Subway is the single largest chain restaurant in the world. That means you’ve probably eaten there at some point in your lifetime and if you are like me could possibly have 10 of these restaurants within a 1 mile radius of your house. But is eating at America’s favorite fast food chain really eating real food?
Subway would certainly like you to think so. With their slogan “Eat Fresh,” marketing with avocados and a guy who lost hundreds of pounds eating their famous sub sandwiches, it’s easy to get duped.
You may also feel tricked when you see a little heart logo, indicating a menu item at Subway is “heart healthy.” Just last week it was announced that the American Heart Association (AHA) has endorsed several menu items at Subway and added the heart logo to indicate which ones.
At every Subway on the “sneeze guard” glass they display one version of their nutritional information – the infamous “6 grams of fat or less” menu. This menu includes calories, fat grams, and that new little heart logo, but doesn’t display anything about the ingredients. Doubting that Subway or the AHA would actually ever create a real food information guide for you, I decided it was time to do this myself. Below are the “6 grams or less” menu items and critical real food information you should know about each choice.
Let’s take a closer look.
- Subway definitely keeps it fresh and I figured out how. Every single one of their items on the “6 grams or less” menu has preservatives to keep it …well…fresh! Sure Subway makes your meal right in front of you, but what is really happening behind the scenes? Boxes of already cut up and prepackaged processed foods and chemical additives are being shipped from Big Food industry factories to each location.
- The 9 grain wheat bread might look and smell freshly baked but it contains close to 50 ingredients including refined flours, dough conditioners, hidden MSG, refined sugars, etc. Could bread this processed ever be real food? Certainly not, when it includes a chemical ingredient called azodicarbonamide, which is banned as a food additive in the U.K., Europe, and Australia, and if you get caught using it in Singapore you can get up to 15 years in prison and be fined $450,000. Azodicarbonamide is more commonly used in the production of foamed plastics, however, it is allowed in the United States as a food additive, a flour bleaching agent, and a dough conditioner that improves elasticity of bread. The U.K. has recognized this ingredient as a potential cause of asthma if inhaled, and advises against its use in people who have sensitivity to food dye allergies and other common allergies in food, because azodicarbonamide can exacerbate the symptoms. Let’s not forget it only takes 4 or 5 simple ingredients to make REAL whole-wheat bread including flour, yeast, salt, water, and maybe honey.
- Three sandwiches on this menu, along with several other menu items not listed, are comprised of processed meats and filled with nitrates and forms of MSG. The consumption of nitrates need to be taken very seriously. Nitrates are frequently converted into nitrosamines, which have been proven to increase the risk of disease dramatically. The latest research from World Cancer Research Fund declared that “processed meat is too dangerous for human consumption.” Studies have shown it may only take 1.8 ounces of processed meat (about half of what is in a typical 6 inch sub) daily to increase the likelihood of cancer by 50%, heart disease by 42% and diabetes by 19%. I still know people who eat Subway for lunch everyday, but I’m glad I don’t know anyone on the actual Subway Diet. Sheesh. I can’t imagine what their percentage would be, could you?
– - Can you believe the American Heart Association is now putting their seal of approval behind these processed meat based Subway menu items? WOW. After all these studies that show an increase in heart disease? Is this a joke? Even the processed turkey meat that seems harmless because it doesn’t contain nitrates is full of preservatives, chemical flavorings, and carrageenan. I wrote about carrageenan last month after the Cornucopia Institute revealed a study that once the food grade version of carrageenan is ingested it turns into a carcinogen in your digestive system.
- Preservatives and even artificial colors are added to many of their “fresh” vegetable offerings – like the banana peppers and pickles. The ingredients for the black olives unveiled a new additive I learned about, “ferrous gluconate,” which is an iron based preservative that helps keep olives black.
- While the “6 grams or less” menu says the totals don’t include cheese or salad dressings, it is important to know that some of the cheeses offered at subway also have artificial colors, preservatives, and even cellulose that’s made from wood pulp.
- Two of the healthiest sounding salad dressings were actually the worst based on my analysis. Fat free honey mustard and the red vinaigrette both have corn syrup, artificial colors, preservatives, and other chemical additives.
To top it off, the majority of foods at Subway have been conventionally sourced and probably include pesticides, antibiotics, and/or growth hormones. In my research, I didn’t find one single organic ingredient or menu item available at over 36,000 stores. Even the lemon juice comes in a pre-packaged squirt pack filled with preservatives. Because of this I haven’t consciously ever considered going to a Subway in the last 7 years.
Last weekend, I broke this streak and went into a Subway in search of real food. I have to admit the thought of going into a Subway and ordering off the menu was a little bit daunting, but I decided this was the best way to get the answers to my questions, like whether or not their avocado was really fresh or not. Could it be possible for me to order something and actually take a bite without squirming? Going against my “vote with your dollars” philosophy and purchasing something from the “bad guys” went against every bone in my body. But I did it.
Watch it all unfold in the video below. Everything at Subway may not be “fresh” but if you are ever stuck on a deserted island and this was the only place you could eat… now you know what to order.
Special thanks to Nicole Galuski for filming
P.S. You can check out my favorite “fast food” sandwich I am eating now and how to get it here.
