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When it comes to fast food, Subway is supposed to be the healthy choice – we all feel a little bit angelic when we skip high-fat burgers and fries in favor of a six-inch sub loaded with veggies and lean meats. And while the sandwiches are a better bet when it comes to calories and fat, Subway has a hidden dark side: The "healthy" 9-grain bread is a nutritional wasteland packed with high-fructose corn syrup.
David Zinczenko, author of the "Eat This, Not That" series, exposes the truth in his series The Truth About Your Food. While the bread does technically have nine grains, he says that you might as well choose white. Eight of those nine grains are basically trace amounts, listed at the bottom of the ingredient list under "contains 2% or less." The number one ingredient is regular white flour.
"Essentially this is a white-wheat hybrid with trace amounts of other whole grains like oats, barley, and rye," says Zinczenko.
As for that high-fructose corn syrup, well, there's more of it than any of the grains. With the requisite soda on the side, you're talking about a major corn-syrup overload.
But what about the brown color of the bread? It's not from grains: Zinczenko reveals that it actually comes courtesy of a compound called ammonium sulfate. If the name sounds familiar, it's because it's a commonly used plant fertilizer. It helps the bread achieve that golden hue by nourishing the yeast. Whether it's good for the human body is up for debate.
So what's a sandwich lover to do? Zinczenko says there isn't a better bread choice at the chain, so consumers should consider an alternative that's worked for generations: Make your sandwiches at home.
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6-22-2010 @2:05PM Mel said... Ammonium Sulfate? Are you kidding me here. Why is it so hard to get away from these chemicals in our food? Very disapointed in Subway.
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6-23-2010 @2:12AM Kevin Lin said... AGREED
I've stopped going to Subway and other related sub restaurants ever since I found out about the "over-refinedness" of their products
6-24-2010 @6:17AM The Truth said... You're disappointed because you have been buying the lies they have been pushing in their ads. Subway has the lowest quality meats you can buy. Their turkey and chicken "breasts" are nothing more than bits and pieces of meat that are molded and glued together with carrageenan. Did you really think you could get a foot long sandwich made with high quality and healthy ingredients for 5 bucks?
6-24-2010 @8:44AM Betsey said... I always thought the meat looked disguesting to say the least.
I only eat Boars Head and so when I'm really craving a good sub, it's Firehouse we go to.
They use Boarshead and their bread is dee-licious.
Why do they have to put just junk/chemicals in everything we eat. No wonders so many have cancer and other diseaese- we're killing ourselves.
6-24-2010 @10:49AM poot said... So, you guys are eating there three times a day every day? I suggest you stay away from ALL fast food places. Only a complete idiot eats all their meals out and then complains about it. Eating at these places occasionally causes no harm, and the food at Subway is no worse for you than the food in any other fast food place.
6-24-2010 @11:11AM joeomar said... It's hard to feel sympathy for the American public anyway if they feel Subway has been misleading them on their "healthy sandwiches". What idiot believes marketing hype? They're pretty crappy sandwiches anyway - hunk of tasteless bread stuffed with lettuce and a little "meat" (VERY little if you're lucky - God knows what that stuff is made from). What do you expect for five dollars?
6-24-2010 @12:44PM kevin said... it makes me sick to think about it and shame on subway i will never eat there again. and it begs the question where is the fcc in all of this for mis leading advertising
6-24-2010 @4:35PM engin said... I knew I hated Jared
6-24-2010 @3:24PM kevin said... Thats why you should try to eat at home. Why should fast food restaurants be concerned about you.
6-27-2010 @2:18AM Sdan said... I know... I've tried for years but every food I've come across is made entirely out of chemicals.
6-22-2010 @4:50PM Frank said... "With the requisite soda on the side, you're talking about a major corn-syrup overload."
That's kind a stupid and useless argument. No one HAS to order a soda (which incidentally has waaaay more than the 3 grams of sugar in the bread). And the 3 grams of sugar in the bread (whether it be HFCS or whatever) aren't going to kill you.
http://www.subway.com/applications/NutritionInfo/nutritionlist.aspx?id=breadtop
Nice publicity for this guy, but it's clearly more hype that fact.
