For the biggest health gimmick enter via the Subway

In a very quiet and underground fashion Subway has become the largest fast food chain in the country last year surpassing McRaunchy�s 11,533 locations in the U.S. compared to 15,874 for Subway. Worldwide they are on pace to surpass MickeyDicks in five years.

They have done this by promoting themselves as a health conscious choice. Their packaging here in Canada boasts a company called Doctors & Associates as their owners. They advertise low carbohydrate menu alternatives as well as low fat sandwiches.

But read the small print, those claims are prior to any cheese or sauces/oil being added to any product. The bread is commercially produced and therefore contains large amounts of sugar and refined carbohydrates, every one of their sauces and dressing (except maybe for oil & vinegar)contains varying amounts of sugar and artificial flavor ingredients, their cheeses are all processed, and most of their meats are processed cold cuts. Not to mention that it is all served up with soft-drinks, cookies and chips. Not exactly health food.

The have recently succeeded in getting the Atkins seal of approval on some products and now they have obtained the American Heart Association seal of approval. You will now see the AHA�s logo on Subway products. This fast food chain will soon be bigger than the Clown�s and it is all thanks to customers buying into the �healthy� marketing.

This article discusses the �donation� of $10million by Subway to the AHA. So now Subway get another way of promoting "healthy" food to an unsuspecting public.

Do people really believe that by just going to Subway instead of a burger joint, they are eating healthy?

At least it tastes alot better than Burger-Sling.

And doesnt come with a pile of greazy fries.


(a freind of mine has praised subway sandwich regiments with his return to lower cholesterol. The veggie sandwich only though.)

Yeah. I know it taste better and if I HAVE to eat on the run I will opt for Subway above all others. BUT I am not under the illusion that it is health food.

The point I wanted to highlight above is the fact that they basically paid $10million to use the AHA to promote themselves as healthy when they clearly are just slightly better than other fast food joints.

Doesn't that bother anybody else?

I think the thing with subway is that it gives you the choice to have a realitivly heathy and naturally filling sandwich rather than being given the choice of 5 different cholesterol filled burgers. Even if you choose to have a ham sub its still better for you then a beef patty made with artificial fillers and containing tons of salt, not to mention the side of fries ick. If you eat a sandwich with cold cuts and some veggies you'll also find it will keep you fuller longer than 2 big macs from MickyD's because it gives your body more of what it needs, it may not be the heathiest alternative, but unless you have the money for sushi, or the will power to only go to juice bars, it is a heathIER alternative.

Being a former employee, I was involved before they even had 'atkins' approval.

Back then, it was cool. I noticed the healthy eaters knew what they needed on their food, and some even opted for a salad version of their order instead of a sub(there is an offer to change any 6' sub into a salad instead). These folks would typically buy bottled water, no chips or cookies. Then we had the junk food junkies (myself guilty ) Who would order a foot long pizza or meatball sub, chips, cookies, and a pop.

When I returned to them, some years later, and they were pushing the atkins thing. I was saddened. We don't usually get junk food customers since they are being pushed to eat healthy, instead of giving them the freedom to be creative. The health food peeps return, but I feel they are being misled. For starters, there is a conflict here. In order for a sandwich to be Atkins quality, it has to be made in a certain manner. customer gets no choice or it's not Atkins. We of course cannot tell them that. Instead we just let them put whatever they want instead, thus breaking out of the Atkins formula, and thus being indirect false advertising, as they think they are getting the Atkins formula, but in reality are not.

The old days were so much simpler when Subway did not tell there customers what to put on their subs. I am glad I no longer work there now, if they were to revert to the old ways, I might come back having it as a 2nd job.

[edit on 1-8-2004 by Crysstaafur]