Update 6/2015: Subway announced they will remove all artificial food ingredients and preservatives from their food by 2017.
Update 4/2014: Subway has removed azodicarbonamide from their bread.
Thanks for posting the article about Subway. Will they ever have healthier choices?
Actually… there is a slightly healthier choice at Subway. The grilled chicken salad. I double my meat and the salad can be eaten for two meals this way with only a small increase in cost. It cuts down on the “bread chemical issue” which today’s “wheat” is truly not good for us any more. Too many changes to the wheat germ itself through Genetically Modified engineering (GMO) thanks to Monsanto…45 yrs ago.
Eating a salad..true..it doesnt take away all the chemicals…but does reduce it a bit.
Good choices today…and not just at Subway – are getting scarce, when eating out…period. All (convenient/fast) food is processed and adulterated. Even on your grocery shelves… the more the convenience… the more chemicals. Up to 74 different chemicals are loaded or shot into into different foods (remember – the more the convenience, the more the chemicals) before it hits your grocers shelves.
Not good news…but being aware will help. Just look on the ingredient label. Let this be your guide to eating more clean. Yes its getting harder and harder to eat healthy or clean. But one can …cut down on the amount that goes into your children’s bodies or yours. Stick to basic cleaner foods (ones without long cant pronounce ingredients) and avoid all wheat and cornmeal products (most adulterated by chemicals and genetic alterations)) unless they are organic.
Meat is healthy?
While wheat may have been adulterated by outcrossing to get to shorter wheat that won’t lodge (fall over), it is by definition not a GMO. No foreign genes were blasted into the DNA–it was extensive, somewhat natural, crossing with related wild grasses that may have introduced troublesome traits. And Monsanto wasn’t involved with wheat then. Perhaps most of the problem with wheat, as with all grains used in bread, is that the yeast used today is too fast-acting to break down the phytin bonds that preserve vitamins and minerals in the grain until it sprouts. Dough needs overnight to properly change the locked-up minerals and vitamins into useful food, or else sprout the grains and then dry them before making bread. I’m a sma
The ingredients below are in Subway chicken Strips. The list came from the Subway website. This ingredient added to a Subway salad would absolutely NOT make it healthier. Makes me cringe.
CHICKEN BREAST STRIPS Boneless, skinless chicken breast with rib meat; water, flavor (potassium
chloride, maltodextrin, sugar, autolyzed yeast extract, gum arabic, molasses, flavors, salt, lactic acid,
disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate, fructose, medium chain triglycerides, dextrose, succinic
acid, vinegar solids, thiamine hydrochloride and artificial flavors), soy protein concentrate, modified
potato starch, sodium phosphates, salt. Contains soy.
GMOS
If they use the chicken breast strips that Beth mentioned above to make the chicken salad, then it is laden with msg. The autolyzed yeast extract is a form of msg, along with maltodextrin, and possibly soy protein concentrate. And what exactly are “flavors?” The ingredients disodium guanylate and disodium onosinate are two ingredients which are added solely to enhance the effects of msg, which include making you eat more, killing brain cells in the process and other negative side effects like obesity, hyperactivity and migraines.
nothing on Subway’s menu can be described as healthy. From the bun to the disgusting meat to the cheap condiments, that place is garbage. Avoid Subway at all cost. That Chicken Salad is HORRIBLE for you, how dare you say that is healthy
BUT ALL THOSE VEGIES A R E GROWN WITH GMOS…
That is why you shouldn’t eat at Subway. That place is fast food and garbage…those places need to close. No argument, that place is horrible for you.
yup and probably sprayed with a bunch of other crap after harvest too. I don’t like to eat anything from these places which make me a real bummer when i go to lunch with my sheeple friends lol.
Processed flour..God knows where the meat come from..I am guilt my of eating there..I’ve tried different subways AND THEY ALL TASTE THE SAME!!! Just like McDonald’s..Burger King..etc…and PEOPLE ARE ADDICTED TO THESE CHAINS OF FOOD THST IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU..even if you jus t get a salad..
Don’t food industry restaurants like Subway and others that serve veggies, put chemicals on them to make them “look fresh?” Forget them being organic, lol…just think of all the preservatives to keep them edible….
Subway…Eat…???
Growing up in Spain I would buy fresh bread everyday. I never eat subway because they say their food is “fresh” but I know what real bread smells like and this is not it.
Nuff said
Same here….born and raised in Spain…real bread is not this at all!!!
Thanks for sharing this with us! It’s getting harder and harder to eat healthy. Which restaurant would you eat if you didn’t have time to pack lunch and you have to eat out?? Seems like everything have preservatives now and it’s everywhere. What’s the danger of eating preservatives? Thank you again for helping us eat healthy.
You can make tim e. Prepared in the evening and planning helps in the morning rush.
True. Only if I don’t have 2 kids under 4 and two part time jobs. I would love to prep my own food more if I get the time. But more incentive to make the most out of my time. Thanks again.