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6-22-2010 @7:09PM doodoolemonque said... No, it won't kill you, but no one is claiming it will and clearly you are not able to dispute the facts. The point is, Subway, (you, in some measure, I presume), touts itself as a healthful alternative, without acknowledging the less than healthful aspects of its highly processed food. But seriously, people are going to eat what they're going to eat. Why not admit, yeah, we put some crap that's bad for you in it, too? If people want to waste money on a sandwich they can make for themselves at home, with much better ingredients and for a lot less money, telling them about the poisons in your food won't stop them.
6-23-2010 @12:09PM Celticson said... You're headed for health disaster with your excuses for unhealthy foods. I hope you don't make the decisions for the whole family
6-24-2010 @12:39PM Frank said... ...but a different Frank than this Frank... anyway...
Yeah it would be like saying, 'X Brand Tortilla is made with Lard so you have 4 grams of fat per serving. Add a 40 gram tub of Lard and you'll really be overloading on fat.'
Well, that's obvious, but it's eating a 40 gram tub of Lard that's overloading the fat, not eating an X Brand Tortilla.
6-25-2010 @4:07PM Natsu said... I don't think he was exaggerating. The last time I went to Subway I wanted a bag of chips and they told me it would be CHEAPER if I got it in a combo, with a soda. They want you to drink the hfcs, they want you to still feel hungry (even though your stomach is full), they want you to go back to the counter to get one of those gross little cookies.
Additionally, people know there's a ton of sugar and crap in soda. You can look at one on the shelf of any grocery store. You cannot easily see the label of the "healthy" and "9 grain" bread they sell at Subway. Until today I had no idea that there was hfcs (something I refuse to knowingly eat) in the bread.
6-23-2010 @1:08AM anna said... Oh my word, yes - I can TASTE the sweetness of this bread - peh. Just turn the sandwich into a salad and then you'll have a legitimate healthy alternative.
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6-23-2010 @4:08AM Samme said... The comparison holds up. Compare a sub sandwich to a fast-food burger and you will still be much better off with the sub most of the time. They both have refined white bread, but the burgers can have huge amounts of sat fat ( http://www.acaloriecounter.com/fast-food.php ) and very little in the way of vegetables. A sub sandwich with all the veggies is more filling and adds some actual vitamins and fiber to the mix.
I also don't see how making something at home is an argument against subs. If you have the time and inclination to make your food at home then that is the best choice. Sometimes people need to choose from what is readily available, and in that case the subs win. Besides, I like to order all the veggies on my sub. A $5 sub compares pretty favorably to doing all that cutting and prep work at home even with a little HFCS in the bread.
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6-24-2010 @10:00AM Sunday said... Yes - I totally agree with Samme here.
Also, it is not cheaper to buy the ingredients and make it yourself in every situation. Lunch meats and cheeses are very expensive as well as fresh veggies. Sometimes, it's expensive to eat healthy!
6-24-2010 @1:13PM Zane said... Sam and Sandy sound like paid Subway shills. Everyone needs to pay attention to comments in any news article. There are paid shills or bloggers responding, especially in the politics department. It's one of the reasons why Obama gets so much heat, because these paid bloggers infest comment sections, distorting the facts, sticking up for corporations and their Republican masters and spreading confusion. Subway is just another corporation who only cares about profits. If they truly cared about people and their health, you'd see better veggies (more leafy greens), HFCS free bread, maybe even organic food. But just look at the last few years. All these new specialty subs with heaping amounts of cheese and fatty meats. And now the breakfast crap, looks no different than Egg McMuffins. My local Subway doesn't even have spinach anymore and it seems every Subway I've gone to got rid of the good deli pickles they used to have. Now they all have regular boring hamburger dill pickles. Like others said, no wonder it's only 5 bucks.
6-24-2010 @2:05PM Me said... If I could buy the bread and meat 4-6 slices at a time, the vegetables in single servings, etc here in the middle of nowhere, sure it would be better for me to make my sandwiches at home. As it stands, if I get the ingredients to make my own subs, I have to throw 2/3 of it away lest I decide to grow my own antibiotics. Just in case people didn't know, there is no consideration for healthy eating especially for 2 person families in small town grocery stores. Even the bigger chains like Wal Mart and Kroger only sell large prepackaged containers of produce or make the individual items super expensive.