

Subway might not be “healthy” fast food, UCLA study finds

If you think you’re eating healthy just because you choose a sub sandwich instead of a burger and fries, not so fast.

New UCLA research finds that Subway, which bills itself as the healthy fast food restaurant, isn’t much healthier than McDonald’s.

The study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that adolescents who purchased Subway meals consumed nearly as many calories as they did at McDonald’s.

“Every day, millions of people eat at McDonald’s and Subway, the two largest fast food chains in the world,” said Dr. Lenard Lesser, who led the research. “With childhood obesity at record levels, we need to know the health impact of kids’ choices at restaurants.” He recommends McDonald’s customers skip the soda and fries, and that Subway eaters ask for less meat and double the veggies.

The researchers recruited 97 adolescents ages 12 to 21 to buy meals at McDonald’s and Subway restaurants at a shopping mall in Carson, Calif. The adolescents paid for the meals with their own money, and researchers used their receipts to analyze what each person ate and how many calories.

At McDonald’s, study partipants ordered an average of 1,038 calories. At Subway, the average was 955 calories.

“We found that there was no statistically significant difference between the two restaurants, and that participants ate too many calories at both,” said Lesser, who is now at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute.


The study also found sandwiches purchased at Subway contained an average of 784 calories compared with 572 calories at McDonald’s. And the calorie count for side items at McDonald’s averaged 201 calories, compared with 35 calories at Subway.