Easy to say make time but sometimes life is too busy. Maybe stop at a grocery store and grab some fresh fruits and veggies that are pre cut? Add some cheese….. even grab a smoothie nearby if you can…. I struggle with no time too
I like to hard boil organic eggs and keep them in the fridge. Also agree about stopping at a grocery if time allows to get what the previous poster suggested, and maybe a yogurt (like maybe a Stoneyfield organic)? I have two young ones too and I completely get where you’re coming from. There are not enough hours in a day! Best of luck!
i totally understand what you mean. two kids under 4, full time job, full time student. but i cook meals from scratch for my family b/c i have to. i just can’t give them the stuff that i now know to be so dangerous. pre plan, cook meals on your off day, freeze meals, use your crock pot. i definitely get how busy and tired you are. i definitely don’t judge you for not doing it, but if it is important to you then you can make it work. it helped when my husband and i had a talk about household ‘chores’ and split them up accordingly to make more time for cooking. take a look at the 30 day challenge if you are struggling with your time and goals. it helped get me on track. http://www.chalenejohnson.com/30daychallenge/members/
I have two jobs also and a very, very active 3 yr old with practically no childcare and we eat real food everyday. We just keep it very simple and buy the best ingredients – organic, gmo-free certified, local, fresh. I cook some things and freeze them for quick breakfasts – ww waffles, muffins. We eat plain organic yogurt, fruits, organic almond butter sandwiches with cut up veggies and fruit for lunch. I eat salads with good proteins and homemade dressings. For dinner I often make something quick – like tostadas with vegan beans and avocado or fried rice with brown rice and frozen organic veggies. It can be done, I promise! Maybe involve your kids with cooking and prep? My dude loves to help and we all feel amazing eating the way we do.
I can relate, Mary. Everyone can say “make time” all they want, but sometimes that really is not possible and it comes down to “grab something quick/cheap/available or starve.” It would be nice to have an actual healthy alternative, since Subway is apparently a no-go now.
I was a single mom with 4 kids and worked full time and I made time. It is important to our children’s health that we feed them food without preservatives which cause cancer. Our cancer rates have soared and children are getting it younger and younger. Most of the prevention can be done in our own homes, ie food, air fresheners, household cleaners. Our bodies are overloaded with chemicals that do not belong there. We owe it to our children to make the time.
? Okay.
Don’t be a bitch.
I wasn’t, but thanks for the tip. LOL. Sheesh, guys.
I’m so with you Mary and totally resent the implication that you can just make time or it’s just not that important. Truth is, my health and my families health is the most important, but so is my job and my daughters soccer practice and her homework and picking up my grandkids on the way home and squeezing in a load of laundry and making dinner and cleaning the kitchen and taking the garbage and recycle to the curb and grabbing that last minute birthday gift someone forgot to mention and what? I forgot lunch…how is that possible? Yes, it happens!
Man…I’ve never been a fan of Subway. It tastes very processed to me. But yeah, those saying you can make time if its truly important…no, not always. You would have to plan for multiple contingencies. I have 2 small boys and another on the way. Life is unpredictable. Yes, it’s certainly helps to plan/prepare ahead, but at some point stressing about this or loosing sleep over it takes it’s own toll on your health!
Dude, Subway doesn’t even have a drive thru which adds at least 20 minutes to the stop to deal with kids and carseats, so it’s not convenient for me anyway! When we get caught out, I gravitate toward Starbucks drive-thru. We really like their protein bistro box and the fruit and cheese bistro box. Minimal fresh, unadulterated ingredients…protein box has a hard boiled egg, grapes, apple slices, a couple of small slices of cheese, a packet of Justin’s organic peanut butter and a piece of muesli bread (a few more than 5 ingredients, but includes several types of seeds and grains). The cheese box has about a 1/3 cup of unsalted almonds and cranberries, a pack of multigrain crackers, a small wedge of Brie cheese, 2 other small slices of cheese in other varieties, and I think apple slices in to one too. I will occasionally get a sandwich from there too…I’m sure I wouldn’t be altogether pleased with the ingredients list if I looked them up, but they are noticeably fresher and less processed than any other fast option I know of.
To give you an actual answer, Chipotle.
Thank you! It’s like people are ignoring the question. Yes, it’s better to prep before, but there are times when it’s just not possible.
I make time to pack my own lunch. If it’s an emergency and I can’t hold off until I get home, I’ll seek out an independently owned local restaurant. There’s one in my city called “Farm” and they buy their food from local producers. I’m not sure what they do in the winter months but I can eat with confidence there in the summer months. They have a very talented chef too.
I do the same. No chains. And I’ve been to farm in park Slope. Loved it.
But most vegan restaurants I know they use also fake ingredients, coloring & such , many chemicals to make the food tastes like, let’s say like real meat or such.
First of all if you go to the store and get a fresh sliced deli do you think it has no preservatives? It’s not fair and yes the bread is baked fresh every day 2 or more times a day it’s not freshly made but baked fresh. Compared to the other choices of fast food subway is healthy and at least you see what’s put into it when made!!!
Um exactly.
Unless you grew the food yourself and ate it immediately, of course it will have additives and preservatives. Also, nitrates are naturally occurring in ham. And do you really expect to not have refined sugar in the bread? I make homemade bread and it calls for a tablespoon of sugar (yes I can use honey, but I can also use granulated sugar).
