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:
- 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.
- The wheat bread has the same calories, more fat and more carbs.
- 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…
Look at the grams of Wheat per serving vs. the White – ~10% more in the Wheat.
And your wife needs Cheese, Mayo, and Vinegar/Oil?!? If so, she deserves the extra calories.
Thanks for the comment, Jim.
I’m not seeing any information on the grams of wheat per serving in Subway breads. If you’re talking about whole wheat, since the Italian white has 0 grams, 10% more isn’t that exciting. If the 10% claim is for all wheat, that’s not interesting either, as refined wheat (as opposed to whole wheat) is stripped of it’s dietary value, so having 10% more refined wheat doesn’t make something healthier. The wheat bread does have 3 grams of fiber as opposed to 1, but frankly, that’s not reason enough to consume HFCS.
No, my wife doesn’t need cheese, mayo and oil – she chooses to put those items on her sandwich. The point is, if you’re not aware of how Subway markets its sandwiches, you may be consuming a lot more calories than you think. You walk in thinking your sandwich has less than 6 grams of fat and less calories than a Big Mac, and you walk out with a bag full of calories you’re not counting and wonder why you’re not losing weight. Making healthy choices starts with awareness – with Subway, you have to recognize how many calories are in the condiments, what ingredients are actually in the breads, and how Subway markets its sandwiches when making fat and calorie claims.
What the heck is mineral oil doing in any food product? Ick. This is a petroleum product. I know people take it for a laxative but no petroleum product should be used on your skin or taken internally. Some studies suggest that prolonged use might be unhealthy because of low accumulation levels in organs.
Here’s the data safety sheet:
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/M7700.htm
Thanks for researching this, I’ll certainly steer clear of Subway.
Christine, thanks for the link. I had always heard people using mineral oil as a laxative; I had never thought to consider exactly what it is made from. Makes me wonder what the other ingredients in their breads are…
Doh. I started eating at subway ever I found out Quizno’s refuses to publish their calories. That whole wheat bread is crap! I can’t believe enriched flour is the first ingredient.
Thanks for the heads up
Has anyone looked at the ingredients since Subway changed their wheat bread? Is enriched flour still the first ingredient?
hi wenday i just like to no which bread the healthest at subway if u no or if any one nos post a msg or get back to me thanks
I would go with honey oat. The other breads are pretty awful. I just went over their ingredient list and to say they take pride in the ingredients is kind of sad.
I Work At . Subway What U Need To Know
lol @ carrie, indicative level of employee intelligence
This is an outdated post so things may have changed, but just for the people tuning in now (as i am)I wanted to say a couple of things – i arrived here after finding that Quizno’s wheat bread is close to 100 calories more than its white. Eating wheat bread where enriched flour (or any flour other than whole wheat) is the main ingredient is pointless in terms of nutrition, and the fact that it contains more calories defeats even the minimal amount of nutrition you would receive from that small percentage of wheat flour.
However, in terms of Subway’s marketing, I think they are pretty clear with their nutritional stats (and again, i know this post is outdated). They post their healthy sandwiches (which do NOT include Tuna – seriously, with all that mayo? why would you even consider it would be low cal and low fat?) and it clearly states that these calorie counts do not include cheese, mayo, etc. Anyone who is serious about counting calories and maintaining their health should know that Mayo and Cheese are fatty and caloric! That is a major foundation of your diet knowledge! So when you’re at home, do you just slather on the mayo because if someone doesn’t directly say to you “hey, that mayo you’re putting on right now is what’s making you fat”, you just assume it’s okay? C’mon and take some responsibility. It’s not like Subway is going to have low cal cheese and mayo without specifically advertising it. Do you live in America? Hitting health points is a big marketing tool. Personally, I think they might as well use non fat cheese- their full fat is tasteless and plastic anyway.
Still, Subway done right is much healthier than other heavily processed fast foods. Subway done wrong is just as bad. do yourselves a favor and never get a foot long tuna with extra mayo and cheese- that’s just disgusting.
Hey fatty…..because you obviously are a fat ass….tell your FAT wife to LAY OFF The mayo and Oil and Cheese……you are worried about a few extra calories in the bread yet your wife see’s no reason to stop layering her FAT on top of FAT on her sandwich?!?!?
If you were that worried about eating healthy you’d stay home and cook some fish and vegetables…..
Geeez…..
For white:
2g fat = 16 cal
38g carb = 152 cal
7g protein = 28 cal
Total cal = 196 cal
For wheat:
2.5g fat = 20 cal
40g carb = 160 cal
8g protein = 32 cal
Total cal = 212 cal
But they both say they have 200 calories on this chart.
Look at the serving size.. the serving size is 71g for the white, but 78g for the wheat.
So if you put them on the same scale 71/78 * 212 cal = 192.9 calories.
The wheat actually has LESS calories than the white! (barely.)
