The Truth about the not so ‘eat fresh’ Subway

In uni I lived on subway, I loved it and thought it was a healthy choice. Backed by advertising such as Eat Fresh, freshly baked bread, lunch for under 6 grams of fat and the so called ‘Subway diet’ where Jared Fogle lost 111kg (245pounds)– no wonder I assumed it was good for me!

My standard order was a tuna and salad 6 inch on a wheat or honey oat sub. But little did I know I was eating over 1 teaspoon of sugar, half my RDI of sodium and more calories than a cheeseburger. If I had known all this back then, I would have been buying a cheeseburger instead of subway.

Ok so at least I was getting some veggies from subway (I’ll give them that much) but what I dislike about subway is that they masquerade to be something they are not and that is healthy. When I bought MacDonald’s, I knew what I was getting myself into; I would consider it a treat. At subway, I could have been munching down on the equivalent of a Big Mac and thought nothing of it! (Big Mac = 540cals, Foot Long Roast Chicken = 564cals).

Subway lured me into a false sense of healthiness....Yes they have salads and low fat turkey as toppings but the problem is, their breads are not as healthy as they make them out to be.

Problem #1 – Freshly baked bread on premises?

Sounds great, sounds healthy, sounds like the staff at the store bake the bread. Reality - staff bake frozen dough made off site then delivered to retail outlets.

Problem #2 – Enriched Wheat Flour is NOT the same as whole wheat flour

Enriched wheat flour is just a fancy name for white flour with added minerals and vitamins. Sounds healthy right? But no, it really isn’t. Enriched flour is not the same as whole wheat flour; it does not have the same nutritional benefits. The bran, germ and other vitamins which are added back into the flour have already been milled and highly processed, lowering their nutritional value.

Enriched flour is still basically white flour; bread made with it still causes the same type of blood sugar level spikes and insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes) as regular white bread.

Problem #3 – Use of High Fructose Corn Syrup

This is the same stuff used in soft drinks suck as Coke and Fanta. It’s the third most prominent ingredient in subway bread after flour and water. I don’t see what’s so healthy about adding artificial sugary liquid to my bread.

Subway is advertised as healthy and fresh – fair enough you can create your own sandwich and load it with salads but this only makes them marginally healthier than MacDonald’s. Their rolls contain the same amount of sugar as a MacDonald’s bun and they use the same nasty ingredients.

Macdonald’s bun has on average 150 calories with varying amount of sugar.

Big Mac Bun – 6 grams sugar

Regular Bun – 4.5 grams sugar

Quarter Pounder Bun – 4.7 grams sugar

Nutritional Information 6-inch bread *double figures for foot long
	White Bread	Wheat	Multigrain	Herb & Cheese	Honey Oat
Energy (cal)	192	190	201	230	225
Sugar (g)	3.3	3.4	3.0	3.4	6.6
Fibre (g)	2.2	3.2	4.2	2.3	3.7
Sodium (mg)	269	281	350	482	324

So don’t be fooled, Subway is not as healthy as you may think. Remember it's still fast food and should be viewed in the same category as MacDonald's and KFC. It's a sometimes food.