Oh, and if you are in the scenario of making the sandwich out of “real, fresh” food, then be prepared to only eat it a few times a year, since aquiring and preparing the ingredients would be very time consuming for you and things are only in season for a short amount of the year.
So no, I don’t fault subway for using premade mayo instead of making it themselves with eggs in the back (ugh, I would be more worried about that scenario!)
Agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well-said.
How many ingredients do you use, when you make your bread?
6? 10? 12?
They use over FIFTY ingredients… that alone tells a story…
Choose to eat organic and go to health conscious grocery stores. Yes it may be a little bit more pricey, but worth it? definitely! You’re eating actual food instead of all that gmo crap. You need real food in order to get real nutrients.
Just the other day, I was at a local Safeway grocery store. I was looking for Nitrate-free bacon. Out of the 20+ packages of bacon – I found only ONE that was nitrate free. And of course, it was like $3 more than the other junk….and I bought it. The price we pay for healthy food.
Actually you can go to a health conscious grocery store and buy all of the ingredients in a subway sandwich without any of the preservatives and chemicals. It takes a little research but I pull it off. People love to say it’s not possible to eat healthy everyday but that’s because they are lazy and are making excuses. You don’t have to eat garbage just because other people say you don’t have time to do the research and make your own lunches. Stop eating fast food of any kind, and that includes subways, and eat only organic and natural foods that you’ve researched. It gets easier after a few weeks.
No one said its impossible, yes if you take your time and have a butt load of money to spare you can go to organic stores ( which still have other types of ingredients and preservatives) you can pull it off. But for people that don’t want to spend the time and grow their own foods or purchase pricy preservatives they go to fast food places and if people want to get something low priced and a little more healthy than a burger Subway is the way to go
There’s plenty of options at the grocery store that don’t have all the preservatives I including deli meat. You can choose whether or not to eat at Subway but if you’re really concerned about what goes in your body then you will avoid places like that. Food Babe is just making you aware of what Subway’s ingredients are because they want everyone to think that they are the healthy choice…when they are far from it.
These findings are maddening! Thanks for exposing and raising awareness. As long as the FDA keeps allowing these chemicals in food, these companies will continue to put it in there. This may sound crazy, but is there any way to put pressure on the FDA??
What if I don’t eat the bread and just have salad…. ?
That’s definitely better! But Chipotle and Jason’s Deli are better options for that since they use some local and organic ingredients.
I used to work at subway, there are very few things veggie wise that aren’t fresh. Trust me every time I see an onion I swear my eyes bleed. Everything usually comes frozen and truly, depending on where you go majority of sandwich shoos will have prepackaged items as well.
This shouldn’t be that big of a shock.
If you buy pre-packaged or deli meats that do NOT say “No Nitrates” you’ll have the same issue at home. If you buy store-bought bread (even from the store bakery), you’ll have the same issues. It’s “fresh” in the sense that they baked the bread that day, but they didn’t make the dough in the back with 5 ingredients. It came on a truck from some corporate warehouse.
It’s probably still a better option if your other choice is a burger joint.
You guys miss the point completely… you buy CHEAP ASS FAST FOOD and your mad that its poor quality? I am amazed at all of your stupidity. If you want high quality “real” “healthy” food, why the hell are you buying fast food?? Its because of people like you that we are able to sue mcdonalds because it made someone fat…
Both cases against McDonald’s were thrown out of court. I personally don’t buy this stuff for my child ever but maybe be gentle on those that might have to sometimes. You don’t know their whole story and you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
My subjective take…
Even before I changed my diet from Corporate America’s toxic food wasteland, I noticed that Subway’s “food” seemed to take away my energy, life-force — call it what you will.
Sure, it tasted good (at the time), but it I noticed something not quite right and I began to notice the same thing with McDonald’s “food” which only seemed to get worse in the 1990s (along with the rest of our “food” supply).
Mothers: if you really love your kids, keep them away from toxic fast-food. If you are already feeding their bodies and souls with poisoned corporate “food,” please stop immediately. You may quickly observe a radical change for the better once you feed them real food,
Mothers: Monsanto has yet another emotion-exploiting PR campaign targeted at you — a variation on a theme that GMOs are OK for kids. If you want to observe 21st-century propaganda techniques first hand, study Monsanto – as many are doing. (Please see below).
Mothers: Please do not ever be impressed by academics, “scientists,” Nobel Prize winners, Ph.Ds telling you how great GMOs are. As a long-time academic with a Ph.D., I ask you to be profoundly skeptical as academia has all too often become yet another American wasteland — bought, purchased, and corrupted by Corporate America. I have seen the most shocking lies and masquerades by “scientists” firsthand. This is a source of great grief for me.
But all is not lost: Food Babe to the rescue!
Please see: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “PR push by ag and biotech industries has a secret weapon: Moms.”
How dare you imply that Mothers don’t love their children if they don’t feed them the foods you consider best. That is an ugly thing to say. They love their children as much as anyone else commenting on this post.
No apologies!
We do not and will not apologize for telling the truth!
We do not and will not apologize for defending childrens’ rights!
We do not and will not apologize for wanting children to have access to healthy food!
This sounds more like an anti-capitalism, anti-corporate, anti-American diatribe than anything else. Thanks for the hijack, though. Now back to the global warming hoax.
lol, everything you buy at the grocery store fits this articles description.
