Another day, another sandwich — turkey, of course, because you’re watching your figure.
“Mayo, mustard, hot peppers?” the Potbelly employee asks, as usual. You, as usual, think that sounds just delicious.
Faster than you can say “extra pickles,” your benign turkey sandwich has added another inch to your belly and another dimple to your thighs.
With all the fixings — provolone cheese, mayo, mustard, hot peppers, lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles, oil and Italian seasoning — a turkey sandwich swells to 650 calories, 30 grams of fat and 2,406 milligrams of sodium, according to the nutrition calculator on the Potbelly Web site. For a person on a 2,000-calorie diet, that’s almost half your daily recommended fat intake (65 grams) and more than your recommended sodium intake (2,400 milligrams).
To compare, a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese with ketchup, mustard, pickles and onions has 530 calories, 26 grams of fat and 1,190 milligrams of sodium (but more saturated and trans fats than the turkey sandwich), according to McDonald’s site.
While many restaurants offer healthy sandwich options and detailed nutritional information, customers don’t always realize that a few extra toppings can go a long way toward a bigger pants size.It’s no surprise that cheese and its evil accomplice, mayonnaise, send the calorie and fat levels on an otherwise healthy sandwich soaring, but the message bears repeating as Americans increasingly outsource their sandwich-making to restaurants, where they have less control over ingredients and portion size.
About 4.6 percent of sandwiches eaten at home last year came from a restaurant, up from 3.1 percent 10 years before, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. Sandwiches represent 20 percent of all restaurant orders a year, making for about 12.2 million sandwiches, NPD said.
The problem begins with the bread, which at restaurants and in supermarkets typically is larger than the 60- to 90-calorie-per-slice serving size nutritionists recommend, said Bindi Dessai Lessing, a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant based in the South Loop. When the bread is bigger, you need more condiments and toppings to cover it, and it all adds up, she said.
“You have to really watch people when they make your sandwiches,” Lessing said. “You need to tell them you want one slice of cheese and three ounces of meat, which is about the size of a deck of cards.” Compensate for the slimmer sandwich by loading up on dark-colored veggies such as spinach, green peppers and cucumbers, Lessing said. But beware overdoing other salty culprits. Ketchup, mustard, pickles, pickled peppers and relish have loads of sodium, and giardiniera peppers swim in oil, Lessing said. Discipline can be difficult when restaurants come out with ever-bigger sandwiches. Quizno’s in March introduced $4 Toasty Torpedos, which are more than a foot long. Potbelly on April 20 launched its new “Bigs,” which are 30 percent larger than the originals (as a big, the aforementioned fully loaded turkey sandwich would have 914 calories, 45 grams of fat and 3,302 milligrams of sodium).
But most shops also offer healthy options, such as Potbelly’s “Skinnys,” introduced in January, which have 25 percent less fat than the original sandwiches by using less bread, cheese and meat.
“Skip the cheese, mayo, oil and hot peppers on our TKY [turkey] Skinny on multi-grain wheat, get a bag of baked Lay’s and a Diet Coke or bottled water and you have a great lunch for under 425 calories and only 6 grams of fat,” said Rick Trebilcock, Potbelly’s senior vice president of marketing. “All of our sandwiches and salads are made to order so our customer has total control over nutrition.”
Jamie Lyles, 30, of Streeterville, thought she was making a healthy choice when she ordered the vegetable panini at Camille’s, a downtown cafe, but discovered, after checking the nutritional information online, that even fresh veggies can’t mitigate the 570 calories and 18 grams of fat that come with gobs of melted cheese.
Not to be fooled twice, Lyles on a recent afternoon was lunching on a Subway $5 footlong — half of which she planned to save for later — with turkey, ham and lots of veggies, but no cheese or mayo. The nutritional toll on the sandwich half was 350 calories and 5 grams of fat, said Lyles, who already had checked online.
Certain sandwiches can be deceiving, particularly tuna salad, which has generous mayo. A 6-inch tuna salad sub from Subway clocks in at 540 calories and 30 grams of fat. Splurge on a large tuna melt from Quiznos, and you consume 1,760 calories and 133 grams of fat.
