Friday Fury!!!

You knew it was coming! And I’m sure some of you won’t like it when I tell you who my fury is directed towards today...

Yes, Subway – Eat Fresh! It’s enough to make you go out right now and order a footlong sub isn’t it?! But surely you know by now that the Subway slogan doesn’t have a lot of substance.

I don’t know about you, but pre-packaged meats and vegetables don’t exactly scream “FRESH!” to me. Oh, but their bread is baked daily on premises. Sure, but who really knows what they put into it (HFCS anyone?!?)... Besides the fact that we now don’t eat bread, Subway is certainly not a choice that I would be considering for a healthy lunch.

Seriously, we deserve to be furious because a nifty marketing campaign has led us down the track to believing that eating Subway is a much ‘healthier’ option than Maccas (disclaimer: I am in no way claiming Maccas is healthy, just that Subway is not!)

I can hear you screaming at the computer screen right now. Believe me, I understand! I’ve been a Subway girl for as long as I can remember. Whenever a quick Friday night fast food meal was on the cards, Subway was always the first option. I believed the hype! Hey, that Jarrod guy in the USA lost heaps of weight just eating Subway, so it must be okay – right?! Wrong. I certainly didn’t lose any weight on a ‘subway diet’.

At least Maccas doesn’t try to ‘trick’ consumers into thinking their product is healthy! One look at the nutritional values of most subway sandwiches will have you gasping at the high sodium and sugar content. And don’t get me started on them using HFCS in their bread.

For argument’s sake, let’s examine my two regular choices at Maccas and Subway – a McChicken burger -vs- a Chicken Fillet sub.

McChicken

408 Calories

18.7g Fat (3g Saturated Fat)

698mg Sodium

3.1g Sugar

Chicken Fillet

385 Calories

15.1g Fat (6.2g Saturated Fat)

1050mg Sodium

5.8g Sugar

Fairly similar overall, but certainly not results that would make you think one option is a healthier choice! Lower in calories and fat (but not saturated fat) and higher in sodium and sugar (which PB argues makes you fatter than eating fat), the chicken fillet doesn’t really have much going for it. And, those values don’t allow for any sauce that I have on my sub, and with my usual BBQ sauce addition, I would be adding an extra 31.8 calories, 6.7g of sugar (seriously, a 20g serving of sauce has more sugar in it than the entire sub itself), and 152mg of sodium.  Further, if you also consider that I would occasionally buy a foot-long sub (the figures above are for a six-incher) then those nutritional values would be doubled! So next time you’re craving a McChicken and think you’ll do your body a favour by having a Chicken Fillet from Subway, maybe you’ll think twice.