What is hidden about the MSG? Is it hidden the way the salt is hidden i.e. there isn’t a big sign saying ‘You are about to eat MSG’.
MSG is the best source of Umami, the fifth taste after Salty, Sweet, Bitter and Sour. If you want to ignore 20% of your pallet go ahead and avoid it. While you’re at it you can avoid yummy foods like parmesan and seaweed that contain naturally occurring MSG.
If you blame your dodgy stomach after visiting an Asian restaurant on the MSG you might want to do a bit of research and consider the effect of the oil, they continually reuse to cook the food in, instead.
The best proof of MSG’s harmlessness is the billions of people in Asia that eat it 3 times a day every day without any adverse effects. I suggest we all wake up to fact that our weird western myth about the bad effects of MSG is ridiculous and just enjoy this tasty flavour the Chinese call 味精, which could be translated as ‘yummy’.
Chances are you’re eating and enjoying it all the time anyway.
Umami is the Japanese term to refer to our “fifth” tastebud which is in fact not a tastebud at all. MSG is NOT a flavour, and is in fact tasteless on its own. All MSG does is make your BRAIN experience flavour more intensely. No, that is not healthy and not natural. There are plenty of studies and articles demonstrating the adverse health effects of MSG and linking it to other brain issues like Alzheimer’s.
Restaurants that douse their dishes with MSG are taking the easy route to giving their food more flavour without having to put the effort that would otherwise be required. I’ve gone in and asked them to make it without MSG and it tasted like crap. Other restaurants, in contrast, avoid it all together and actually put the work in to make their food naturally taste good – without cheating!
MSG added to foods triggers my migraines within 20 minutes. Many do not list it because it’s a flavor enhancer, but I react to it. I have friends and family members that have the same reaction. I avoid pork products, luncheon meats, hot dogs because nitrates & nitrites will also trigger a migraine. I constantly have to read labels when I shop. I didn’t ask to be “wired” this way, but I don’t need my food “enhanced” either. And yes, I plant vegetables every spring and have planted fruit trees so that I can actually eat fresh summer-fall. But in winter I’m still dependent on stores. The article shocked me that even the veggie subway has MSG. I’m sure subway isn’t the only one that does this.
I had an a reaction to any food with MSG for more than 15 years. Cramping, extreme diarrhea, sometimes puking within 20 minutes of eating it. It does have a flavor because it is sometimes used as a food flavoring.
Al parecer los competidores de Subway están perdiendo participación y no encuentran mas que criticar al que le esta yendo bien.
Si a eso vamos…todo lo que se come es malo… todo lo que se lee es malo y todo es peligroso en la vida….disfruten los deliciosos sanwchich de subway….sin tanto drama
Oh, and let’s not forget: Jarrad is worth an estimated $15 Million. I repeat: Jarrad’s net worth is $15 Million thanks to this sham, big Agra-sponsored sesspool of mainstream American cuisine! Great job of reporting Food Babe!
Is there anywhere to eat healthy(er) fast food though?!
Seems like you cannot win 🙁
Thanks for the article, Food Babe! I’ve known for years that Subway’s food is toxic. I am highly reactive to chemicals, and I stopped eating there long ago when I determined the food was a sure fire migraine inducer. I won’t allow any member of my family to eat there, either. When I see their ads claiming they sell healthy food, I roll my eyes. I wouldn’t feed that rubbish to a dog! My pets eat organic, too . . . of course!
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. Once in a blue moon will not hurt. I believe Subway is one of the better choice of take away foods.
When they say everything in moderation is key that is true, BUT, people are not doing things in moderation – the obesity rate in America is climbing every day. People are not eating fast food “once in a blue moon”. – They are eating it on a daily basis. I applaud Food Babe for bringing this to light. Yes, it can be frustrating to go to the grocery store or out to eat and weed through ingredients lists but just ignoring it, does not make it go away. Americans need to wake up and realize that we are slowly killing ourselves and much worse our children with our forks.
I have worked with Subway on/off for five years, I would say that avocado has the MOST chemicals out of every menu option. 100% avocado browns after an hour or so of exposure to air. Subway avocados don’t turn brown, not even after a week of exposure. Not to mention the fact that it tastes like eating window cleaner.
Well, if you worked there, you should have known that the Avocado only has three ingredients.
AVOCADO PUREE Avocado pulp, water. ascorbic acid.
AVOCADO PUREE Avocado pulp, water. ascorbic acid.
Thanks for this! I keep trying to tell my parents this 🙁 Out of curiosity do you know if Jersey Mikes is a culprit as well?
I have to assume this is strictly an editorial. Do some fact checking yourselves and try not to read sensationalized claims. Don’t blame a large corporate entity for standardizing their food, or trying to control costs. Sure there food has a lot of ingredients, read the label on the meat you get at the supermarket. The avocado is preserved using mostly lime juice, which yes tastes a lot like window cleaner. Acids tend to prevent oxidation, and the acid gets used up during the process, the more acid used the longer the product stay green. I hate articles that rely on fear to reinforce there message. And i like journalists less that survive on ad revenue. You want to change the world, try science.
Subway Avocado: AVOCADO PUREE Avocado pulp, water. ascorbic acid.
