Unless you've worked in the food service industry, it's hard to comprehend what goes on behind those big swinging metal doors that lead to the kitchen. You hope your food is being prepared with caring, attentive, and, most importantly, washed hands.
Anyone who's worked in the food service industry, however, can most likely attest that's not always the case.
Reddit user, u/maybe-i-am-crazy, wanted to know what to avoid when they asked:
Food workers of Reddit, what menu item would you definitely NOT suggest?
It's Just A Little Blood. What's The Problem?
Giphy"In highschool, many years ago, I worked at a nation wide pizza place that rhymes with Sparrow. I cut my finger badly while grating cheese. I went to throw out the cheese that had blood on it. My manager stopped me, washed it off, and used it for pizza."
That's 3 Zeroes...
"At RA sushi: don't get the scallop dynamite appetizer."
"It's 3,000 calories."
Check To See If Meat Is Their Specialty
"Brisket."
"Unless you go to a proper smokehouse in America or something, the brisket will almost always be really dry."
All That Flavor Hides All That Expiration
"Not restaurant-related; but I worked at various meat departments in some grocery stores in my teen years. I've noticed that the 'pre-seasoned' fillets or chicken breasts are usually always cuts that have either expired or are VERY close to expiring. Douse it in some cajun or lemon pepper seasoning and you just see convenience."
You Can Bet Corners Will Be Cut
"Late to the thread but it's not a great idea to order "football food" on big game days unless you are at a dedicated sports bar."
"In the same way that many juice machines can handle x amount of oranges a minute, kitchens are designed with x amount of product an hour to be produced."
"If a restaurant usually sells x number of nachos an hour and on game night that number becomes 4x quality and execution suffer."
"Nothing unethical or unsafe ever happened but I'm not particularly proud of some of the wings and nachos we made on big football days."
*stops chewing pizza
"Local pizza chain. Where I worked was usually pretty tight about the cleanliness of things BUT watch out for those parmesan shakers. After we found mold in them we uh... started cleaning them a bit more often. I think the reason it took so long to realize was nobody complained about it. If anything it just was more tangy."
Bagged Everything. Everything In Bags!
"Don't trust Panera Bread. I just left after a year and lemme just say EVERYTHING is in bags. It's all pre-cooked, all the soup/Mac is in bags we heat it up. All the meat is gross when we open it from the bags. There's little to no prep involved with it. Also it's all premeasured I swear you're wasting money. It's over 15$ to get a meal for yourself with small portions. Loved working there though made some excellent friends."
Stay Away From Case Items
"I worked at Steak n Shake briefly. Saw enough in that month that I quit and don't eat there."
"*Guy was making a shake, cut his finger, bled into shake, KEPT GOING. *Fly landed on something? Either shoo it off or bury it in the food. *No clean glasses? Rinse a dirty one in water and fill it up. *Burger fell? Pick it up, add some more ketchup. ITS FINE. *Salad dressing has moldy watery layer on top? Scoop it off. *Moldy bread? People can't see it when it's toasted."
"I also worked at a grocery store deli. Oh my lord. Do not get the items in the case. We were told to put fill the bowl half way with new stuff and then put the days old, almost stuff on top. Little bought meats were often expired. Once the wrapper is off, the expiration date is gone. So if it doesn't smell, it's still good."
Ham Is Known For Being The Slippiest Meat
"At the deli I worked at we were required to wash off any meat dropped on the ground put it in the back so no one would see and then use it later. The most dropped one was ham and Virginia ham especially, because damn was it slippery. The cold cutter machines are probably not cleaned properly like we just rinsed them off with a hose at night!!"
"Rotiserry chickens sold at night were reheated in a warming oven and sat there for hours so we didn't have to cook new ones, and put back out and relabeled with a different time... I mean I guess it's not the worst thing but..still? it depends on your deli maybe. Higher end stores like whole foods have actual standards but cheaper or more localized stores probably do not. The workers are often left to their own devices and cut corners!"
A Moldy Fan
"Sonic drive in worker here. I CAN NOT SAY IT LOUDER YOU ARE EATING MOLD IF YOU ORDER OUR ICE CREAM!!! No body cleans the machines unless they break down. Even then no body cleans the cabinet in the bottom that the fan blows on the milk. The fan is ALWAYS covered in mold because we can not get to it to clean it."
Just Left To Sit Out
"The salads at McDonald's. Sure our food isn't great but (at least where i am) the cucumber and grape tomatos are only used in the salads and are usually left sitting longer than they should be."
"If you're trynna go to Maccas and be 'healthier' you're better off getting a grilled chicken wrap (ask for fresh grilled too if you don't mind waiting the 8 or so minutes)."
"Better yet spend probably the same money and go buy salad ingredients. You'll make something 100x better than you'll get from us"
Again With The Ice Cream Machine
"Former McDonald's manager- the ice cream machine had numbers on the front. That was how many days until the next deep cleaning. If that number is below 12... Maybe don't get the ice cream. It counts from 14. No one empties the machine and deep cleaned it daily, it goes into an automatic sterilization mode around 12a-3a unless the store changes the time, which is why you can't get ice cream at night, but the inside of the machine is HORRIBLE when you break it down."
