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Wheat bread is better than white. Right? Apparently not, especially at Subway.

I did a little bit of research before, but I’ve since gotten a lot more curious. My wife and I have always gotten sandwiches on wheat bread, operating under the assumption that it’s healthier. I decided to take a look and see if that’s actually true.

Here’s Subway’s nutrition information for bread, with white and wheat highlighted:

And Subway’s ingredients list for white and wheat breads:

ITALIAN (WHITE) BREAD
Enriched flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, sugar, contains less than 2% of the following: soybean oil, yeast, salt, wheat protein isolate, wheat gluten, dough conditioners (acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides, ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, amylase [enzymes]), sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, mineral oil. Contains soy and wheat.

WHEAT BREAD
Enriched flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, whole wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup, wheat gluten, contains less than 2% of the following: wheat bran, yeast, salt, soybean oil, dough conditioner (acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono-and diglycerides, ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, amylase (enzymes)], cracked wheat, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, caramel color (contains sulfites), dried honey preparation (honey powder, invert sugar, wheat starch, soy bran flour, silicon dioxide [anti-caking]), mineral oil. Contains soy and wheat.

Immediately, three things jump out at me:

1. The wheat bread has high-fructose corn syrup. As the medical community studies HFCS more, we are coming to understand it’s connection with obesity, due largely to how it interacts with insulin, ghrelin and leptin.
2. The wheat bread has the same calories, more fat and more carbs.
3. The first ingredient listed is refined flour.

Suddenly, Subway wheat bread is looking less like a healthier alternative to Subway white bread. What about the wrap? Ten less calories, twice the fat, five less carbs, the same refined flour and a bunch of ingredients I can’t pronounce. I’m sticking to the salads. (I wonder what those ingredients are? I’ll have to look into it.)

Eating at Subway is a good example of why it’s important to exercise awareness of what you eat - Subway markets itself on being the “healthy alternative” to fast food, with healthier menu items than other restaurants and the misleading name of the franchise owner, Doctor’s Associates Inc. However, if you simply buy into the marketing and assume Subway is the “healthy alternative”, you can easily make some mindless, habitual choices and build a sandwich with more calories than a Big Mac. For instance, their nutrition information lists sandwiches with “6 grams of fat or less”. My wife likes the veggie sandwiches, so we’ll take that as an example:

She likes her sandwich with provolone cheese (+50 calories), mayonnaise (+110 calories/tblsp, we’ll assume one tblsp although I’m sure in reality it’s more), and vinegar/oil (+45/tsp, we’ll assume 2 tsp for +90 calories). Let’s compare caloric values:

• Plain 6″ veggie sandwich: 230 calories
• My wife’s 6″ veggie sandwich: 480 calories, more than double a plain sandwich
• Who eats a footlong at once? You’re consuming 960 calories
• And a Big Mac? 540 calories.
• Other 6″ plain Subway sandwich choices for comparison:
  • Cold Cut Combo: 410 calories
  • Meatball Marinara: 560 calories
  • Chipotle Steak & Cheese: 530 calories
  • Tuna: 530 calories (I thought the Tuna sandwich was supposed to be one of the healthy ones!

I don’t want to sound like I’m ragging on Subway - to borrow a phrase from Bill Mahrer, “I kid the Doctor’s Associates!” I realize that it’s your choice to not add mayonnaise and cheese to an otherwise healthy-ish meal. I realize that no matter the caloric value, a Subway veggie sandwich is probably at least a little healthier than a Big Mac, if only for the fact there’s a few raw veggies between the bread slices. I do, however, think it’s important to investigate the truth behind marketing when Subway claims to be the healthy alternative. You can’t maintain a healthy lifestyle and make healthy food choices when you don’t educate yourself about the food you eat.

I’m still curious about those bread ingredients. I think I’ll look into those next…

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