Subway is the healthiest fast food option. Truth be told they don’t claim that any of the pickled vegetables are fresh. In fact if you get lettuce, spinach, tomato, onion, green pepper, onion, and avocado, you are getting 5 servings of vegetables per footlong, and veggies have fiber and vitamins. The real benefit of Subway is having access to a lot of vegetables. The bread is passable nutrition, not a fan of the extra unnecessary things, but Subway has enabled me to lose additional weight this year.
buy your own food,cook your own food eat your own food.
Actually, a lot of the things you are buying in the grocery store come from the same suppliers that Subway uses, and have the same unnatural ingredients.
Food suppliers in this country have to mass-produce. That means preservatives, insecticides, and other chemicals, because quantity becomes more important than quality.
Everything sold at subway is from the Subway Brand. It is ordere through GFS but nonetheless it is Subways own for most products. And if its not it say so, for example, the hot sauce is Franks Red Hot. The mustard is Heins. But the bread, meat, cheese, veggies, cookies and many more things are Subway brand. You cannot go to giant eagle and buy the same exact cheese and what not that subway has.
Agreed Maria!
how does the subway avocado stay green in the food table??? wen i cup open an avocado at home, it turns brown very quickly ….
when I worked at Subway we cut every tomatoe, onion, and pepper. we got them whole from a supplier and diced and sliced them. also, we mixed and made all tuna and crab salad.
I grew up eating real food. REALLY real food. I grew up on a working farm and we grew our own food. All our meat was slaughtered by hand. Everything was grown organically. There was a pond and we would catch trash fish for fertilizer and use coffee and tobacco for pesticide. Fruits and vegetables were canned by hand. The only things we didn’t grow ourselves were sugar, flour and coffee. Do you know what I learned with all that? It’s a lot of work! Anyone can claim their food is organic but unless you buy from a local farmer you don’t know. The truth is that organic farming is very difficult and you lose a lot of your produce to weather and pests. Raising animals with no growth hormones or antibiotics takes daily, careful care. You will lose some to illness and other natural causes. True organic food is almost impossible to grow in such quantities to make any kind of profit, especially enough to support a large farming model with numerous employees. So just be aware that Subway is no more or less healthy than what you buy at the grocery store, even the stuff that SAYS organic or locally sourced on it. Grow it yourself or perhaps join a co-op. However, my grandparents lived into their 90s on standard grocery store food. My mother, the organic farmer, died of cancer at age 42. My dad, who smoked cigarettes and drank whisky everyday, even while eating organically, was in fantastic health and died in a freak motorcycle accident at age 58. Just throwing that out there for perspective. As a person who has lived the truly natural lifestyle, I think it has as much or more to do with the genetic roll of the dice as what you use to fuel the machine. One good thing, if there was ever an apocalypse that took away all our modern conveniences, I’d be fine!
This article seems pretty lame to me… I eat subway often, and I am not about to stop… I am fairly certain you can continue your “investigation” at any USA restauraunt and find the same results. Unfortunately there’s many of us without a wealth of options at our fingertips, or the money to spend on what you call “healthy” foods… It’s sad when people believe every “fact” or “study” that they read…
And then there’s Carrageenan — used by the Chinese since 600BC, and introduced into modern mass-scale food use in the 1930s. I read the Cornucopia study on the stuff, and I was not impressed. It doesn’t seem like any of their findings were conclusive. And then there’s this link, (paraphrased) “If carageenan is making you sick, please fill out this questionaire.” I am sure you’re going to get some valuable scientific data there. (saracasm level = high) So I will take the word of the cornucopia over that of the FDA, NOP, EFSA… riiiiight!?
I will depart now, with this thought from Dr. Jerry Youkey, dean of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville:
(Speaking of epidemiological studies)
“The amount of stock people put in them is sometimes unfortunate,” he said. “I’ve told medical students here to try and remember everything they can, but to recognize that probably half the things that are dogma now will be proven ineffective in the next decade.”
I always get a turkey salad, double meat, no cheese, with oil and vinegar, if I have to stop at Subway. Lots of fresh veggies and a very satisfying lunch. I’m not worried about deli meat making me keel over. Life is too short to obsess about everything. My grandmother will be 100 on Dec 1. She lives alone, walks her dog, cooks her meals, knits, reads, watches baseball, has lunch with friends. She’s never over-indulged, but she’s also never obsessed. She just lives. That’s my example.
Oddly enough, the World Cancer Research Fund’s website does not state anywhere that processed meats have been declared “too dangerous for human consumption.” Its helpful chart says there is “convincing” evidence that processed meat (and red meat) “increases risk” of colon and rectum cancers, while fiber and exercise help prevent them.
Ham has nitrates? Who knew?
Idealistic but reality is that for most people Subway is the better choice over fast high fat calorie options. Obesity is a leading factor for heart disease the number one killer for men and women. The danger is that articles like this will just sway the average person back to fast food with the notion, “guess everything is bad for you”.
Why does the turkey meat not have Nitrates in it but all the other meats do? That doesn’t sound right, I bet the turkey has nitrates in it as well.
