A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was unfortunate but knowing him I’m surprised it didn’t come earlier. The doctor automatically started into treatment options and explaining he would need to clean his diet up with more whole grains, fruits, veggies, and lean meat. My friend explained his job had him on the road eating out a lot and the doctor said this, “that’s easy, just start eating at Subway.” I’m not a doctor but using Subway and Diabetes together should not be a thing.
Diabetes and It’s Sugar Relation
Type 2 diabetes manifests when your body can’t keep up with insulin production and deal with the sugars you ingest. In layman’s terms you would certainly want to cut back on sugars to help your body self regulate. If you don’t, the need for artificial insulin is introduced into the picture. So, in theory the less sugar you eat the better. Will you eat less sugar going to Subway? Unequivocally no!
Subway has been genius at marketing itself as a leader in the health industry for fast food. The issue is the nutritional information they provide doesn’t support that. It’s not even about making better choices with Subway. Their menu has a lot of sugar from the breads to the sauces, to the proteins. You would be hard pressed to put a meal together and not take in sugar.
Subway and Diabetes Carb Issues
Looking over the nutritional card available on their website you will see carbohydrates that are out of control. The lowest carb count for a meal would be the Chicken Bowl. You’ll only take in 8 carbs there. For fun the highest is the Meatball Pizza at 98. 98 fu*kin’ carbs and they tell people they are the healthy option.
So maybe you should just make better choices. Let’s look at the veggie patty sandwich. Its plant based it must be better right? How does 87 carbs sound? It’s just awful and in my personal opinion purposely misleading, but that is more of a keto rant. Let’s put this back through the diabetes lens. If I take keto and carbs out of the situation, I’m sure its better…
Subway and Diabetes Sugar Issues
Warning, it doesn’t get any better. You know that old saying where there’s smoke there’s fire, well, where there’s carbs there’s normally sugar. Subway is proof of that. Looking at the guide you will find sugar in almost every column. Even the bacon strips have sugar in them.
If we look at full meals the list gets worse. A 6” Sweet Onion Teriyaki sub boasts 25 carbs and a whopping 22 of them are sugars. Maybe you should go with the salad, it knocks the carb count down to only 19 grams of sugar. For someone like myself with hyperinsulinism that would be enough to send me to the emergency department. Imagine going to the ER for a salad.
Surprise Places You’ll Find Sugar at Subway
I’m not going to pretend that the sugar in Subway’s “bread” is a secret. Most people know they use it to up the flavor so I’m going to do the keto thing and get rid of the bread. I’m sure we are left with proteins that are sugar free. Once again, my disappointment is evident. There is sugar in everything.
The bacon has sugar. The ham… sugar. Don’t even look at the meatballs. I think they should be called sugar balls. I might as well be eating skittles. But overall, I think the biggest surprise for me was the veggie patty. The healthy plant-based protein carries 2 grams of sugar. Is the back of Subway like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory with sandwich artists throwing sugar into the air and letting it land wherever?
Subway and Diabetes: The End of the Rant
I’m sorry for my brutal honesty and blatant making fun of the situation. The truth is things that are ludicrous to me make me laugh. A doctor telling my friend, who obviously knows nothing about nutrition that he can manage his diabetes with Subway is ludicrous.
Even if the doctor didn’t want to tell him about low carb and low sugar diets, he could have at least tried to educate him on harm reduction and making better choices. Don’t worry folks, I talked to my buddy about better ways to manage. He’s trying and so far, succeeding to keep his Type 2 under control. No thanks to the medical community.
Bill
