Sign our petition asking Subway to remove high fructose corn syrup from their ingredients.
We hear all the time that we aren’t supposed to eat fast food because of all the unhealthy ingredients, fat and calories. So instead, we’re told that Subway is the healthy alternative to burgers, nuggets and fries. We’ve watched for years as Jared Fogle, “the Subway guy,” has promoted eating at the sandwich restaurant for weight loss. And the subs are a mainstay in the Biggest Loser diet. So it should be good for us without question, right?
Well, David Zinczenko, author of the Eat This, Not That series, argues otherwise. In a short list on The Truth About Your Food at Yahoo, he lifts the veil on the ingredients label of some of our favorite foods. While there aren’t any misconceptions about other foods on the list like Doritos and Skittles, the one surprising inclusion is Subway. Namely their fresh-baked bread.
Setting the Subway 9-grain wheat in his crosshairs, Zinczenko fires at not only the lack of nutritional value, but the very poor ingredients that are used. Most health-conscious consumers probably ask for the 9-grain wheat sub as opposed to the plain-white because of the nutritional value, but his findings reveal you might as well get the white.
While there are nine grains in that bread, eight of them are scarce, as they appear on the ingredient listing under the “contains 2% or less” notice. The most plentiful ingredient in this sub bread is white flour, the kind you should avoid.
More plentiful than any one of the whole grains is high fructose corn syrup, a manufactured sweetener that has been linked closely with the obesity epidemic.
“Essentially this is a white-wheat hybrid with trace amounts of other whole grains like oats, barley, and rye,” says Zinczenko of the Subway bread.
In all there are 16 ingredients in this bread (see the label), many of which are the unfamilar, unpronouncable variety like azodiacarbonamide, prohibited in Australia and used for bleaching flour, DATEM, a combo of diacetyle tartaric acid, fatty acid and sugar alcohol, and ammonium sulfate, full of nitrogen and a common fertilizer ingredient. The ammonium sulfate helps grow the bread’s yeast. Zinczenko says “What, did you think that dark hue [on the bread] was the result of whole grains? Hardly. It’s a combination of the ammonium sulfate and the caramel coloring.”
No wonder Jillian Michaels campaigned against Subway’s High Fructose Corn Syrup use earlier this year.
While a six-inch sub is still a better choice than most fast-food offerings, it’s not the healthy ally we’ve been lead to believe.
Make a healthy sandwich at home where you can control the ingredients. And as always, the lesson is do your homework and read the food labels before falling for the marketing claims.
June 15th, 2010
User Feedback
(Page 1 of 1, 39 total comments)Rex Stuart
Hi. Thank you for educating the public about Fructose Corn Syrup which has recently been proven to cause cancer. At the Subway where I used to work, After the bread is removed from the "retarder"(called this because it has to thaw [frozen] before being baked), the rubber liners under each Subway bread roll is transferred to the oven on the aluminum trays with the wax paper. I have noticed after working there that the liners were never replaced, only on occasion. These same flexible rubber liners are usually missing pieces and are burnt to a black crisp and this same rubber liner is baked into and with the bread. How much of that rubber/plastic is cooked within the bread and passed through the body? When I saw how this rubber liner was burnt, I stopped eating at Subway because working there and smelling the bread cooking with the liners, I could actually taste that liner realizing what the smell and taste that was very noticible. One doesn't notice that taste in the bread unless you see the two items together and smell the bread baking. Thank you for informing me of the Fructose, another reason I will not eat there. : )
posted Aug 14th, 2011 5:05 pmJeff Robinson
Like Anne, I am allergic to corn.
posted Oct 4th, 2010 2:56 pmHFCS (in terms of my allergy) is like corn on steroids. If I get as much as 1 ounce of HFCS I undergo a month long reaction starting with itching, inflammation, swelling, callousing and peeling of the skin on my hands, leaving maybe two or three layers of skin cells so extreme sensitivity to pressure and temperature is the result (I experience pain from handling cutlery so eating becomes torture).
Ed Sadowski
If you take away the bread, Subway has the best fast-food sandwich ingredients in the world. I never liked their bread, that was always their stumbling block to the perfect sandwich. They ought to provide a "gourmet" bread option; I'm sure a lot of people would be glad to pay a little extra. Perhaps they could partner with some established high-end bakery. If enough of us wrote to Subway, they might listen and make some changes.
posted Sep 24th, 2010 2:12 pmBJ
High fructose corn syrup should be removed from all of our foods! Subway this is completely unacceptable, especially from a company that claims to be healthy!
posted Sep 21st, 2010 9:03 pmBeks
we should not be surprised - we are constantly lied too!
posted Jul 27th, 2010 3:16 pmwolff
Used to eat there with the kids. Thought it was the healthiest of all fast foods Not anymore. How disappointing!! Am stopping eating there along with anyplace that serves HFCS. They probably consider it a veggie in our school lunches too. We stopped all convenience type food since they are definitely not good for you. We nned raw milk back. The crap they pass for dairy now isn't fit for an animal to consume.
posted Jul 20th, 2010 10:13 ambonnie b
TYPICAL.
posted Jul 20th, 2010 8:19 amHolly Gonzalez
totally disgusting...take some responsibility for the quality of your food!
posted Jul 19th, 2010 7:06 pmBob Hamilton
ethics should be at the core of everything we do.
