Subway - Not So Freakin Fresh

Ahhhh, the wonderful brilliance of marketing and advertising. We look at this logo and think, "fresh, crisp, and healthy." We think "green" must mean full of life! But little do we know that the secrets lurking underneath this subway, like the mice scurrying through the underground tunnels of New York's Transportation System, are not so... fresh.

First of all, one thing I want you to always remember, is that eating out is rarely the smart thing to do when it comes to your health. You are paying for all that you see - the rent, the bills, the waiter, the cashier, the cook, the preparer, or at the very least (in the case of these substitute sandwich franchises) the immense advertising campaign. On top of that you have no idea what you are getting (unless, of course, you have a orthorexic friend like me), and let me tell you from experience, more often than not, it is not what your grandmother would have in her cupboard.

So, fresh. Fresh can mean different things to different people. Maybe the marketing executives at Subway eat out of a trash can, and consider that edible goods. Jared, their spokesperson for weight-loss inducing sandwiches, was not concerned with the quality of the food, only the caloric impact. But for most of us, especially ones that seem to read what a company is communicating as their image (refer to above logo), we care. The general definition of the word "fresh," means something that "has its original qualities unimpaired." Hmmm, well, that makes sense. So, naturally we would assume that the majority of the Subway food products (or their sandwiches) would still be in their original, natural state. 

What you may find quite interesting is that out of the 55 individual components that are available to make a sandwich at Subway, only 6 of them could be considered fresh. And based upon the fact that it is snowing in Northern California right now, I am assuming that the tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, lettuce, olives, and onions are not from my back yard. They most likely were showered with pesticides, herbicides, sewage sludge, and synthetic fertilizer that is standard in conventional farming, and then traveled hundreds of miles in a truck to get here.

You may think that the bread that they make in house would be considered fresh, right? Think again. Here is a list of the ingredients for a piece of their 9 Grain Bread, which sounds oh-so-hearty. I highlighted some of the more obvious, un-fresh items, in red, and my annotations are in green:

Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid) (anytime a flour is enriched, it means that the food manufacturer has stripped the flour of nearly all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, so they are legally bound to introduce back in the synthetic vitamins) , water, yeast (source of MSG, and a common allergy), high fructose corn syrup (need I say more? a cause of blood sugar imbalances and weight gain), whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, contains 2% or less of the following: oat fiber, soybean oil (Genetically Modified), salt, wheat bran, rolled wheat, rye nuggets, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate), yeast nutrients (calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate), degermed yellow corn meal, rolled oats, rye flakes, caramel color (contains cancer-causing nitrates, and is GM), triticale flakes, parboiled brown rice, refinery syrup, honey, barley flakes, flaxseed, millet, sorghum flour, azodiacarbonamide (Use of azodicarbonamide as a food additive is banned in Australia and in Europe. In Singapore, the use of azodicarbonamide can result in up to 15 years imprisonment and a fine of $450,000.), natural flavor (another source of MSG) (maltodextrin, natural flavor, silicon dioxide, lactic acid). Contains wheat (uhh, yeah, among other things).

Well, we all know that bread products are not always fresh. But the meat must be, meat, right? Wrong (boy, am I having fun at this!)! Their Oven Roasted Chicken Patty is a great place to start:

Oven roasted chicken with rib meat (conventionally produced with growth hormones, pesticides, antibiotics), water, seasoning (corn syrup solids, vinegar powder [maltodextrin (GM sugar syrup, source of MSG), modified corn starch & tapioca starch, dried vinegar], brown sugar, salt, dextrose (a sugar derived chemically from starch), garlic powder, onion powder, chicken type flavor [hydrolyzed corn gluten (MSG!), autolyzed yeast extract (MSG!), thiamine hydrochloride, disodium inosinate & disodium guanylate]), sodium phosphate. 

That chicken sure went through the ringer, didn't she? Bathed in MSG (a flavor enhancer that is the chemical used to make mice obese- because they do not exist in nature- for diabetes trials in labs). Lathered in sugar.

Well, the last hoor-rah has got to be the vegetables. What on earth could they do to vegetables to make them, not-so-spanking-new? Let us evaluate the Jalapeno Pepper Slices:

Jalapeno peppers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, natural flavorings (MSG), calcium chloride (salt), sodium benzoate (preservative linked to hyperactivity and accelerated aging when combined with.... drumroll please.... FD&C Yellow #5!), natural flavors (MSG), polysorbate 80 (a preservative which has been linked to infertility), FD &C Yellow #5 (has been linked to asthma attacks and hives, thyroid tumors, chromosomal damage, and hyperactivity in children).

As you can see, Subway's products are not fresh, as they claim. Even the best of us think that this is a healthy alternative, (husband, take note!) but do you see that it only seems that way because of the advertising techniques? None of the dozens of products, and the combined-sandwich-outcome, could be fresh, even if you tried. It is a false claim, and one that I think is criminal. Every ingredient seems to be chalked full of synthetic chemicals, flavor enhancers, cancer-causing nitrites and nitrates, monosodium glutamate, sugar, and genetically modified ingredients.

Let me ask you something. What is one of the easiest and most convenient things to make at home? What could your 5 year old prepare and stack together with minimal effort, without the need to tip or pay a teenager with plastic gloves? A sandwich!

Take the anti-Subway challenge and make a sandwich on your own!