We have all seen the commercials where Subway praises itself on how healthy its food is, but is Subway healthy or are those claims just marketing hype? This is an important question because every year, more and more of us are becoming overweight, even obese, largely because of the food choices that we make every day. In a world where chain fast food restaurants reign and the homemade sandwich is in decline, we need to make sure that the so-called “healthy food” we eat actually is good for us. So, how healthy is Subway? Are Subway sandwiches healthy, as they advertise, or are they just another fast food restaurant dressed up in sheep’s clothing?
Missed Opportunities and Marketing
Photo Credit: Flickr - time_anchor
The first time I saw Jared from Subway in a commercial was in 2000. Here was this guy who claimed to have lost 245 pounds on what has since come to be known as the Subway Diet. I thought it was just another ad at first, but when he started turning up on all over the news and talk TV, I was very impressed, not just that he lost a massive amount of weight, but that he did it on a diet of nothing but Subway sandwiches.
For several years, Subway ads were dominated by claims of how healthy they were, especially when they were compared to other fast food choices. This continued until 2008, when the collapse of the American economy tightened our collective purse strings and made the restaurant chains have to compete even harder for business.
In order to stay competitive in a “super-size” society, Subway launched the $5 dollar footlong sandwich campaign and made it the center of their marketing. At the same time, they began offering breakfast sandwiches with bacon and sausage, as well as single serving pizzas.
This is where I feel they missed an opportunity to do something really special and significant. Instead of pushing the idea of the Subway $5 dollar footlong sandwich and other unhealthy new options in all of their marketing, they should have gone even further toward providing healthy, tasty food to a public that really has no better option. They should have pushed for fresher ingredients, less sodium in the meat, and given the world a truly healthy fast food restaurant.
Sadly, they did not do that, and the world is still missing a truly healthy fast food restaurant chain.
Are There Any Healthy Subway Bread Choices?
Every sandwich begins with bread. In terms of calories, most of the bread options are fairly similar, around 200 to 260 calories each. Understandably, bread options such as the honey oat or the Monterrey cheddar are on the higher side, while the regular Italian white and the 9-grain wheat are on the lower end. None are particularly high in fiber, though the 9-grain wheat and the honey oat are the highest with 4 grams and 5 grams of fiber, respectively.
All that being said, the “healthiest bread at Subway,” or rather the least offensive because none of them is particularly healthy, is actually the plain Italian white bread. “Why isn’t it the 9-grain wheat bread? Wheat bread is healthier!” I can hear you asking. I’ll answer your question in four words: high fructose corn syrup.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. The bread that is placed as the healthiest bread at Subway contains high fructose corn syrup. Not only that, but it contains more of it than all of the nine grains combined! And that lovely brown color that is so indicative of healthy wheat breads? It comes from a combination of ammonium sulfate (nitrogen and fertilizer) and caramel coloring.
Photo Credit: Flickr - Hajime Nakano
Recently, Subway has begun offering flatbread as one of their bread choices. You might think that being flat, it would contain fewer calories and simple carbohydrate than the traditional bread choices, but this is not the case. The flatbread contains a few more calories than the “9-grain wheat” and roughly the same amount of carbs, while at the same time having an extra 150 mg of sodium. Choosing flatbread out of preference is one thing, but it is not a viable alternative if you are looking for something healthier than their standard bread.
In August 2011, Subway began fortifying many of their breads with additional calcium and vitamin D. While I do applaud that there has been some progress in improving their breads, as long as they contain more high fructose corn syrup than whole grains, they haven’t done enough.
How to Order the Healthiest Subway Sandwich
We already know that the Italian BMT, meatball sub, and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches aren’t exactly healthy, but what about the Fresh Fit sandwiches it advertises as being low in fat? Is Subway healthy when it comes to these sandwiches? Not exactly, but there are a few tricks that you can use to fine-tune a sandwich in order to make it as healthy as possible.
- Skip the Foot Long - I know the temptation of getting a deal with the $5 foot long line is a powerful one, but you have to remember that when you order twice the sandwich, you eat twice the calories, twice the white flour, twice the high fructose corn syrup, twice the sodium, etc. Besides, by the time you finish loading up the sandwich and get your apple slices, you’ll have a 400 calorie meal anyway.
- Choose the Regular Italian Bread - As we discussed before, the best bread at Subway for you is the regular Italian white bread because it does not contain high fructose corn syrup and contains fewer chemical additives.
- Scoop Out The Bread - Ask the employee to scoop out the inside of the bread, making a boat shape out of each half. When you do this, you eliminate 30% or more of the simple carbohydrates and high fructose corn syrup.
- Choose a Lean Meat -It goes without saying that in order to create a healthy sandwich, you can’t load it up with meatballs and pepperoni. Still, even among Subway’s low fat meat choices, there is still a hierarchy of which ones are better. Protein content is close enough between them for our purposes, so we will choose on the basis of how much sodium they contain.In this regard, the oven roasted chicken is by far the winner, with almost 200 mg of sodium less than roast beef, the next best meat in our list. Turkey and ham contain even more, an additional 140 mg, in fact. All in all, the oven roasted (unbreaded) chicken is the best choice.
