One-upmanship by Paul Robert Lloyd, on Flickr

One-upmanship by Paul Robert Lloyd, on Flickr

An Advertising Age Magazine article this week informs us that Jared is about to overtake Ronald in the race to become the largest fast food chain in the world in number of locations. (It’s fascinating being a blogger and reading so much from so many diverse sources!)

Now, before you get all excited, let’s remember a couple things. First, Subway is still fast food. It’s still processed to within an inch of its life. Hot subs are still microwaved. Chicken is still fried (not onsite, but fried elsewhere and shipped frozen). Breads are still full of flour bleached white and hard to digest. The meats are still full of MSG and too much dead, white salt. The typical side orders of cookies, chips and soda are nutritionally no better than McDonald’s parfaits, fries and soda.

Last month I reread Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink. He does a fascinating piece about people’s tendencies to under- or over-estimate what they eat based on their assumptions. For example, when a Subway meal and a McDonald’s meal are placed side by side before them, people will often “healthwash” the Subway meal, underestimating fat and calorie counts by 10% or more. One person when interviewed said, “I saw a sign that this sub has only 7 calories, that’s why I got it.” Tip: it was 7 grams of fat, didn’t include the sauces and was for a six-inch sub, not the monster footlong the customer was eating.

Just a reminder, nutritional information is available online at the Subway site. By all means, enjoy a good meal out on special occasions. But know what it is you are fueling your one and only body with! Not all food is real food, after all.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Cheeseslave.

th_rfw_orange3