Few meals are more portable and less time-consuming to prepare than a sandwich. Yet in our quest for convenience, we often abandon common sense in favor of a towering temptation.
But where sandwichmaking is concerned, it turns out that little things can make a big difference.
Most folks lay the blame solely on the filling. (Buzzer noise: Wrong!) Your choice of meat, cheese, fish, etc. does significantly affect the nutritional profile of your lunch. But your choice of a spread, the garnishes you add and even the kind of bread you use can make the difference between a healthful midday meal and a snooze-inspiring fatfest.
Breads
Quit loafing. Switch to the right bread and you’ll do several good things for your sandwich – variety and taste among them.
Start off by envisioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Pyramid, the contemporary model for healthful eating. The base consists of grain products. The average person should eat 6 to 11 servings daily. A single slice of bread provides one serving.
Most breads contain only 1 or 2 grams of fat. Still, check product labels; some rich breads contain more (true egg breads, iced raisin breads and other sweet varieties). Sodium can vary significantly.
An especially valuable addition to your diet? Whole-wheat bread, as opposed to wheat bread, which is a labeling ploy. Most white flour, no matter how richly it has been colored with molasses, is ground from wheat, but not necessarily the whole grain. Eat just two slices of whole-wheat bread and you’ll get nearly one-sixth of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for fiber (25 to 30 grams daily) you need for proper digestion and elimination.
Variety, however, is “the spice,” right? So don’t feel stuck with only one type of bread. In the case of oatmeal breads, multigrain loaves and other types (including those moistened with ground raisins) you’ll get doses of valuable soluble fiber-the form of fiber that can help to reduce serum cholesterol levels.
Fillings
According to market analysis by NPD Group, a Chicago-area data research firm, ham-and-cheese sandwiches are America’s favorite. So let’s look at what you get in that toothsome stack:
– OK, so you like a meaty sandwich. Let’s calculate 3 ounces of regular boiled ham, which weighs in at about 155 calories. That figures out to 9 grams of fat (which supply nearly half the ham’s calories), and close to 1,200 milligrams of sodium-plus important protein, phosphorus and some iron.
– Pile on two 1-ounce slices of Cheddar cheese-and an additional 230 calories (about 71 percent of those calories from fat), plus more sodium.
Now, based on a 2,000-calorie daily diet, those fillings alone provide close to half of your daily allotment of fat. Plus almost 60 percent of your daily sodium.
Plenty of alternatives are nearly as convenient for stuffing between slices of bread. Among them:
– Reserve slices of chicken from next Sunday’s roasted bird.
– Jazz up lean cuts of beef round with horseradish and ground black pepper.
– Grilled or raw vegetables, especially with a slice of reduced-fat cheese, make a delicious substitute. But watch those labels; some producers pump up the sodium to compensate for altered texture and flavor in low-fat cheeses.
– Marinated and grilled fish (hey, try it) stuffed into a pita with veggies and low-fat ranch or cucumber dressing is surprisingly satisfying and refreshing.
– Remove the skin from roasted turkey breast. Even though turkey is actually higher in cholesterol than ham, most health practitioners caution that saturated fat is the worse culprit in meats-and white meat turkey contains very little fat and virtually no saturated fat. For good measure, you’ll shave more than 1,000 milligrams of sodium from your sandwich by switching from generic varieties of ham.
– Consider extra-lean and reduced-sodium varieties of ham. On average, you’ll eliminate almost half the fat (far less of it saturated) and some cholesterol.
– Water-packed light tuna is lower in calories, cholesterol, fat and sodium than that ham. Plus you’ll get traces of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids in the bargain.
Spread
Want to raise the caloric ante really quickly? Choose (and misuse) a high-fat spread. Real mayonnaise, a passion for many, is a real liability. That creamy richness comes at a cost of 100 calories per level tablespoon. A generous slathering on both pieces of bread can easily build an additional 300 to 500 calories into a sandwich, depending upon the size of each slice and your own self-indulgence.
And almost all of those calories come from fat. Which can easily outweigh, calorically, the filling you’ve just entombed.
Let’s trim the sails. Here are ways to cut the fat and keep flavor:
Choose a fat-free mayo-substitute and your calories plummet to 10 per tablespoon.
Compromise and go with a typical “light” mayonnaise. You’ll still shave nearly half of those calories (50 versus 100 calories).
Grab the mustard. Apart from the sodium (some brands can provide nearly 10 percent of your RDA in a single spoonful), mustard is potently flavorful and almost fat-free-about 12 calories per tablespoon.
Remember that horseradish? Zesty flavor and only 7 calories, negligible sodium, and traces of several minerals. Another intense alternative? Barbecue sauce is great on cold meats and chicken, to the tune of 20 to 60 calories per tablespoon-and a little goes a long way.
Garnishes
Now is the time to heap on slices of fresh tomato, crisp lettuce, and maybe a slice of sweet onion. Not only are you adding tangy taste along with vitamins and minerals, you’re also displacing high-fat ingredients.
Need other ideas?
Roasted red peppers (not packed in oil) add lush flavor and a tender, velvety “bite” to sandwich fillings.
Pickles are loaded with flavor and crunch. If sodium isn’t an issue for you, load ’em on. Ditto for jalapeno slices, banana peppers or fat-free pickle relishes, such as those made with mustard or ketchup.
SANDWICH HIGHS AND LOWS
How does your sandwich stack up? Here’s a comparison of two popular versions.
Ham and cheese on firm white breadwith 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Total calories: 619 Total fat: 42 grams (about 60 percent calories from fat)
Saturated fat: 13 g Sodium: 1,735 milligrams Fiber: 2 g
Roast turkey on whole-wheat with mustard, lettuce and tomato
Total calories: 330 Total fat: 4 g (about 10 percent calories from fat) Saturated fat: Sodium: 625 mg Fiber: 7 g
Source: USDA’s “Composition of Foods: Raw, Processed, Prepared.”
