Subway Is Not Healthy

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“Subway, eat fresh”

Subway emits the image that it is the healthy fast food chain. After all, they don’t have a fryer, two of the five bread selections are brown bread and you are able to choose your own fresh vegetables to place on your sandwich.

No greasy fries, tempting ice cream or fatty hamburgers anywhere in sight.

But Subway is still fast food. Subway is still unhealthy. And Jared, the man famous for losing weight by eating Subway sandwiches day in and day out, is still overweight.

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When thinking of healthy food, Subway should not come to mind.

Subway is not healthy. I know. I worked there.

Sure, Subway has the potential to be healthier than a typical fast food meal. But healthier doesn’t mean healthy.

The reality

Subway’s branding is misleading.

Not all of the sandwiches at Subway are healthy alternatives to McDonald’s, Burger King or Arby’s. Some of them are just as bad if not worse than items at McDonald’s.

For example, a 6-inch Chicken and Bacon Ranch on Italian herbs and cheese bread with the recommended fixings is ridiculously unhealthy. It has more calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, calories from fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sugar than a double cheeseburger off of the dollar menu at McDonald’s.

The few things the sub has that McDonald’s doesn’t? It has slightly less trans fat (0.5 grams less), 1 measly gram more of dietary fiber and is slightly less calorically dense per gram.

Normally it’d be good that the Subway sandwich has more carbohydrates in it. But nearly all of the carbohydrates in the sandwich come from white bread, which is basically junk food.

A very small amount of nutrients or calories come from the small amount of produce that goes on the sandwich.

“Would you like to make that a meal?”

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Next, think about the extras that people buy when they choose Subway.

Customers normally buy fat-ridden chips and cookies. If they think they’re trying to be healthier they’ll get a yogurt parfait.

The drink choices are the same ones available at McDonald’s. They both serve Coca-Cola products. There’s an abundance of products laden with added sugars. Sodas, juices, lemonade, sweetened tea and PowerAde are all readily available for purchase.

All unhealthy.

Subway supplies apple slices and bottled water to purchase with a meal. But does anybody purchase those with a meal?

Is Subway unhealthy like McDonald’s though?

I do have to admit that eating at Subway provides better food to eat on the go than McDonald’s does.

That doesn’t mean the food is good, okay or acceptable. It’s simply better. It’s like having Honey Nut Cheerios instead of a Poptart for breakfast. The Cheerios are better, but still not healthy.

The majority of the options available at Subway are more nutritious than the majority of the options available at McDonald’s.

How to make the healthiest Subway sandwich

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I wouldn’t eat the majority of food served at Subway.

Yet there is a way to make a Subway meal that’s decently filling and isn’t totally unhealthy. I’ll go through the way to make a better fast food alternative step by step.

1. The bread

First is the bread.

If you remember, I said before that the Italian Herbs and Cheese bread is basically junk food. The bread devoid of real fiber or nutrition. All white breads are.

We need to make a sandwich that can pass as better than junk food. It’s necessary to choose a whole wheat bread, or as close as we can find.

This means that you can either choose the 9-grain wheat or the 9-grain honey oat bread. When I worked there, I remember the bread not being vegan, but when I looked it up (and as of September 2013), the bread is in fact vegan.

Using the personal sandwich calculator, I was able to obtain nutritional information about the breads. There are slight differences between the honey oat and the wheat. Not enough to cause any real concern. The honey oat has a few more calories, a bit more sodium and a little more sugar.

I’d probably stick to just the regular wheat. I like to give attention to the ingredients going on my sandwich, not the bread.

2. The sub

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Next to think about is the is the type of sandwich to buy.

The only acceptable sandwich for me to get is the veggie sub. I can understand if you wanted to get a sandwich with egg whites on them. All of the meats Subway are unacceptable for a multitude of reasons.

Why no meat?

One of the reasons is the salt content. Being preserved products, they’re laden with salt and other nasty preservatives.

Unknown to most customers, the meats smell absolutely horrid when they come out of their plastic bags. I’m serious. The worst smell at the store is the smell of cold cut combo freshly out of the plastic package.

The meats are also covered in a thick slime in the package most of the time. It slowly slides off while it sits in the fridge waiting to be put on the serving line.

Yum?

The egg whites are better than the whole egg patties, a 6-inch sandwich contains too much sodium for my liking. I also don’t want to think about how much processing the eggs have gone through to reach its final state. The veggie patty available in some countries contains milk, so that’s not an option either.

3. The cheese

After choosing your sandwich you may think it is time to choose the cheese.

