Is Subway Really Healthy Fast Food or is it Killing Your Diet?

You know how I feel about Taco Bell’s “diet” menu which is called “The Drive-Thru Diet.” Let’s face it, fast food is never going to be health food, no matter how the corporations try to package it. If you don’t believe me, watch the documentary Food, Inc. and find out where fast-food hamburgers and chicken are really coming from. Fast food is a billion-dollar industry with one goal-making money. These restaurants don’t care about you or your health. They just want you to keep coming back and spending more and more money with them.

Which brings me to Subway. Is Subway fast food? I don’t know. This restaurant is known for touting the health benefits of its food. It features the Fit Club Menu, a selection of six-inch subs that come in at under six grams of fat. And then there’s the Subway spokesperson, Jared. Jared was a morbidly obese person who lost over 200 pounds eating at Subway. That’s great!

What Subway doesn’t proclaim in its advertising are the ingredients it uses in its food. Sure, the company provides calories and nutritional information (fat grams, sodium, cholesterol, etc.), but every fast-food restaurant does that. It’s the law. Subway’s veggies are definitely healthy for you, but you might not know that there is a big problem with their bread.

When you order wheat bread at Subway, you aren’t really getting whole-wheat bread. It’s enriched. This means that the wheat stalk has been removed and processed, making it much cheaper to mass produce. This type of wheat bread has essentially the same properties as white bread.

The benefit of eating whole wheat and other whole grains is that you receive a steady stream of energy, released over time and sustaining you until the next time you eat. White, enriched, or processed bread causes your blood sugar level to spike, giving you a quick burst of energy followed by a crash. It also increases your obesity risk and makes you feel terrible!

Fortunately, most people who eat at Subway don’t eat the bread alone. Instead, they top it with meat, veggies, and oils, which help to even out the spike in blood sugar (especially the proteins). Even so, this doesn’t excuse the fact that Subway doesn’t offer healthy bread to its customers. Follow this link to find nutrition information for Subway’s menu.

Look at the 9-Grain Wheat Bread in particular. You would think this would be the healthiest bread on the menu. For bread to be considered whole wheat, “whole wheat” should be listed as the first ingredient, not enriched wheat. And look at the fourth ingredient-high fructose corn syrup! High fructose corn syrup is so bad for you, it deserves its own article.

I heard about Subway’s bread about five months ago, but just didn’t have time to do the research, or maybe I just didn’t want to believe it. Subway was a weekly thing for me. My usual order was the foot-long chicken breast sub with spinach, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, jalapenos, pickles, and olive oil. But since doing the research about six weeks ago, I haven’t been back!

No matter where you eat, take the time and respect your body enough to find out exactly what you’re getting!