All the foods in the stores contain many different things as well. Just because it’s not on the ingredient list doesn’t mean it doesn’t contain it. The law only requires the companies to list ingredients that are on the FDA food list. If the FDA doesn’t consider it a food it doesn’t have to be listed. So don’t think your getting better food in the store. Unless you buy fresh. And that’s still questionable.
Unfortunately, this chart describes literally 90%+ of food in grocery stores. “Food” isn’t food anymore.
What’s up with taking the bag when eating in? Also, that spinach tops the dirty dozen list. Tomatoes and green peppers aren’t much better.
The amount of bias statements and misinformed “facts” in this article saddens me.
I want to point out that stating things ‘likely contain’ is not even remotely factual in statement. It either does or doesn’t. Please present the true scientific fact.
I agree it’s not the worlds best food source, but yes for some it’s the best they have. For some it’s all they can afford as a fast alternative. I work at a University and know many people who without Subway would have lived through Uni on noodles and crackers and probably developed 1 million plus developmental problems that could stem from the ingestion of Microtoxins or Ochratoxins.
It is easy to find fault with just about anything. However, if you want to actually eat healthy, be prepared to grow your own food and prepare it from scratch. The other option being to pay much higher prices by going straight to a real butcher, baker, or farmer to get your materials directly from the source. Simply put, eating healthy takes time and money that most of us simply do not have.
The grocery store is not a healthy alternative. They get their products from the same places that restaraunts like Subway do. Those GMOs, preservatives, and pesticides you complain about? Most of them are government mandated by the FDA for any product that is mass produced for the public. Even something as simple as an apple is tainted at your local grocery store. They are grown with pesticides and even covered with a chemical wax to make them shine nice and bright for you.
Eating healthy in this country has become a privelage for the wealthy. Farmer’s market prices generally far exceed those of grocery stores. And in a world where people have to be provided for at the mass level, it makes zero financial sense for a store to provide specialized healthy alternatives to those conveniently pre-processed Kraft products.
So while Subway is not perfect, you do need to recognize that it is about the healthiest alternative available to 90% of the population. Is that fair? No, but it is the reality of the world we live in.
Hi,
Well documented, it will be grateful if you post a blog about KFC, Dominos and Mc-Donald. In india, these brands are very famous and people are falling in to them like preys.
Slowly they are getting addicted to these foods.
We need to start growing our own food these companies than sell us processed crap are doing everything possible to keep things cheap to make a profit even if it means poisoning people there’s only one way to stop this and it’s to start growing natural food
It’s always interesting to me, when they talk about how “bad” all of these things are for people. Many of these advocates speak as if…Avoid these foods, live forever! Will avoiding nitrates help you live 3 months longer? 6? Look, there are certain things we know can take decades off your life, like say cigs (though my grandfather still smoked to almost age 80, with no dietary restrictions of any kind). But when is the line going to be drawn? Sure, I suppose you could have (“real”, of course!!) bread and water your whole life, and live somewhere in the woods, and live to be a hundred. Have at it! Me…I’ll grant you your wonderful 80s and 90s, and gladly take 75…and do mostly whatever the H* I want! HA 😀
From the article – “Let’s not forget it only takes 4 or 5 simple ingredients to make REAL whole-wheat bread including flour, yeast, salt, water, and maybe honey.”
Actually, really healthy bread only takes fresh ground whole wheat flour, sourdough starter, water and unrefined sea salt. And since sourdough starter is essentially water and flour, the list is even shorter.
Bakers yeast is very bad for your digestive system for many reasons. Ultimately it does not properly break down wheat (the gluten and the bran) into a digestible form and can be very irritating over the long term.
Sourdough bread (NOT the kind bought at the grocery store) is very good for the digestive system and encourages the growth of healthy bacteria in the bowel. It is rich in helpful enzymes and high in bioavailable nutrients! I’m sure there are many reasons why we are struggling with wheat and dairy intolerance on such a large scale in the industrialized countries but I believe that switching from sourdough baking to bakers yeast is a huge factor. For my family, we try to make our main source of wheat sourdough. Mmmmm… the sourdough bread and pancakes and waffles and banana bread! Delicious and healthy!
just don’t eat the crap and you’ll be better off. Cook at home and buy local as much as possible.
Really? Go to the grocery store and pick up the items you need to make a sandwich for yourself, from “fresh” ingredients. Unless you shop from an expensive organic store you get the same gmo’s and nitrates and other additives. Until we can all grow our own veggies (which most of the seeds you can buy are gmo’s, so good luck with that) and bake our own bread from our homegrown wheat field….Oh wait we can’t….we use to but then we moved in to track homes in the city and let the government take care of us. Stop bringing down the stores that try to keep us healthy, and do more research on McDonalds.
I read half of this before I had to stop. You literally have no idea what you’re talking about. You throw around the names of chemicals and then say “which is linked to diabetes” or “which is shown to cause heart disease” pretending you know what the word you’re saying even means. Where did you get your degree in biochemistry again?
