Subway - What's in it?

Most of you reading this know I've been working with subway for a number of years. In that time I've seen my share of naive customers who believe subway to be the holy grail of health.

 While many people with common sense would know, a sandwich laden with extra cheese, bacon, salami, pepperoni, ham and half a litre of sauce isn't healthy at all. Yet even for people who has the common sense to order what is 'healthy' the product which you are eating may not be as healthy as you think. Calorie wise some sandwiches are what you would consider healthy but what ingredients are in your food? How processed is it? Is that ham, actually ham?

First let's start with the perceived healthier options of bread: wheat, honey oat & the new multi-grain.

Let's start with what's in wheat:

Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Wheat Bran, Sugar, Wheat Gluten, Iodised Salt, Canola Oil, Palm Oil, Soya Flour, Emulsifiers (481, 472e, 471), Malt Flour, Caramel (150c), Food Acid (300), Enzymes, Anti-caking Agent (535), Thiamine, Folic Acid.

Let's see honey oat:

Subway® Wheat Bread, Honey Oat Topping (Soy grits, sugar, rolled oats, thickener (1412), honey powder, molasses powder, salt, flavour (nature identical), colour (150 caramel)

And finally Multi-grain:

 Wheat flour, water, grains (12%) [kibbled wheat, kibbled rye], yeast, wheat gluten, wheat fibre, sugar, iodised salt (anticaking agent (535)), canola oil, soya flour, emulsifiers (472e, 481, 471), food acid (300), enzyme, thiamine, folate

As you can see, honey oat bread is made using the same wheat sticks and rolled in a honey oat topping. The wheat bread contains what you'd normally expect to see in bread, but then we see color caramel (150c). What this does is effectively dye the bread a caramel colour, brown. This is used to make the bread appear less processed than it is. Mbm.net.au says the following about 150c:

Avoid it as it can cause hyperactivity. Some caramels may damage genes, slow down growth, cause enlargement of the intestines and kidneys and may destroy vitamin B.

If we look at the ingredients for honey oat bread, you'll notice that caramel is added once again, this is used in the topping.

Also note that the wheat bread has sugar added to it. 

Let's look at white & italian bread now

Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Sugar, Canola Oil, Salt, Palm Oil, Wheat Gluten, Soya Flour, Emulsifiers (472e, 481, 471), Malt Flour, Enzymes, Food Acids (300, 330), Thiamine, Preservative (202), Anti-caking Agents (551, 535).

Like honey oat, Italian herbs & cheese uses a mix which is rolled onto the bread stick. The information below is the ingredients listed for parmesan oregano bread (no longer in circulation) which makes the base for Italian herbs and cheese. Italian herbs and cheese bread is parmesan oregano bread with mozzerella cheese on top. 

SUBWAY® White Bread, Garlic Powder, Maltodextrin, Rice Powder, Salt, Bread Crumbs (wheat flour, yeast, maize flour, salt, rye and or triticale, gluten, soy flour, vegetable oil, emulsifiers (471,481,472e), preservative (282), vegetable gum (412), vitamin (thiamin)), Vegetable Fat, Oregano, Flavours, Cheese Powders, Rosemary, Soybean Oil, Whey Powder, Food Acids (330,270), Anticaking Agent (551),Vegetable Gum (412),

As far the the white bread is concerned, there are no concerns there.

Vegetable gum (412) is listed as having the following potential reactions according to Mbm.net.au:

Can cause nausea, flatulence and cramps, may reduced cholesterol levels

Moving on to meats, many meats aren't 100% meat and are often injected with water to cut costs. A fine example of this is Ham.

Pork Meat (Minimum 66%), Water, Salt, Sugar, Dextrose, Modified Maize Starch, Potassium Acetate, Potassium lactate, Mineral Salts (451, 452), Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, Antioxidant (316), Sodium Nitrite (250), Smoke Flavour. May contain traces of sulphites.

Ham needs only a minimum of 66% to be actual meat, the second ingredient is Water followed by sugar, salt, Dextrose (effectively sugar) and a GM corn flour. Healthy Goodness. 

Sodium Nitirite (250), Mbm.net.au says the following:

Toxic. May be fatal if swallowed. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant. Some laboratory experiments suggest that this material may act as a carcinogen. May provoke hyperactivity and other adverse reactions, restricted in many countries, can combine with chemicals in stomach to form nitrosamine, 

 Nitrosamine have been linked to causing cancer. 