Cold cuts also can be fat traps. Jennifer Vimbor, a registered dietician who runs Nutritional Counseling Services downtown, said people should stay away from meats with white marbling, such as salami, because all the white is fat. And be wary of honey-glazed meats, whose sugar adds empty calories, and of smoked and cured meats, which add sodium, she said.
Most people are under no illusion that the sandwiches they’re eating are healthy.
“I don’t think it’s much less than a hamburger,” said Hugh Whitmore, 26, of Lakeview, as he polished off a Jimmy John’s Italian sub with salami, capicola, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, Italian vinaigrette and hot peppers (589 calories, 25 grams of fat and 1,965 milligrams of sodium, according to the Jimmy John’s Web site). Whitmore, who estimates he eats a store-bought sandwich three times a week, said he compensates by nixing the chips and soda.
As he stood in line at Perry’s, a downtown sandwich institution, Ernest Morris of Bellwood planned on ordering the Mad Moscow — corned beef, pastrami and a choice of mayo, mustard or Russian dressing.
“It’s [healthier] than fast food,” said Morris, 40, before quickly conceding that that’s simply untrue.
“I like to trick myself into thinking that,” he said, laughing. “I have to eat something, but the healthy stuff is terrible.”
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aelejalderuiz@tribune.com
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No. 1
Sandwiches are the No. 1 most frequently consumed product at home, and ham sandwiches are the most popular.
$18.9B
U.S. sales of leading sandwich, sub and wrap restaurants in 2008, up 3.5 percent from 2007.
92%
Percentage of Americans who say they eat a sandwich at least once in a two-week period.
147
Average number of sandwiches Americans consume per capita per year. Sources: Mintel, NPD Group
The Caveat Emptor
At Perry’s just outside the Loop, the Caveat Emptor is a triple-decker of rye bread with roast beef, corned beef, turkey, lettuce, tomato, Muenster cheese, Swiss cheese, Russian dressing and “a tad of mustard” (lest they overdo it). The menu notes: “Buyer beware — enough to share.”
All of the sandwiches at Perry’s are made with 6 to 8 ounces of meat, co-owner Boris Abidor said, which is double the amount dieticians recommend. When Perry’s employees make a sandwich for a female customer, Abidor said, they automatically put half of the sandwich in a to-go bag. “There’s no way a lady can eat a whole sandwich,” he said. “It’s impossible.”
Sloppy sammies
Some sandwiches drip with gluttonous pride — calories be damned. Michael Stern, who runs roadfood.com and is a Chicago native, told RedEye in an e-mail that the corned beef and latkes at Manny’s in University Village is one of the most indulgent sandwiches he’s seen in his food travels across the U.S. Here are three more egregiously sweaty sandwiches you can find in Chicago.
The Southern Fried Chicken
At Jerry’s, a Wicker Park restaurant with more than 100 sandwich suggestions and countless more make-your-own options, patrons can get creative. The most popular sandwich is the Southern Fried Chicken: fried chicken, American cheese, pickles, ketchup, hot sauce and mayonnaise on white bread.
Sound like a strange combination? Co-owner Mindy Friedler has heard much worse. A customer once ordered a sandwich of turkey, portobello mushrooms, gouda cheese, peanut butter, ketchup and cranberry sauce on tomato focaccia, she said.
The Two Bagger
The Two Bagger at Wrigleyville’s Lucky’s, with all the fixings, starts with 2 ounces of cornedbeef and 2 ounces of pastrami tossed on a flat grill, with a slice of provolone melted on top. A fried egg, a few strips of bacon and grilled onions are added to the heap, along with the signature toppings: a handful of coleslaw and french fries. (Health buffs, note: It also gets two slices of tomato.)
Lucky’s has a challenge for customers with arteries of steel: Eat three sandwiches in an hour, and you get a framed photo of yourself on the wall and a T-shirt. Some 400 people have tried the challenge, but just 26 have succeeded, co-owner Joe DeRosa said. “Most people get pale and sweaty around the middle of the third,” DeRosa said. “That’s when most people quit.”