Good food for our family of seven starts with the simplest thing of all – homemade bread, made with organic ingredients (especially spelt flour). It’s the easiest thing in the world to make, the bread-machine does all the work, and with some organic butter to make sandwiches, some vegetables and fruits, you’re pretty much covered on the snack front. Main meals revolve around organic chicken, fish we catch ourselves, organic pasta, free-range eggs and whatever we can find in the organic section for veggies and fruit. We do not have much of a yard, but we grow what we can in baskets, especially herbs, tomatoes, strawberries, peppers and aubergines. All four daughters bake and they make great cookies, cakes and other desserts – all organic.
Yes, it’s expensive, but none of us eat huge platefuls and there’s always something left over in the fridge for snacks. There has to be ! 🙂
Yes it’s time consuming, but you have to MAKE the time and stop doing so much other stuff. Making food with your children and eating it with them is far more important than that trip to the mall, taking in another film or an additional activity that you probably only make your kids do because someone else’s kids do it too. Making more than you can eat at one time is also always good – put the extra in the freezer.
Slow down and work to live, don’t live to work. And don’t worry too much if occasionally you have to make do with an ingredient that is non-organic. Worry will do you more harm than the ingredient will.
Yum! All of this is fantastic Roddy! You have some very lucky kids.
They are, Madeline, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. If we do not teach our children where our food comes from, and how to prepare and cook it, then mankind will kill itself even quicker than the rate it is going now. Teaching which food is good and which is bad is simply part of that process. Unfortunately, the general American public have to wake up to what is happening pretty quick. There’s a reason Europe bans a lot of those ingredients……
By the way, for those of you with kids, I need to add a couple of tricks.
One is breadcrumbs. Forget the breadcrumbs you buy in the supermarket – they are one of the worst items for additives you can imagine. Instead, if you make your own bread or buy good quality bread, put the crumbs and odd bits left over in a Ziplock in the freezer. At the end of the week take them out, crumb them with a rolling pin in the bag, and spread them on a baking tray with a little sea salt and olive oil. Toast them gently and then keep them in the freezer, using them as you wish. Any food like chicken or fish will taste divine, and you can add them to salads and use them as a gratin to your heart’s content. Your kids will love you for it.
Second is pastry, particularly puff pastry. You can wrap pretty much anything you want in puff, or put a hat of it on anything, and everyone will eat it with gusto. Don’t buy the shop-bought stuff, but make your own really quick ‘ruff-puff’ with your own ingredients (which are pretty easy to find as they are all in your pantry anyway). One of the tricks we find to living with expensive hard-to -find food is to use all of it and a pie made with left-overs and a ‘ruff’puff’ hat is a great friend to have.
This is probably not the thread to have talked about this, but who cares ? We all love food, don’t we ?
Recipe here for ‘ruff-puff’ :
http://www.onedishcloser.com/blog/2010/7/16/rough-puff-pastry.html
I shared this article with Subway, and this is what they told me.
Thank you for contacting Subway®. We understand that some customers may be concerned about the use of GM ingredients, or consuming products from animals whose feed may contain GM ingredients. Our vegetables (lettuce, tomatoes, green bell peppers, red onions, jalapeno peppers, pickles, banana peppers, and olives) and red wine vinegar dressing do not contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Although, for many reasons, it is not always possible to source non-GM ingredients, we continually work with our suppliers to reduce the use of GM ingredients in our products wherever feasible.
Additionally, all suppliers providing food to SUBWAY® restaurants are required to meet or exceed local and national governmental regulations. We choose our food products on the basis of safety, taste and nutritional content to deliver to our customers the high-quality products that they have come to expect and enjoy from the SUBWAY® brand. We continue to monitor developments in this area to ensure that we continue to offer our customers delicious, safe and high-quality foods.
ME: Is monosodium glutamate (MSG) used as a flavor enhancer in any of your foods?
The SUBWAY® brand does not add MSG to any of the standard menu items. However, other ingredients such as hydrolyzed or textured vegetable proteins and/or autolyzed yeast are used in our products. These ingredients contain glutamates that may cause similar sensitivities that MSG causes. To find out which foods at SUBWAY® contain autolyzed yeast and hydrolyzed protein, visit the nutrition section of the website to view ingredient listings. There is also a document in the nutrition section, called “Ingredient Information for People with Food Allergies” which identifies menu items that contain these two ingredients. Snack chips and pre-packaged salad dressings sold in our restaurants may contain MSG, so make sure to read the ingredient list on the package.
Our ingredients listings show the base ingredients, but also a sub-list of those ingredients in parenthesis; i.e., Enriched wheat flour consists of: (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid) much as you would read on the side of a bag of flour:
ITALIAN (WHITE) BREAD Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin
mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, sugar, contains 2% or less of the following: soybean oil,
wheat gluten, salt, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ascorbic acid, potassium
iodate, azodicarbonamide), yeast nutrients (calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate),
wheat protein isolate, yeast extract, vitamin D2, natural flavor, enzymes. Contains: Wheat
Great article but where did you get your ingredients list for everything? Posts to those articles or the subway site where that is posted would be a little more credible for the skeptics and give everyone reading this a basis of fact for their conversations with friends
Ever so often Subway advertises a sandwich with some type of avocado/guacamole topping. Although it does look good on TV and in print, I refuse to purchase it because I’m certain there are a lot of chemicals and preservatives in it since it must be mass produced and has to travel, be delivered, and generally just keep. I make mine fresh at home from real avocadoes.