Another popular meat choice is meatballs;

Meatballs: Beef (65%), Textured Vegetable Protein, Soy Protein, Breadcrumb [Cereal & cereal flours, yeast, salt, vegetable oil, Soy Flour, Emulsifiers (471, 481, 472-e), Preservative (282), vegetable gum (412), vitamin (thiamin)], Salt, Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, Unbleached Flour, Herbs & Spices, Cheese, Unbleached Wholemeal Flour, Gluten, Soya Flour.  Marinara Sauce: Concentrated Tomatoes, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Onion, Salt, Maize Thickener (1414), Food Acid (citric acid), Spices.

Only 65% of a meatball is actually beef, the next ingredient, Textured Vegetable Protein, is second which is effectively soy meat, somehow there's bread in the meatballs too. The second ingredient in Marinara sauce is sugar!

The next meat, chicken fillet is of particular interest to me:

Chicken (82%), Flour (Wheat), Vegetable Oil, Salt, Flavours (Wheat, Milk), Herbs, Ground and Extracted Spices, Sugar, Dehydrated Vegetable (Garlic), Egg Albumen, Yeast, Gluten (Wheat), Soy Sauce Powder (Wheat), Maltodextrin, Fibre (Wheat), Mineral Salt (450, 451, 452), Flavour Enhancers (631, 627), Milk Solids, Acidity Regulator (330), Water, Soy Lecithin (322), Vitamin (Thiamin).

82% chicken isn't too bad considering it's wrapped in bread crumbs. 

Flavour enchancers 627 and 631, mbmau says this:

Not permitted in foods for infants and young children. Persons with gout, hyperactivity, asthmatics and aspirin sensitive's should avoid it

Not permitted in foods for infants and young children. Gout sufferers avoid.

This is of interest to me being that I am a gout sufferer. While on the subject of E627 & 631 Chipotle South west sauce contains both.

As you can see, there are a number of things in our food that shouldn't be there, furthermore subway and I'm sure many other places cut costs of meats by injecting water, by combining meat with vegetarian soy meat etc. 

e627 & e631 in food that I commonly eat, as a person afflicted with gout. 

I'll stop here and continue on with sauces, cookies and drinks in a later entry. 

Here's a preview of whats in next ep

e129, e102, e110, e133, e132

Prohibited throughout the EEC.

Banned in Norway, Austria and Finland. Restricted use in Sweden and Germany

Banned in Finland, Norway and the UK.

Banned in British Commonwealth 1972-1980. Banned in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway Switzerland, Sweden.

Banned in Norway.

What are we eating? Tainted meat and fake fruit and vegetables.

I am utterly disgusted with the way food is produced & manufactured. Growth hormone, feces covered meat & vegetables, abuse of animal AND human rights within factories, the insane amounts of products manufactured with corn as an ingrediant, corn being fed to animals instead of grass.

First the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) are disgusting. Let's eat the meat of animals who are knee deep in manure, who are covered in manure upon slaughter. Whatever happened to natural means? These CAFOs are completely disturbing to say the least. Where are the laws to police this? Are there laws? Not really, thanks to self-interested politician. In fact, in America there is a law in some states in America which essentially makes it illegal to critize beef quality. What the? How did this happen?

From Woolworths:

Organic. Natural. 1kg organic apples. $7.

Not organically grown. 1k apples. $2.62

Cool...Organically grown apples are 2.5x more expensive.

What do you think? Let's pump GH into chickens til they can't walk. Let them die in their on feces. That's what's happening, chickens are being grown in one third of the time it would traditionally take.

It's just not right, i'm not advocating to become vegetarians but really, this is just too far from conventional means.








As for corn, ridiculous. So many products are just processed corn with the right amount of colours and flavours to seem as if something else. Even products which you wouldn't associate with corn have reconstituted corn in it. Where has society come to to be able reformulate corn into other products to cut costs.

Is the bottom line really worth all of this? Again, I'm not promoting a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle i'm merely commenting on the state of things, how things have come so far with the invention of new technologies and how we the consumer are letting it all happen. We're now at the point where buying 'good' food vs 'bad' food comes down income. Ridiculous.