SUBWAY - tips and tricks

Hey there- just wanted to share some tricks and things to watch for when ordering food at Subway restaurants. This is by NO means a comprehensive evaluation of their menu (for that go to the nutritional information at the subway.com web site) but I hope these nuggets will save you a few calories here and there - as we all know they add up.

(I'm not related in any way with Subway, other than as a customer.)

Firstly- the bread. All of the subway breads are fairly comparable-with the honey oat clocking in at 260 calories for a six inch sub down to the Italian (white) bread at 200 calories for a six inch sub. For most (reasonable) sandwiches this will be the majority of your caloric intake. There are a few bombs to watch out for here - the roasted garlic bread has a whopping 1360 milligrams of sodium, and there are few others right around the 600 mg mark.

For the type of sandwich you decide to order, I'm simply going to say you have to pay for it one way or the other. While a veggie sandwich adds very little to the caloric cost of the bread; a steak and cheese, meatball or a pastrami can (and will) quickly send you into McDonald's level caloric and fat values. I would like to also point out the differences between the oven roasted chicken "meat" patty and the other chicken meat slices used in the buffalo, sweet onion chicken teriyaki, and other specialty chicken sandwiches. The oven roasted chicken does contain some chicken but it is a lot of filler - there's a reason why they are all the exact same shape. The chicken meat slices while not necessarily a high quality food is better, and is in my opinion worth specifically asking for rather than the preformed breast patties.

Cheese. Why? It's not like any of the cheese selections at subway are like fine brie -its crap. At 40 to 60 calories and 3-4.5 g of fat, I skip it; I recommend you do too or at least consider if it's worth having on your sandwich.

Veggies: everything here is virtually free. Five calories or less (watch the serving size on the olives) really the only thing to watch out for is sodium content on items like pickles, jalapeno peppers, and banana peppers. I usually choose spinach rather than lettuce because I can actually taste it - although I will add lettuce for volume if I'm especially hungry.

Sauces: you have to be careful here. Mayonnaise, chipotle southwest sauce, and ranch dressing are all over hundred calories per tablespoon. (Dear Subway - please bring back light ranch dressing for the buffalo chicken, kthx.) "Light" mayonnaise is 50 calories per tablespoon and here's the kicker: Olive oil is 45 calories per teaspoon. Let me repeat that: 45 calories per TEASPOON. I hardly even taste it over all the veggies. It's really easy here to ruin the entire sandwich (with regards to being fairly healthy).

I've come to enjoy the breakfast menu as well. For around $5.00 and under 500 calories, you can get a tasty and filling 6 inch flat-bread with double egg white, any veggies you want (including avocado), and a cup of coffee.

I also double up on meat on rather than eat a foot long to save me the calories from the bread and it helps keep a more reasonable carb/protein/fat ratio. An even more drastic cut is to go with a salad instead of a sandwich, cutting the bread out completely.

I'm by no means an expert. Some of this information has been shared with me by nutritionists and trainers, and some of it I've picked up on my own. While I know it's not the best choice - Subway is (in my opinion) an option. Hopefully sharing this will help you make better choices at this particular chain - as well as in general.

I'd love to hear from others about what they have learned, and all corrections to any misinformation my post may contain.