I’m so partial to my subway sandwiches, I had always wondered whether the white bread really was less healthy than the whole wheat
……now I’m sticking with my white sub thanks very much!
just a reply to charles:
they still have equal calories, the wheat has 5g of fiber
This is helpful, however, I’m looking at the wheat and I see that the serving size is larger, and it has more fiber plus more protein and iron. Even though there’s more carbs, I’d still choose the wheat.
how much potassium in mgs. does 6 inch white bread has in subway sandwiches breads
can you tell me how much potassium in mgs. does 6 inch white bread has in it ?
thank you
Give me all your children. I will take care of them.
eat healthy kids
I think healthy is too broad of a term. Sometimes people are looking at healthy as the least amount of calories, others look to reduce just caloric fat, fats, carbs, sugars etc and don’t put as much emphasis on calories alone, others just want natual whole foods that haven’t been doused with a variety of chemicals and processes.
A whole veggie sub, in my opinion, is much healthier then a big mac. never mind the fact that the big mac will likey be eaten with fries and soda, the nutrional value of the veggies would sit better then the meat of a big mac. Ofcourse McDonalds, Subway, and any other fast food place (or mass produced foods) are going to have artificial ingredients (HCFS..dont’ get me started, enriched flours, hydrogentated stuff, multiple sugar sources and just like the words “organic” and “green” have been embraced everywhere.. doesn’t necessarily make it healthy or helpful.. everyone uses these buzz words to sell food and other products so do your research and know what works for your body specifically.. there is no omni-solutions here.
veggie subway vs bigmac??? …carbs you concentrated on but have you also compared the soduim, sugar & saturated fat content? pls do because those 3 plays a significant role! Thanks! : )
I think this goes beyond a break down of ingredients and whether or not most people know there is fat in mayo or cheese. Duh! This is about deceptive marketing and based on everything reported here, I would say that Subway is engaging in deceptive marketing. I really take offense to someone launching a marketing campaign as the healthy alternative. That’s like marketing a candy bar as ‘healthy’ because it has peanuts on top of the chocolate, cookies and caramel. By promoting its wheat bread and then making it basically the same as white bread with a little wheat and probably coloring added in … thats just shameful. And honestly, I thought the cheese (which is included in the price) was PART of the sandwich and not optional. Mayonaise, I knew would add extra calories but the cheese I thought was included because it is on the pictures of the sandwich, etc. Thats almost like not including the onion rings in the angry whopper sandwich because you can ask for it without those, even though its how the sandwich is marketed.
Lol. Subway is awesome. Having zero evidence for your claims against the bread is lame. Plus you showed outdated nutrition facts. HAHAHA
I don’t know of any other restaurant that goes the extra mile to tell you what you’re eating the way Subway does. They plainly give you the nutritional facts based on the way they have the sandwiches listed and that adding other things will alter it. If a person is smart enough to be health conscience in the first place, they will understand this. Subway is great, and being a very health conscience person myself, I am thankful to have a healthy alternative out there in the fast food world. when I don’t feel like cooking at home.
Bitchy MotherFer
I went from eating fast food(mc donalds and the like) several times a week to a 6inch plain sub(without the mayo and such) instead and over a week I lost 10 pounds. I dont care what you say negative about subway or its marketing… It works for me. Results may vary.
I must say you do have a good point-its ridiculous that it has high fructose corn syrup-finally someone else sees that it is bad! But I must say both breads do have those extra ingredients-but I think the wheat is still healthier because at least its not all mucky white flour-and you know too, a great health help is to skip the dairy-the cheese and the mayo
thank you thank you thank you
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While subway is a better choice than than the burger joints, as other have said it’s the choices you make. The bread is one of the biggest ingredients and it is highly processed (to the fat US diet). Fiber is the saving grace in two of the breads but over 3gms of sugars is not good. Fiber is important in digestion to pass along quickly. The fiber absorbs Cholesterol and toxins dumped by the liver (from it’s cleaning functions). Most of the bad cholesterol in the US diet is made in the liver from bad sugar mostly corn syrup and other sugars. Learn the real facts and for get the FDAs quide lines written by the grain and sugar industry. Leafy greens, good cuts of meat, stone ground grains but no more than 1/3 of the total serving.
For get the chips except on rare occasions (Stuff there from procesed corn including *tose (sugar) ingrediants and almost no fiber. No soft drinks, maybe UNsweet tea. So when can you eat cake? On your birthday.
I work at subway to and to behonest I dont complain about their food because its still a lot healthier than a greasy burger anyways. Sure it might cost a few more bucks, but most health food junkies are willing to spend more than a few hundred bucks extra a year just to get that nutrition so they shouldn’t complain about it either. So what if his wife chooses to put cheese on it and vinegar and oil. Vinegar can be good for the body, and if she chooses to put cheese and oil on thats fine too. cheese contains needed nutrients just like any food and if you’re worried about the extra calories and fat, theres a three letter word that can help. R-U-N. regardless if you’re eating unhealthy foods or not, running and excercising the body burns extra calories and builds muscle that the everyday person needs. the more calories you eat the more you can burn exercising. thats one thing i really dont understand. people think they can stay healthy by just eating the right foods? well thats not all correct. you need to exercise as well to keep your body in shape, not just your brain, blood and cells. so many people do research on how just to eat right, but you should also do research on how to exercise right. sit ups arent gunna get rid of belly fat quickly. working out and running will. being active in the first place helps a lot more than people even realize. everyone knows jarod from subway right?? he’s everywhere STILL. well he didnt get that way by just eating subway everyday- he exercised his heart out, and thats how he got there. regardless of what anyone says, if you’re going to complain about a resturaunt then keep it to urself cuz if you find someone that truly likes it ur complaining isnt going to yank them away. and even if you say our marketing is full of deception, I AM HAPPY TO CALL MYSELF A SUBWAY SANDWICH ARTIST. have a good day.
