose corn syrup from its buns and replace it with pure sugar. Sugar is a great way to make bread rise. People will see this move as a great thing since the corn syrup is seen as very unhealthy. But the sugar used at McDonald's is worse than the use of corn syrup. A Quarter Pounder with cheese has 10g of sugar, about 40% of your daily intake. That is only 3 grams less than the pancakes on their menu.

#5 Tax Avoidance

People are tired of multi-billion dollar corporations who don't pay their fair share of taxes. Between 2009 and 2013, the massive McDonald's corporation was able to divert revenue from its European market leading to a tax avoidance of over $1.1 billion.

McDonald's was able to pull this off by moving its headquarters from the UK to Switzerland while channeling royalty payments into a subsidiary in Luxemburg, which had a Swiss branch. When the scheme was figured out they were fined and paid back just $2.4 million in fees but admitted to nothing illegal.

#6 Federal Bailout

If the tax avoidance scheme made you mad, and you recall the big United States bailout of failing banks, you're about to get ready for a stroke, if the burgers don't give you one first. When the government began its string of bailouts in 2007, over $3 TRILLION was doled out to various banks and other small companies that were affected by the catastrophe.

If you read through the long listing of companies who received aid during our Great Depression, you'll see a lot of unknown entities. But McDonald's was also on that list and received $203 million during the economic crisis. Despite receiving the federal money as if it were on a path to collapse, up to 2010 they showed continued growth in sales and share earnings.

#7 Cage Free Calamity

With McDonald's push for transparency, they also made a few changes to its food supply to become more humane after public outcry on the abuse of their chickens. Rather than get eggs from caged birds, they made a switch to cage-free chickens and while that seems like a good thing, it's not what you would expect when you hear 'cage-free'.

Cage-free hens may not live in cages, but they are all piled several feet deep inside of tight living spaces with reduced light and a better chance for diseases. A five-year study into the conditions of the company's chickens showed a higher mortality rate of cage-free chickens, and a 21% increase in diseased birds.

#8 Abused Birds

As if cramped quarters and a higher mortality rate weren't enough, the birds are also being abused. In 2015, an undercover PETA investigator equipped with surveillance equipment caught upsetting footage at a Tyson foods farm that sold it's chickens directly to McDonald's for its chicken supply. The sickening video shows birds being beaten and abused with workers breaking their necks and stomping on them while twisting their heads off.

#9 Employee Warning

Nothing should make you crave McDonald's more than knowing that the company encourages its employees not to eat the food served there! The company's employee resources website warns the workers that the food is not healthy. Since it made headlines in 2015, the warning has been removed, but employees are often told to eat at places that offer a variety of healthier alternatives, with soups, salads, and a choice of fresher meals to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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#10 Employee Warning

It's pretty obvious that a steady diet of just McDonald's is not a healthy way to live. But when the CEO of the company, Don Thompson, sends out a newsletter to employees telling them to eat elsewhere then it's a safe bet that you don't want to eat there either. Mr. Thompson defended his remarks months later and then denied them totally and said that the company "don't sell junk food". Which version do you believe?

#11 The McDonald's Addiction

It's a real thing. In fact, you can Google the term 'McDonald's Addiction' and you'll get thousands of links to alleged addictions to McDonald's food. It's no secret that most of the food contains chemicals like dextrose, which plays with our dopamine receptors and can cause a steady need for the same chemicals.

Take the story of 17-year-old Stacey Irvine, who in 2016, had been living on a steady diet of Happy Meals and Chicken McNuggets since she was just a little toddler. She couldn't get enough of the junk food and couldn't break her habit of eating there despite warnings from doctors. In February of 2016, Stacey collapsed and was taken to the hospital where they discovered she had anemia and breathing problems that doctors blamed on her "addiction" to McDonald's food. She joins the many millions who grew up eating the meals and are now obese and sickly as adults.

#12 The Healthier Options

They want you to think now that you can walk into any McDonald's and get a fairly healthy meal just as you would otherwise in any restaurant. The chains healthier options like oatmeal and salads are on par with eating a cheeseburger. A Southwest Salad with grilled chicken will give you just 10 fewer calories and 4 grams less fat than if you just had a regular hamburger, and that is not counting any salad dressing.

The fruit and brown sugar oatmeal which is being touted as a healthy choice packs just 40 less calories than an Egg McMuffin. Without the brown sugar, it still just 30 calories less than the same breakfast sandwich. A chicken wrap isn't much better, even though you're not getting the bun. That will be equivalent to eating a Big Mac hamburger.

#13 BONUS

It takes over 4 hours to prepare a Quarter Pounder for a photo shoot that will serve as an advertisement to lure you into McDonald's. They are not real burgers. The photographer uses styrofoam, cardboard, paints, glue, clay, and glazes to create a delicious and tempting burger. However, as you may already know, the burger inside your wrapper looks nothing like the one advertised. In fact, they are usually so quickly made that they are unassembled inside the wrappers, with the cheese off the burger and the pickles and onions falling all over the place. Most of the time the burger isn't even on the bun.