Posted on 04/08/2006 7:29:41 AM PDT by Cvengr
What's the largest fast junk food chain in the country?
Wrong.
It's not McDonald's.
It's Subway.
Subway overtook McDonald's last year in the United States and now has 15,874 locations in the U.S. compared to 11,533 for McDonald's.
Worldwide, Subway has 21,528 restaurants in 75 countries.
McDonald's has more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries.
Subway founder Fred DeLuca says he wants 30,000 outlets worldwide by 2010.
Of course, Subway would not want you to think that it is not a fast junk food chain.
In fact, the privately held firm has overtaken McDonald's by riding a wave of publicity featuring Jared Fogle, who says he lost 245 pounds on the following diet coffee for breakfast, Subway sandwich for lunch, and Subway sandwich for dinner.
Soon, the word was out you could lose weight eating Subway sandwiches.
And tomorrow, on the National Mall, Subway founder and CEO DeLuca will join with Fogle, the American Heart Association, members of Congress (including the corporate liberal Rose DeLauro, D-Connecticut, whose district contains Subway's corporate headquarters), and various "nutritional experts" to "galvanize support for fighting childhood obesity."
We went and visited our local Subway and found that in fact, there was health and diet information displayed, including a nutritional and dietary guide with the American Heart Association's stamp of approval.
But as at most fast junk food outlets, Coke machines, the rows of bags of chips, and the rubbery chicken and unappetizing beef were screaming unhealthy, stay away.
You could order a salad, or a vegetarian sandwich. The chain markets seven subs with six grams of fat or less.
But for the most part, the staple of this franchise is processed meats and cheeses, soft drinks and chips.
Subway sandwiches include such classics as Steak and Cheese, Subway Melt (a first class blend of turkey breast, ham, crispy bacon, and melted cheese) Italian BMT (pepperoni, genoa salami, and ham) and the Cold Cut Trio (turkey based ham, salami, and bologna) not your typical heart healthy sandwiches.
Should members of Congress and the American Heart Association be promoting this multinational junk food company?
Of course they shouldn't.
The American Heart Association has sullied its reputation by getting in bed with whatever corporation comes around with its checkbook open.
According to a report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the American Heart Association has taken big corporate cash from a long list of drug companies, junk food companies, and even from the National Livestock and Meat Board, which gave $189,000 to sponsor a HeartRide cycling series "to help ensure that people don't think that AHA recommends abstaining from meat."
In return for endorsing only Bayer aspirin, AHA gets $500,000 a year from Bayer. Nice deal, if you can cut it.
And how much money has Subway kicked in?
According to the AHA, Subway has given $4 million to the American Heart Association (AHA) since 2002, and will gave an additional $6 million through 2007. That's a total of $10 million.
In exchange, Subway gets to put the AHA "fighting heart disease and stroke" logo on its materials throughout its chain of stores, according to an AHA spokesperson.
In a written statement, the AHA said it will only accept sponsorships from "those restaurants that have a public/market positioning associated with healthy foods or have heart-healthy and non-fried food alternatives on the menu."
"Subway actively promotes low-saturated fat meal options and exercise in their advertising messages," the AHA said in the statement. "Their messaging reinforces that a well-balanced diet and exercise are important tools in maintaining a healthy weight."
We agree with Commercial Alert's Gary Ruskin that it's "not the proper role of the federal government or public health groups to hawk Subway or any other form of fast or junk food."
"This is part of the broader story of the corruption of the American public health movement," Ruskin said. "AHA ought to drop its support for Subway. They have been converted into an auxiliary marketeer for Subway. They are apparently for sale."
"The fast food companies are running in a panic over the obesity epidemic," Ruskin said. "They are striving to do something to make it seem that they are not responsible for it or part of it. This is just one more way that companies like Subway try to hide their tracks and boost their public relation images."
The government and independent public health organizations should be helping the American people fight off the hyperbreeding of fast food outlets cannibalizing the country not promoting it.
In addition to promoting his beloved Subway and making millions a year doing so, DeLuca wants to bring an Indian gambling casino to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Call it the junk food/junk economy connection.
According to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, DeLuca invested $10 million in the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation's successful effort to gain federal recognition so they could build a casino in Connecticut. Blumenthal is challenging that recognition.
And the House Government Reform Committee is in the middle of an investigation of how the Schaghticoke Tribe and the Eastern Pequots gained such recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Earlier this year, the Hartford Courant reported that a rival band of Indians charged that the federal recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation "was hijacked by outside investors and high-priced lobbyists intent on winning a lucrative gambling franchise for their own benefit."