posted Jul 13th, 2010 4:13 pmJocelyn
My son's soccer team uses Subway as a back up for most lunches when traveling... not anymore!
posted Jul 11th, 2010 11:53 pmMelissa
Please remove the HFCS! My son's favorite place to eat, and we are not going back until it is removed
posted Jul 8th, 2010 1:27 pmThe real truth
The source of information is not what is important. Only that it is true.
posted Jul 1st, 2010 3:00 pm4x a week I (used to ) buy lunch @Subway - No more. Not until it is removed.
gkbandrews
Will not eat there again until this is removed or you have a bread option that is not processed white flour and has no HCS!!
posted Jun 30th, 2010 3:23 pmBrianna
I all ways thought subway was a good choice , I guess I was wrong
posted Jun 27th, 2010 12:59 pmKimberly
Cant belive it, the one place you think was safe. i will not go there untill they do something about it.
posted Jun 27th, 2010 9:51 amAnne
I am allergic to Corn. I had no idea that Subway used so much corn syrup. They just lost a good customer until they can advertise that they no longer use it in any of their products.
posted Jun 26th, 2010 5:33 pmAshlee
Is this true for the Canadian subway chain as well? If so, is there a Canadian petition?
posted Jun 26th, 2010 2:31 pmTiffany
Funny, trying to get my fiber in and all that good stuff the 9 grain bread is what I usually get, and I always feel like crap after eatting it. Makes total sense. Please remove that crude from the "fresh" menu.
posted Jun 26th, 2010 1:06 pmNAyNay
Why would you advertise your food as "Eat Fresh" it aint so fresh. you have people thinking they are eating healthy but yet they are really not.. thats wrong...thats causing more people to obesity
posted Jun 26th, 2010 12:57 pmkristi
C'mon Subway! I always thought you were awesome because you have easily accessible food that is actually good for people, now this? Really?? That puts you on the same list as every other fast food joint--basically a no-no for those of us who want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
posted Jun 25th, 2010 9:59 pmDicci
HFCS is in almost everything that is processed, along with a few other different sugars, no wonder we have diabetes. All processed foods need to remove all unnessary sugars from their foods.
posted Jun 25th, 2010 9:46 pmSibela
Subway shame on you.
posted Jun 25th, 2010 9:22 pmBeverly
step up and take the lead to clean up some of the food we eat and please don't say you are just doing what the FDA allows. that's what has got us to this stage. the lobbyists who got the government to change all the "rules" about allowing all this crap in the food we make. so sad to think we are doing this to our children!
posted Jun 25th, 2010 8:52 pmKayla
Wow really? "Eat Fresh" with HFCS?? I don't think so.. I guess until the HFCS is gone, yall have lost my business which is really sad! Stop using HFCS and MANY people will come back!!!!
posted Jun 25th, 2010 8:05 pmAngela
I recently stopped eating at Subway because I read the ingredient list online and discovered the breads contain HFCS...a major "no-no" in my book. Take it out....and I'll happily return. Until then....you've lost a customer.
posted Jun 25th, 2010 7:09 pmKim
Subway: Shame on you!!! Get that HFCS out of your food!!!!
posted Jun 25th, 2010 6:04 pmmitek
this sucks
posted Jun 25th, 2010 5:22 pmcaro
wow and i used to work for this place. Get rid of that mess subway!!!!
posted Jun 25th, 2010 3:30 pmRobin Hall
Come on Subway! Let's get rid of the HFCS. Am so disappointed.
posted Jun 25th, 2010 2:40 pmEdna
There is nothing like integrity, Subway get rid of the corn syrup!!!
posted Jun 25th, 2010 1:53 pmnorma
HCFS ---> Highly NO NO NO.
posted Jun 25th, 2010 12:43 pmLouise
I'm really disappointed with Subway I thought it was the one place I could eat healthy. Please remove any unhealthy ingredients.
posted Jun 24th, 2010 11:44 pmshirlene spessard
when will we ever be told the truth to about what we are truly eating
posted Jun 24th, 2010 5:12 pmanskysue
Next target: Trans fats in fast food! Get rid of them!
posted Jun 21st, 2010 1:44 pmmaggie
please remove it...health comes first!!!!!
posted Jun 18th, 2010 2:51 pmAmber
Feel free to try and discredit Zinczenko if you want - but he can't make up an ingredients label. The HFCS is there in black and white. Subway = FAIL
posted Jun 17th, 2010 10:54 pmThe Truth
This guy they are using as their source of information is an idiot. Although he may be right on some stuff he also advises people who want to lose weight to try a CHOCOLATE MILK DIET--dairy is one the leading cause to almost every fatal cardiovascular disease known to man as well as every kind of cancer on this planet.
posted Jun 16th, 2010 3:20 pmHis book is also full of lies, many of the options he shows in that book are still terrible for you and he's just making money off of all of you fat idiots that will listen to anyone that tells you its ok to consume animal products at fast food places as long as their "low in calories".
If you want to lose weight cut the dairy and the meat; you will lose most of the fat on your body very fast while gaining more energy and better moods.
Read the China Study if your skeptical and if you can't read that read Skinny Bitch/Bastard
karinelizabethmeares
unbelievable. unconscionable too.
posted Jun 16th, 2010 3:09 pmBrian C
This is totally unacceptable. So much for eating fresh.
posted Jun 16th, 2010 2:40 pm