Just caring about the calories is not the only point in knowing all their bread is enriched flour. When bread is not made out of whole grains it only gives you quick energy boost. It does not give you prolonged energy like whole grains do. And also white bread increases your blood glucose levels wich helps you body absorb fat. So if you idiots actually think “Oh ill eat the white bread then.” you know nothing about health. You should never eat White bread. It is bad for you. It raises your blood glucose levels way to high compared to whole grain bread. So goto the grocery store and spend $3.50 on a loaf of 12 grain bread and eat healthy. And save $$$. Fat Americans.
WOW, It seems the guy who originated this threads biggest problem with subway was the High Fructose Corn Syrup.
HFCS is really unhealthy , but if that’s your thing, eat to your heart content.
I just want something that tastes good and doesnt hurt the body
No way out:’Sugar’s 1/2 sucrose, 1/2 fructose. Fructose’s poison. The real issue: Exactly how much is in what you’re eating? Re: Whole grain bread: No matter what else you do ‘wrong’ w/your diet, you’ll likely not be obese if you cut out -sugar. The supposedly healthy ’12 grain’ bread in the grocery is -loaded- w/sugar, oil in the grain is rancid, & it’s moldy before you can see it or taste it. At least nothing bad can live on white bread.
Two things. Having a healthy diet isn’t just about number-crunching. Is a big mac equivalent to a subway veggie sandwich with a bit of cheese etc, because its got the same calories, fat etc? No, it’s not. It’s all red meat, cheese and carbohydrates, of course you’re going to be nutritionally better off eating a vegetable sandwich, even if it does have more fat than it needs.
Which brings me onto my next point – people spend far too much time analysing minute differences in the nutritional content of their food as a way to ‘eat healthier’ – what they’re actually doing is looking for any way to be thinner without getting off their gelatinous backsides and having a moderately active lifestyle. Excercise > Diet
One thing I’d like to point out.
You point out that many of the 6″ subs have similar calorie content to a big mac. However, it’s worth noting that the 6″ sub is quite a bit larger than the mac, so it’s still less calorie-dense. Plus, many people would just eat the 6″ sub by itself, while most people who go to McD’s buy get a large fry on the side. So for the same amount of food, you’ll still get less calories at subway.
There is nothing healthy about Subway sandwiches, unless you only eat the vegetables and throw out everything else. Subway uses processed meats which are dangerous to your health. People tend to think because they are “turkey based meats” they are healthier. The truth is they contain large amounts of sodium nitrite, which is directly linked to cancer. Sodium nitrite is the primary cause of pancreatic cancer in humans who consume even moderate quantities of processed meats. No sandwich made with processed meats should be labeled healthy, because various toxins and chemicals are added to the meat during processing.
There is absolutely no requirement to have any type of meat or cheese or mayo on your lunch or dinner. Try the veggie sub with no cheese and mustard as the only condiment. You can ask for extra veggies. Whether you choose wrap, white or wheat, it is the healthiest, lowest calorie option. Why would you be eating meat or cheese if you are watching calories?
Yikes, guys… talk about nit-picking… the author of this article is pointing out 2 major things:
1 — the wheat bread is not healthier than the white bread
2 — If you aren’t paying attention, you could be eating alot more calories and fat than you realize
Which boils down to him simply saying… PAY attention, TAKE responsibility, and KNOW what you are eating.
I can’t believe people are leaving comments that attack his wife for enjoying cheese, attack him for pointing out that your subway sandwich can easily have the same caloric content as a Big Mac, and act like he’s suggesting you eat the white bread or dig in to a big mac! Talk about unintelligent readers….
He didn’t say eat the white bread. He said don’t be fooled.
He didn’t say eat a big mac and you’ll be better off. He said don’t be fooled.
He didn’t say his poor wife ‘wants her mayo and cheese, dammit! Why isn’t Subway’s mayo and cheese lower in calories??’. He said don’t be fooled.
P.s. @ T.J. … yes the meat full of nitrites and nitrates is poison, but don’t say “Why would you be eating meat if you want to lose weight?..” Lean meat is a fantastic source of protein which is essential for building the muscle that your body needs to increase your metabolic function, your overall strength, and speed your weight-loss.
JPed knows what he is talking about.
If I was new to weight loss and fitness and only read the comments this would be my plan.
Step 1: Never eat meat, it’s bad.
Step 2: Eat only vegetables, nothing else.
Step 3: All carbs are the devil.
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Die