- Go To Town On Veggies - We all know that vegetables play a big part in a healthy diet, and Subway offers several options that we can choose from. This is good, because the bulk of our sandwich is going to made up of a variety of vegetables, and the sky’s the limit when it comes to adding most of them. The only thing that you will want to be careful of is the sodium content of any vegetable that has been brined, such as olives, pickles, and banana peppers.
- Skip the Fatty Dressings -Mayonnaise and chipotle cream dressing may be very flavorful, and if you’re a regular reader you know that fat is flavor and I am not afraid of fat, but our goal here is to make as close to a perfectly healthy Subway sandwich as possible. Given these conditions, we’ll be passing on these condiments for now. The same is true of the sweet onion sauce, which is almost pure sugar. Mustard is a great choice, if you’re a mustard person. It has almost no calories and is full of flavor. As for me, I’ll skip it because I don’t like mustard. My dressing of choice is a light mixture of vinegar and olive oil. Of course, if you mixed the two with an egg, you would have a crude mayonnaise.
- Resist Cookies and Chips - It would be a shame if all the hard work we just put into making a healthy sandwich was ruined by tacking on 200 calories of sugar and starch, wouldn’t it? Do yourself a favor and skip the chips and cookies. Subway offers apple slices as a side now, and though the flavor of them is a little meh, they are a lot better for you.
Okay, so here is the breakdown for our sandwich:
| Size: | 6 Inch |
| Bread: | Italian White |
| Meat: | Oven Roasted Chicken |
| Cheese: | None |
| Dressing: | Olive Oil and Vinegar |
| Veggies: | Lettuce, tomato, green peppers, banana peppers, red onions, pickles |
And here is the nutritional breakdown:
| Calories: | 360 |
| Fat: | 10 g |
| Sodium: | 770 mg |
| Carbs: | 46 g |
| Fiber: | 2 g |
| Protein: | 22 g |
As you can see, it is far from perfect, there isn’t much fiber, and the sodium is still somewhat high, but it’s not too bad compared to the alternatives when you need to pick something up.
Subway Healthy Options You May Have Missed
Since all the marketing these days focuses on the $5 foot long sandwiches and new offerings such as pizza and breakfast sandwiches, there are a few healthy options that you may not have noticed.
- Salads - Any of the fresh fit sandwiches on the menu can be made as a salad instead of a sandwich. This solves the problem of carbohydrate overload that you get from the sandwich so long as you skip the croutons, but the sodium still hovers around 800 mg once you add the dressing. Still, it’s an option that many people forget.
- Apple Slices - Instead of just chips and cookies, many Subway restaurants have begun offering bags of apple slices. Each bag contains the equivalent of half of a medium apple and only 35 calories. The flavor isn’t as good as you would get from a fresh apple, but that’s to be expected because it’s been sliced and bagged.
Is Subway Healthy Or Not? Final Thoughts
I have to say that I’m disappointed that I can’t give Subway a glowing review here, partially because it is still my go-to place when I need a quick meal and don’t have time to make something myself. They’re fast, inexpensive, and relatively tasty, but they still have a long way to go before I feel comfortable calling them a healthy restaurant. Adding more fresh vegetables, reformulating their bread, and reducing sodium levels would all be great steps that I hope they decide to take.
Is Subway bad for you or is Subway good for you? It’s certainly not the worst choice you could make when you eat out, but there are ways to make it healthier. Avoid the temptation of savings with the $5 foot long sandwich, ask the employees to scoop out the center of the bread, load up on veggies, stick to leaner meats such as chicken or turkey, and steer clear of fatty dressings and cheese. You’ll get a sandwich that, while not ideal, is vastly superior in terms of nutrition than what you are likely to find at any of the other chains.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Surely the “healthiest” Subway sandwich is the 6-inch veggie with no cheese which should cut way back on the sodium and fat.
That’s a good point. I actually strongly considered choosing the Veggie Delite over the chicken as the healthiest sandwich at Subway in order to save 300 mg of sodium, but I chose to go with the chicken for a couple of different reasons:
1.) Most people are omnivores and need a bit of meat in their meals. Compared to the alternatives, chicken was the best choice.
2.) The protein in the chicken helps to mitigate the blood sugar spike that results from eating all that bread, since there isn’t enough fiber in the bread itself and vegetables to slow digestion much.
3.) It adds some calories without adding much fat. At 230 calories, the veggie isn’t really much of a meal. 360 isn’t much better, but the added protein helps keep you from getting hungry again so soon.
Subway is great as a concept, but as I said, even the “healthiest” sandwich isn’t nearly as good as something you might make at home. I hope that changes because I love the idea of a truly healthy fast food place, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Thanks for visiting.