"The shake syrup tubes are very prone to mold. Even if you run sanitizer through them regularly."
"The McCafe and Frappe machines are also very gross. The McCafe machine gets cycled nightly (unless they skip through it without doing it, which is hard, so unlikely.) but people like to ignore the foamer heads, so mold is an issue there too. The frappe machine doesn't get deep cleaned but once a week. It is a literal mold machine. The blenders are cleaned regularly but not the mix tubes."
"The actual food is fine, just sh-t quality. But my best advice for food is go when it's busy. If you go when it's slow, food might be sitting past it's prime to cut down on food cost. If it's busy, you KNOW it's fresh and within its time."
Any Poland Readers Out There?
"if you ever visit poland (i assume it's just our thing) and see a restaurant called The Sphinx, never ever eat anything from there. Worked in one for like a year. The standards were so mind blowingly low that some sh-t looks like from a sitcom."
"Example: waiters would REGULARLY drop meat or other stuff on the floor, pick it up with their bare hands, throw it back at the plate and carry it to customers like nothing happened. If they recognized low tippers, they would do it on purpouse, tho never seen anybody spit in the food so there is that plus."
"We had "spoiled chicken day" at least once a month where all chicken dishes were made with awful horrible quality meat that smelled like death. Fish too but much rarer."
"Milk used in shakes was also frequently past expiration dates, beer was stale and we had fungus growing on the whatever you call beer dispenser where it wasnt visible to customers. Sometimes dishes and cutlery were just wiped, not washed."
"And i know from coworkers that it went that way for years in many many restaurants in the chain."
It Still LOOKS Good?
"I used to work at an old mom and pop movie theatre. We reused the popcorn from last night, put it in a big Tupperware container overnight and threw that stale sh-t back into the machine to heat up."
"I also once found half a bug in the ice machine but management didn't seem overly concerned."
Well-Done? You Monster.
"If you order a well done steak, your steak has almost always (read: absolutely) aged out."
"I've worked places that had a separate bin on the line for steaks that smelled sour and had turned green, just for people who asked for WD."
"Never got them sent back, though."
"We had to hide them if the health inspector came."
"Yes, this was a legit, fancy "$40 an entree" place.
Stay Away From The "Recommendations"
"Chefs recommendations... They are usually made from ingredients which are close to or over due date"
Microwave Fish? *barf*
Giphy"Long John Silvers, do not get the Baked Cod. They're stored in a bucket in the fridge and all we do is microwave it over rice. It also makes the back smell worse than it already does."
"Microwaved fish? F-cking psychopaths"
Breads Along The Line
"Outback Steakhouse. I worked there 15 years ago (sidenote: holy f-ck that amount of time just hit me like a truck) and I still don't eat the bread."
"It comes prepackaged and it was placed on a toaster at random by busy workers. Since there was no way to know how long it was on there workers would tap the bread to see if it was toasted enough to go out to the customers. So basically each price of bread may have between 2-8 people's hands touching it. Busy people who are touching everything and are sure as hell not washing their hands as frequently as they should."
Never Once Thought About This One
"If you're [going] to get sushi rolls, make sure you read the ingredients. A lot of places have what amounts to a California roll for a premium price."
"I've told this story before, but it is the best example of what I mean. I worked at a Japanese restaurant for a while and we had this thing called a Volcano roll and it cost $7.25. A California roll there cost $3.75. The Volcano roll was a Cali roll cut into the shape of a triangle and topped with spicy mayo that has been heated up with about $.10 worth of fish, literally just a few bits that was not worth it. You are much better off ordering a Cali roll and paying $.50 extra for spicy mayo on the side and asking them to heat it up."
"I had one guy come in with a girl and he ordered a couple of regular rolls like spicy tuna and yellowtail, along with a Volcano roll. When served in the restaurant, unless they ask us, we would put the sauce on top so it looked nice, like a Volcano. When I brought that roll over he was like, "Oh, I didn't know you guys put the sauce on, I've only gotten it for pick up and the sauce is always on the side. I don't really like it, could you bring me one one without it?" I tried not to laugh and said sure. I went back and the sushi chef asked what was wrong. I told him that he didn't like the sauce and want one without it. He laughed and said alright, so he took a Cali roll, cut it up, and put it on the plate. I brought it back to the guy and he was super pumped."
"Basically this guy paid $7.25 for a roll that would have cost him $3.75 and me and the sushi chef got to split a free volcano roll. Normally I would have just told him about it, but the dude was being so arrogant the entire time, I'm guessing to act like he was a sushi expert to impress the girl he was with."
"I've seen this at a couple of other places too where they slightly dress up a California roll and jack up the price. You don't want to end up like that guy just because you didn't take a few seconds to go over the ingredients."
On second thought, we have food at home like Mom always said.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.