I refer to the article “Subway’s Healthy Food” by The Globalist.
URL: http://www.theglobalist.com/dbweb/storyid.aspx?StoryId=3658
References:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20776198/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_size_me
Since the birth of Automat, the first fast food restaurant, in 1912, fast food restaurants have become a symbol of globalization, with fast food companies raking in millions each year.
But their prominence has led many people to question the nutritional values of their meals, with protesters all over the world championing issues ranging from animal rights to obesity. However, in recent years, fast food chains like Subway have taken advantage of the health craze by marketing a “healthier choice” of meals. By appealing to the public’s health consciousness, Subway has now become the fastest growing franchise in the world.
While fast food chains such as McDonald’s have come under fire for contributing to
But does Subway really serve only healthy meals?
Jared Fogle, front man for their advertisement campaign in the early 2000s, became 190 pounds from an impressive 425 after he went on the “Subway diet”. However, as the article points out, he subsisted only on a 6-inch turkey sandwich, baked potato chips (which are healthier), one diet soda, and a veggie sandwich daily.
Subway tells the truth when it says that it serves healthy meals – seven of which with less than 6 grams of fat each. However, McDonald’s also serves healthy meals such as salads and apples.
But Subway does not inform consumers of their less healthy choices such as the 12-inch turkey sandwich containing 600 calories, equivalent to that of a McDonald’s Big Mac. In the Journal of Consumer Research by Dr Brian Wansink of Cornell University, he reported that people were more likely to splurge on other unhealthy food in Subway than in McDonald’s, leading to consumption of more calories.
While I applaud Subway for introducing a wide range of healthy meals and setting a benchmark for other fast food restaurants, the façade which masks their less healthy choices is still of major concern to myself.
I am a teenager with tendencies to indulge myself with fast food, but Subway has never been high on my list of places to eat. However, the fact still remains that other teenagers with vanity and image issues might fall prey to the “healthy” image which Subway has associated itself with. While they might choose to go for the healthier choices on the menu, the “Fresh Value Meal”, a new introduction to Subway, offers a soda and potato chips, which is similar with McDonald’s “Extra Value Meals”. However, these “Fresh Value Meals” add up to many more than the calories lost in choosing a healthier sandwich. Added to the less healthy sandwiches on the menu, the meal would have calories typical of an “unhealthy” McDonald’s “Extra Value Meal”.
You might argue that consumers also have to take responsibility for their own health. But while McDonald’s provides nutritional information on all its products, Subway has not done so, and how then can the consumers measure the amount of calories they take in?
Although the consumers already should be aware that soda and chips add a whole lot more calories to their meal, does Subway have the right to keep consumers in the dark about their less-than-healthy meals?