Whether or not the investors and lobbyists hijacked the process we'll leave to federal investigators.
But what is clear is that Subway and DeLuca have hijacked the American Heart Association, Congresswoman DeLauro, and various federal agencies to promote their own brand of fast junk food.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
This article is posted at: http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2004/000181.html
Perhaps you're correct. If so my mistake. I took a doubletake when I saw it.
Exactly. When are all these nannies going to roll up their sleeves, open up a "healthy fast food" restaurant chain and show the rest of us slobs how it's done?
They didn't say anything, but they did type the word on the quickly shown screen. Perhaps you're correct, If so, my apologies and mistake.
Me too. I like Subway. I usually go with the turkey & ham. I prefer just lettuce on mine, but you can pile it high with veggies if you want.
Yes, it is fast food. But it is usually reasonably fresh, isn't microwaved like McD or BK, has less fat and I can watch it being made.
If you want a great sub, find a good deli. If you are on the road and don't want a grease burger, then Subway is usually pretty good. I also like Quizno's. I also like Pizza, and sometimes get a bacon cheeseburger 'cause sometimes it is good to have the grease running down your arms as you eat a sandwich.
But Subway is alright.
Here in New England, I have no idea how Subways even survive the marketplace. There's a mom-and-pop sub shop on virtually every street corner and their subs blow away anything Subway is making. One of my favorite subs is pepper and egg with mushrooms. Can't get that one at Subway.
Can't be done. Healthy food is more expensive and more difficult to portion, transport and store.
Have you seen the commercial or have you been able to find a link to a copy?
As far as Subway goes, the only recommendation I can make is to try the cold-cut combo...with double meat.
Everything else pretty much sucks, but I suspect that you dramatically decrease your chances of dropping dead on the spot by eating that as compared to, say, a double Quarter-Pounder with cheese.
Yo Watts, the wimp leg-warmer-wearing-pants-wetter what wrote this article got something backwards. De Luca could care less about sammiches, he LOVES Bridgeport.
B'port right now is a poverty-stricken, run-down, tension-ridden home of various hydramatic groups including many, many illegals and could really use a kick in the economy from any source, including the highly suspicious Connecticut "Native Americans." (Donald Trump was correct. He has more Indian genes than they do.) As far as crooks go, the local Demos run a sort of Philly/Chicago operation, but without the savoir-faire.
You could order a salad, or a vegetarian sandwich. The chain markets seven subs with six grams of fat or less.
But for the most part, the staple of this franchise is processed meats and cheeses, soft drinks and chips.
I've never been into a Subway, or any restaurant for that matter, where the employees actually force me to eat food that "experts" consider unhealthy. I am not a fan of Subway because it is my impression that they use poor quality foods, but it is getting tiring to read all the articles that blame businesses for something that is a personal responsibility.
Hemophilia is a disorder which does not allow the blot to clot.
If a person with hemophilia were to take Bayer aspirin, which has the effect of thinning the blood and also works towards reducing clotting, they would be putting themselves at far greater risk than if they took nothing at all. I doubt that Bayer would recommend their product to a hemophiliac.
I don't like subway sandwiches very much at all. The ingredients are ok but the roll tastes like paper.
Perhaps I'm mistaken. I remember the similar basketball scene. First 2 message screenshots were associate with the social commentary, 2nd read find freedom, 1st, thought was overcome homophobia, but perhaps it was shortly displayed and mentioned hemophilia. The third and forth screen messages seemed to then make the jump in information content to hemophilia, heart diesease and/or Bayer.
Thanks for the link,..I had gone there but hadn't found that ad.
I am currently creating a roasted T-bone with juicy red peppers and little onions. 2 eggs over easy. Potato bread toasted with butter and marmalade. Strong hot tea with a dash of Limoncino for the lemon taste. Mmmmm. Nice breakfast, but I don't have a cigar for after:(
mmmmmm.... turkey based ham...
Of course, don't add cheese, salt, and high fat dressing. What's so hard about that? I am so tired ot these "super size" Nazis.
I've seen the commercial, there's nothing about homophobia, for one thing how would aspirin cure homophobia. The message of the commercial is that the kid is afraid of getting hurt because he has some medical condition but thanks to the wonders of Bayer he'll be safe so he can get in the game.
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