Wrong.

Like the meat, the cheese provides too much sodium, cholesterol and fat.

Dairy is one of the worst foods that you can possibly eat (see Is dairy milk bad for human health?). Cheese is actually worse than meat. Even the meat served at subway.

Cheese at Subway isn’t the way normal cheese is supposed to look or feel. They’re filled with artificial ingredients and preservatives I can’t even begin to imagine.

So no cheese, please!

You sandwich artist is supposed to ask you if you would like to add any extras (that cost more of course) to your sandwich. Most of the extras are things that you shouldn’t consider, like bacon, cheese and meat.

Depending on the season, they can offer one that’s healthy: avocado. If you’d like to add a little healthy fat to your sandwich, adding some avocado is the way to go. The avocado spread is probably one of the most wholesome offered at the Subway food chain. Because avocado is such a delicate fruit, they aren’t able to add additives, fillers, or preservatives to the avocado.

4. The works

Next comes the fun part: the veggies. I love fruits and vegetables, so this my favorite part.

Make sure to ask the sandwich artist to add as much produce as you like on your sub. The’re required to put a certain amount of each item on your sandwich when you request it. You can ask for more if you want it, so make sure to do so.

Iceberg lettuce can sometimes get a bad reputation in the health community. Compared to other leafy greens, it seems wimpy. But if you want iceberg lettuce on your sub sandwich, I say go for it. What would be even better is to have a combination of both lettuce and spinach on your sandwich for more volume and a greater variety.

This is what I’d put on my sandwich

• lettuce
• lots of spinach
• lots of tomatoes
• cucumbers
• green peppers
• onions

I’d ask for at least double of what they are supposed to give you. Make sure that they load it up. They may threaten to charge you more if you go “overboard”, they’re not actually able to do so.

The bread already has more than enough sodium so refrain from putting many cured items like pickles, black olives, jalapeños and banana peppers on your sandwich. A few is okay, but don’t get many. Some restaurants offer carrots and sweet peppers. If they carry those, I’d add them on my sandwich, too.

5. The final touches

Lastly is the sauce and other seasonings.

Unfortunately, they don’t have much selection in terms of a healthy sauce. The best options are the red wine vinegar and the mustard. Some subways  offer two types of mustard: a spicy mustard in the squeeze bottle and a non-spicy mustard in a packet. You can see what other stores offer.

While I can’t say for sure, I’m guessing the mustard would have yet even more added salt. I’d choose a combination of both the red wine vinegar and some spicy mustard. If you like sweet sauces, the Sweet Onion is the only acceptable option. Some restaurants carry seasonings like pepper and oregano, which I whole-heartedly encourage to add to your sub.

Avoid the sprinkle parmesan and the salt.

Don’t ruin your healthy sub with the meal options. Make it an healthy meal by grabbing some apple slices and water. All the sodas and non-carbonated drinks are filled with added sugars unfortunately, so don’t choose those either.

Nutrition information

One last thing that you should understand about the Subway is the nutritional information.

The nutrition information doesn’t match up with the way the majority of people make their sandwiches.

Their “healthy” 6-inch sandwiches are made on whole wheat bread with no cheese, no sauce and contain lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and onions. The two major differences between what Subway promotes and what people order is the cheese and sauce.

Everybody loves cheese and fatty sauces. People don’t understand that even though they chose a healthier option, the extras that they place on their sandwich make a healthier option into a sub sandwich that’s not better than other sandwiches on the menu.

Instead of Subway

So I’ve explored the problems with Subway and how to make the healthiest sandwich possible. Yet if you need to eat something on the road, there are still better options than Subway.

A healthy and cheap alternative to popping into Subway would be to visit a local grocery store instead. Buy some fresh fruit, like bananas.

Bananas are ubiquitous, cheap and mess free. Many gas stations and convenience stores even stock apples, oranges and bananas. They require minimal effort to stock and maintain.

If no fruit is available, there’s probably some whole grain bread and hummus to eat.

But there’s an even better option still.

There’s a characteristic that sets truly healthy people apart from those that just make do. It’s planning ahead.

If you know that you’re going on a road trip, you should prepare. Buy a box of bananas to ensure  you have an abundance of fresh, ripe fruit. Or make wraps. Or dried fruit. Or something.

There are many options available, but many of these options take preparation and planning. What causes most people to go astray from their health goals is lack of planning.

It’s difficult take the time to patiently search for healthy food when you are starving.

Set yourself up for success. Don’t set  yourself up to fail.

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