Subway Breakfast Sammiches or, How to Raise Your Blood Pressure

On my way home from the gym, I was famished, fantasizing about what I would have for breakfast. I have a full day today and while I wanted something involving egg whites, I didn't really feel like making an omelette. I decided to pop into Subway® right by my place and grab an egg white breakfast sandwich.

Officially, my order was the "Double Bacon, Egg and Cheese" on 9 Grain Wheat, but I had them de-double the bacon, only giving me two slices. I opted for the shredded monterey cheddar (about a tablespoon) and had them use the egg whites instead of the yolkified version.  Feeling all proud of my bacon restraint, I decided to have them add just a touch of light mayo. I say "a touch" because it ended up coming out to a real serving size (about a tablespoon). If you let them loose, they'll squirt that mayo for the next week. I had them add some onion, 3 slices of tomato and some spinach to get some vitamins with my bacon. A dash of salt n' pepper and I was out the door, feeling all proud of my healthy, well-rounded breakfast.

It was delicious, paired well with my fresh pot of Einstein's coffee and I ate the whole thing. Nom, nom, nom. Then I sat down to calculate the nutrional information for this very post.  Holy sodium, Batman.

First, I used the Subway website nutrition info as a guide. They say the "Double Bacon Egg White and Cheese on 6-inch Wheat" is 420 calories, 15 grams of fat, 4 grams of fiber and 1420mg of sodium.

Let's stop right there. FOURTEEN HUNDRED milligrams of sodium. In breakfast. Oh. My. Arteries. The U.S. RDA for sodium in the average person is under 2,000mg per day, preferably under 1500mg.  I just consumed my entire day of sodium in my breakfast.

The website listings are assuming no condiments with just the basic elements, so because I added other toppings and didn't take the double bacon, I decided to break everything down by ingredient and see how much damage this relatively "healthy"  breakfast did. Here's what I learned:

Bread:  210 cal | 2g fat | 4g fiber | 410mg sodium
Ok, this is bread, people. 410g of sodium in 6 inches of bread?  Seems a little steep to me. The calories aren't so bad considering the amount of bread, about 100 calories a 'side'.  A way better alternative would be the light wheat English muffin at  90 cal | 0.5g fat | 5g fiber | 170mg sodium

Bacon: 45 cal | 3.5g fat | 0g fiber | 190mg sodium
This is for 2 slices of bacon, per their nutrion info on their site. Better alternative might be to skip the bacon entirely, but I believe in moderation. And I believe in bacon, y'all. Life isn't complete without bacon. Don't deprive, modify.

Light Mayonaise: 50 cal | 5g fat | 0g fiber | 100mg sodium
This was surprising to me. I never expected that much sodium in 1 tablespoon of mayo.  A better choice would be to skip the mayo if you can live without it. I'd go with deli brown mustard instead. It gives it a kick without the calories, though the sodium still seems high for such a minor condiment: 5 cal | 0g fat | 0g fiber | 115mg sodium.

Cheese: 50 cal | 4.5 g fat | 0g fiber | 90mg sodium
I feel similarly about cheese as I do about bacon. Life is too short to deny yourself cheese. I chose the shredded Monterey cheddar. Next time, I might choose to go with the Swiss, which is significantly lower in sodium though the same in calories and fat. 50 cal | 4.5 g fat | 0g fiber | 30mg sodium

Onions: 5 cal | 0g fat | 0g fiber | 0mg sodium
Tomatoes: 5 cal | 0g fat | 0g fiber | 0mg sodium
Spinach:  20 cal | 0g fat | 2.5g fiber | 160mg sodium
You can basically go to down with these items, as the calories are negligible. The spinach, while it does contribute to the sodium factor also has lots of nutrients and fiber, so that's a worthwhile trade-off. Next time I might consider adding some green bell pepper and more spinach.

And finally...

Egg Whites:  70 cal | 2g fat | 0g fiber | 430mg sodium
I'm sorry... what? That seems really high to me. My egg whites have more sodium than my salty, tasty bacon?  How can that be? It's just egg whites, for pete's sake. People usually add salt to eggs to get them to taste like something, but that just seems like a lot. How many egg whites are we eating? 4 or more? The amount of sodium in an egg white, straight from the egg is about 100mg. So I guess if we're eating 4+ egg whites, that would be accurate, but still... it kinda threw me.

I also had them add a dash of S&P, which added an indeterminate amount of sodium, but we'll just go with what we know. Next time, I'll just ask for black pepper.

So now, after all that, this sandwich I thought was so healthy looks like this:  435 cal | 17g fat | 4g fiber | 1220mg sodium | 9 Points®

Ok, so that's better, right? I managed to save some sodium by cutting back on the bacon, but added some (along the fat and calories I would have saved) with the mayo.  If I choose the "better alternatives" I mentioned above, it would look like this: 270 cal | 10.5g fat | 5g fiber | 930mg sodium | 5 Points

That's a savings of 165 calories, 6.5g of fat and 290mg of sodium. That's... kind of a lot. Tiny changes and you still get bacon and cheese.  And an extra gram of fiber! Yay, tiny changes!

Would I order this again? Definitely. Though, not as often as I once thought I would. I don't really feel like blowing so much sodium in one relatively small meal now that I'm aware of it, even with the tweaks. But I think it's a much better alternative to say, an Egg McMuffin which is 7 Points and not loaded with veggies. (Unless you have a hangover -- then I fully condone a McRemedy.)  I also think since the English muffin is a bit smaller than the 6-inch wheat, it would be a good idea to pair this with some fruit and/or yogurt to fill you up until lunch. Or at least make sure to have a snack.

My rating would have to be for the original, straight-off-the-menu sandwich, but with some pretty minor modifications, it's a solid on-the-go option.

I give this 3 donuts.