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The Perfect Bite: The worst fast food sub

The Perfect Bite: The worst fast food sub

When it comes to fast food, subs are probably one of the healthier options you can go for. But if you’re not careful, you could end up with a sandwich that’s loaded in calories, fat and sodium. On this episode of The Perfect Bite, host Andrea Jenna is joined by registered dietitian Abby Langer. They take a look at four popular fast food sub options and find out which you should avoid.

While subs often come loaded with lots of healthy items, it’s still possible that they’re bad for us.

“If you take a pile of vegetables and you smother them under lots of fat, something good can turn bad pretty fast,” Abby explains.

“If you really care about what you’re going to eat, you can actually go online, check the nutritionals and get all the information you need before you even step foot in the restaurant,” she suggests. “When you’re there, you want to stick to a small-sized sub – and keep it simple. Because when you start loading things on like sauces, cheese, mayonnaise, even corn chips, it becomes a disaster.”

Also see: The Perfect Bite: The worst blueberry muffin

Quiznos Classic Italian (Least healthy option: 830 calories, 41 g fat (12 g saturated), 2360 mg sodium, 39 g protein)

“I can definitely taste the salami,” Andrea says after taking a bite. “It’s light and it’s tasty.”

“It’s pretty salty,” comments Abby. “I taste a lot of oil and vinegar. But it doesn’t taste too fatty – it doesn’t have mayonnaise oozing everywhere.”

This salty option turns out to be the least healthy of the bunch, with a whopping 830 calories.

“It’s super salty, it has more sodium in it than you need in an entire day, and it has more fat than a double Big Mac,” reveals Abby.

Mr. Sub Italian Salami (Tied for most healthy: 569 calories, 21 g fat (6.8 g saturated), 1400 mg sodium, 24 g protein)

“I feel like I tasted more bread and mayo than I did almost anything else,” says Andrea. “It was just a very plain sandwich. It didn’t have as much flavour.”

“It’s very bland,” agrees Abby.

Although the taste may have not won our taste testers over, Abby reveals that the Mr. Sub sandwich is tied for the most healthy option with the Subway Italian B.M.T.

Also see: The Perfect Bite: The least healthy fast food chicken sandwich

Tim Hortons Extreme Italian Sandwich (620 calories, 32 g fat (13 g saturated), 1900 mg sodium, 30 g protein )

“It tastes like pizza,” Abby says. “I think it’s the pepperoni. And there’s a lot of mayonnaise,” Abby says. “But it’s kind of really good.”

“It’s really good!” agrees Andrea.

Subway Italian B.M.T. (Tied for most healthy and Abby and Andrea’s favourite: 510 calories, 25 g fat (9 g saturated), 1490 mg sodium, 23 g protein)

“The meat is there, but I feel like it’s equal vegetables to meat, but a lot more vegetables,” Andrea says.

“I totally agree – it’s almost like a salad on bread with a little bit of meat,” says Abby. “I love this one.”

The Subway sandwich came away as the healthiest of the bunch, tied with the Mr. Sub Italian Salami selection.

Also see: The Perfect Bite: The best and worst juice

Making healthier choices

“Any type of meat that you can actually see the fat, like salami and pepperoni is probably a bad idea,” Abby says. “You want to keep it simple. So, turkey breast, ham, roast beef are all really good choices.”

However, she warns that going completely fat-free isn’t a much better option.

“You know what, you do need some fat on your sub, otherwise you’re going to be hungry an hour later. So, mayonnaise is fine – you can choose the lower-fat version. Avocado is an excellent choice, it’s my number one choice, actually, because it’s delicious, it has good fats, and you can actually use it instead of butter or mayonnaise. You can use cheese as well, it’s a good source of calcium, and it has some protein in it, especially for those vegetarian options that don’t have a lot of protein. B

“But I always tell people if you choose mayonnaise then don’t choose the cheese – just choose one or the other.”

And while ditching the bread can sometimes be a smart decision, but it’s moreso about the add-ons.

“A salad might be a better choice to some of those subs,” she says. “But you really want to watch the add-ins again, like the dressings and the bacon bits and all of that.”

“And if you splurge on a sub, just adjust your other meals during the day to accommodate it.”

What’s your favourite sub? Let us know in the comments below.