Do you think Subway is as healthy as they make it sound?

Question

Or is it a marketing gimmick?

Sometimes I get a little concerned about the ingredients being in an open air environment in front of the staff.

So I am after your thoughts?

Answer 1

It's a gimic.

if you read the fine print they advertise based on items w/o cheese, w/o mayo, w/o most of the common ingredients they use.

Answer 2

If you know what is good for you and what isn't then you will be able to make your sandwich healthy one. If you put mayo and certain other ingredients then it will not be the best, but if you load it up with the veggies then it will be even more healthy. And the open air ingredients really depend on how well the employees practice the health regulations and what not. All the meat and dairy products are refrigerated and covered. They are supposed to wear gloves, and the one by me is very strict in enforcing that. Subways, when properly maintained, can be some of the cleanest fast food restaurants out there. I don't believe that you can lose like a hundred pounds eating only Subway sandwiches, but just maybe with the wraps.

Answer 3

Subway may be healthy only if you don't add the sauces to the bread and not too much processed meats. The only way to be sure is to ask for a nutritional breakdown for the sandwich (they should provide you with one much like the one McDonald's has).

What kills me is that we are being told to eat healthy, eat sensibly but why is it that the healthy meals are so much more money than the unhealthy ones. What message are they trying to say when a six inch sub from subways costs you more than burger, fries and a small pop anywhere else.

Answer 4

It's pretty good for you as long as you don't get any condiments or cheese. Just meat and veggies. It's definitely better than McDonald's or Burger King.
The fact that the ingredients are in an open air environment is okay. I had a friend that owned a Subway store and they always passed the health inspection with flying colors.

Answer 5

It's all relative, really. In many senses they use fresher ingredients, you can actually see most of what they do to the food, and there's no elaborate processes involved. If you compare that to some fast food places, it's downright dreamy.

But other places aren't exactly slouches either. And there's no small amount of dispute over what, exactly, is healthy in the first place. For example, numerous people have demonstrated that it is actually not difficult at all to lose weight and improve your health while eating only at McDonald's (a sort of backlash to the extreme documentary "Super Size Me") (link 1).

Some argue that one of the less healthy choices in any fast food place is the soda - which is the same in Subway as any place else. And studies unsuprisingly find that even in Subway, diets that would provide weight loss and health benefits are not typical. The 'healthy' portion of their menu is still a very small part of what they offer.

I'd say that you could almost certainly do better than Subway, but you could very easily do worse too!

Answer 6

I did a giant report on Subway Vs. McDonald's, and obviously I didn't have to say it, Subway was healthier. I found tons of information regarding the exposure of the ingredients, and no information proved this to be harmful. Some of their subs are not as healthy as portrayed, but they are healthier than other fast food chains. Some of Subway's ingredients (sauces) are quite fattening. This was a 4 week long, 17 page report that proved McDonald's to be totally fattening (even their "low fat" options), and for Subway to be halfway healthy.

Answer 7

My friend works at Subway and he washes his hands every few minutes and changes gloves 20-30 times/day. The bread is baked fresh every morning. Food is never 100% safe when serving a large volume of it. I have eaten Subway food for years with no problems. If I did get sick, how would I know what source it came from? I think since society is becoming (GERM FREE AWARE) then our resistance to germs is declining.

Answer 8

I live in Mexico and here we have lots of Subway's fast food restaurants. I find them quite clean and the people that work there preparing the subs seem to be well prepared for that. Here in Mexico the vegetables they use are very fresh and also are all kind of ingredients. Cookies, bread and soups ingredients are brought directly from the US as far as I know. So, if you doubt the freshness of the food I think it is good. I've never got sick by eating a SUB !!!

Answer 9

To ponder:
A vegggie sub, or baked chicken sub is healthy. A chicken fried steak sub is not. Making the right choice from the menu is what is going to lead to health/weight loss. Simply walking into the establishment is not. Subway is a fast food establishment, not a health food establishment. Just as Jared lost 150 pounds or whatever by eating at Subway, you could just as easily gain that much there too, simply by eating the wrong things on the menu, or simply by eating too much of the right things.
To answer your question, Subway is marginally healthier than Mc. Ds, but not as heathy as they make it sound.

Answer 10

probably not; but certainly more healthy than typical fast food and fried foods.

The open air doesn't hurt a thing; it is chilled from below and they must maintain food temps. Now for the staff - well, any food which required prep is prepared with people standing over it ... a lot of restaurants keep this behind the scenes but with subway it's out front. I don't think we can protect from all the potential exposures unless we live our life in a bubble.

Answer 11

Well, subway lists literally all of the nutritional stats of everything they put on their sandwiches from meat to veggies to bread & condiments. So, I don't think that their pr is a gimmick. However, I think that you can have some sandwich combinations that are far more healthy than others (ie: carbs/fat content/sugar, etc.) But since you can reference all of the "innards" the healthy aspect really comes down to personal choice. Tag - monkey on YOUR shoulder :)