Sub sandwiches are a common choice for lunch by people around the world--however, sometimes it can be difficult to choose ingredients for your sub that are both healthy and delicious. In order to make the healthiest sandwich possible, be sure to avoid adding cheese, white bread, restaurant-made meatballs, and ham to your sandwich.
Cheese
One of the most important ingredients that you should avoid when it comes to making a sub sandwich is cheese. Though cheese can make a tasty addition to your sandwich, it is unfortunately loaded with high amounts of fat, calories, and salt. In fact, cheese is one of the most calorically dense foods available today. Consider the fact that one ounce of cheese contains as many as 100 calories. Compare this to one ounce of bread, which contains only around 60 calories. If you must have cheese on your sub sandwich, consider using cheese that is made from low or fat free milk in order to achieve optimal results.
White Bread
White bread is another ingredient that should be avoided when you are making a sub sandwich. Often, people choose white bread when making subs because it has a relatively neutral taste, and therefore blends well with most other ingredients. However, white bread is made from simple carbohydrates, which have many negative health affects. Among them include the fact that white bread is very rapidly digested. This can lead to spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels, which result in feelings of dizziness, nausea, and in serious cases can even cause death. In addition, high simple carbohydrate consumption can lead to weight gain due to the high digestibility rate. When you eat simple carbohydrates, they are rapidly emptied from the stomach and digested, and you'll soon find yourself hungry again.
Meatballs
Meatballs are also very dangerous when it comes to sub sandwiches. This is primarily regarding sub sandwiches that are purchased at restaurants. Meatballs that are made in restaurants may taste great, but they often are made from fatty cuts of meats, and are mixed with high amounts of salt and even butter to make the meatballs moist and delicious. In addition, the sauce that accompanies the meatballs is often extremely salty. For best results, if you are craving a meatball sub, make it yourself at home. This way, you can manage exactly how much salt, butter, and what kind of meat is used in the creation of the meatballs.
Ham
Finally, ham is another ingredient that you may want to avoid when it comes to sub sandwiches. As with many of the other ingredients described above, ham is rich in sodium. While sodium itself does not contain any calories, it can cause significant water retention, which results in weight gain. In addition, high sodium intake can be very detrimental to kidney function, even leading to kidney failure in some cases.
