Subway's Health Halo

A Further Look into Subway

     The Subway sandwich presented was not necessarily representative of an average Subway sandwich. Its contents were influenced by the one making the purchase and do not reflect the common choice of toppings from daily consumers. Also, there was some bias in selecting these ingredients as this buyer knew that the sub would be studied for its contents. The following data shows the specific ingredients of this sub, its derivation for salt, sugar, and fat content, and the % DV's for these three.

Table 1: Calculated salt, sugar, and fat for a 12" Tuna Sandwich  

Subway
Daily Recommended	2400	40	65	2000
For this Sub
Ingredients:	Salt/Sodium (mg)	Sugar (g)	Total Fat (g)	Calories
2X6" Italian Herbs & Cheese Bread	940	10	10	500
2xPepperjack cheese	280	0	8	100
Chipotle Sauce	440	0	20	200
2xBanana Peppers	40	0	0	0
2xGreen Peppers	0	0	0	0
2xLettuce	0	0	0	0
2xOlives(6rings)	50	0	0	0
2xSpinach	0	0	0	0
Total	1750	10	38	800
%DV	72.9166666666667	25	58.4615384615385	40

     All of these quantities where acquired and calculate directly from Subway's U.S. Nutrition Information table available on their website. This sandwich was a foot long, so all quantities in the table were doubled for each ingredient. And before you asks, yes, the tuna is obviously out of the table above. The tuna was absentmindedly omitted since it was nowhere in the nutritional information of the website. The values here are, therefore, wrong. However, the list above serves to show that, without the main ingredient, the protein, the sub is already packed with high amounts of salt, sugar, and fat. Subway's website has a meal nutrition calculator where you can build your own sub and it will present you with its nutritional information. You first have to select a default sandwich and then click on the yellow button to the left to calculate your own choices. The values acquired from this are the correct ones, including the tuna. The sodium value becomes 2400mg, the sugar 11g, the total fat 85g, and 1320 calories.

     Lets look at what is available in the store. Most Subway stores have a copy of the nutrition table that looks like this. Looking through it, the same values as from Table 1 are found in this chart, multiplying the values by two for a 12'' sub. There is also a section for individual meats which gives tuna the following values for a foot long sub:  620mg sodium, 0g sugar, 48g fat, and 520 calories. Adding these values to the ones in Table 1, the new values become: 2730mg salt, 10g sugar, 86g fat, and 1320 calories. These values match up the ones from Subway's sandwich calculator. Looking for other sources to back up these numbers, another website was found. Nutritionix is a website that attempts to provide accurate nutritional information for various restaurants. Using its Subway calculator gives us the same values acquired from Subway's own nutrition calculator.

    It is obvious to anyone that the sub, with the addition of only one more ingredient, becomes relatively unhealthy. Why is it then that so many people continue buying subs that are filled with multiple sauces, meats, and other condiments that make the sub obviously unhealthy?  It is because of the health halo effect. What is the health halo effect? It is a nutritional bias caused by advertising and self-assumptions about a food's nutritional content. This bias leads to judge foods as being lower in calories, sodium, sugar, and fat than the actual contents. A good study on the effect of health halos was published in the Journal of Consumer Research by Pierre Chandon and Brian Wansink. The article can be found here. They performed various studies on people consuming Subway and McDonald's. They came to a conclusion that the health halo surrounding Subway led people to assume their Subway food choice was healthier than McDonald's, when they were actually the same. Also, these same people would go on to order sodas, cookies, chips, and other side dishes that would greatly increase their caloric intake. A proposed solution was to educate the public in that they should be taught to question the actual nutrition content of their food. When presented with contradicting information, the subject tended to make better food choices and the health halo effect was negated.
   
      With this information, you are now fully equipped to eat at Subway in a healthier manner. You are no longer an ignorant consumer, placing all your hope that the company is actually giving you healthy food, but, rather, a well-informed consumer ready to question any health and nutrition claims provided by Subway, or any other food establishment.