Thursday, June 3, 2010

Final paper

Luis Ortiz Professor McCormick 4/10/2010 ENG 101


Obesity is a Major problem in the United States. Many people believe that if you eat healthy and go on great diets that you will slim down and lose a lot of weight. So when people think of diets, they mostly think of the subways diet. Little do they know that subway sandwiches are not that healthy and just by eating any sandwich, doesn’t do you and justice unless you know what you really are eating.
Subway sandwiches are well known and have over 32,682 stores in over 91 countries. Plenty of people go on the subways diet and often come up not losing any weight. It really also depends on what is in the sandwich. Many eat sandwiches packed with processed meats and a lot of sodium. They guess that just by spending money on any type of sandwich, that they will lose weight. If that is what they think is going to happen, they are sadly mistaken.
In 1998, an obese man named Jared Fogle started his subways diet and in about a year, he lost a shocking 245 pounds. When people think of this story, they think all he did was eat the sandwiches and started shedding weight. Many subway advertisements also say that all is needed is to eat and lose weight. Jared did not just eat and lose; he had to endure a vigorous exercise routine everyday for an entire year. He did not go to the gym, but at 425 pounds he pushed himself to walk about 2.5 to 3 miles a day, 7 days a week for a whole year.
Jared is not the only one to lose weight on the subways diet. Another person who lost a good amount of weight is Debra Flinn. Debra lost about 35 pounds and 6 dress sizes in a matter of 66 days. It is known that she lost weight but like Jared, she had to go through an intense journey to lose the pounds. In June 2007 she walked 874 miles and wrote a book about what she did but every time she is mentioned in advertisements, it is never made clear what she had to go through to lose weight, the only thing that is said, is that she lost weight by eating subways everyday for 2 months and lost 35 pounds.
Although Subways sandwiches may seem like the “Best Choice” when it comes to fast food, it actually does more damage than we think. Some subs actually have the same amount of calories as a Big Mac from McDonalds. The typical Subway sandwich has about 500-600 calories with toppings, and the Big Mac sandwich has 560 calories. If someone wanted to eat healthy and go on a diet that actually works, they would not go on the Subways diet because they are basically eating food that is just as unhealthy as food from McDonalds.
Some Subway restaurants actually do not clean and prepare their foods well at all. Illinois is a state where their subways are dirty and they don’t seem to care about the customer’s health. This one state alone has had 3 food poisoning law suits against Subways. There have been different cases of customers eating subs with the bacteria Shigella. This is a genus bacteria that is a major cause of bloody diarrhea and destroys the cells lining the large intestines and if not treated, it can be lethal. From just wanting to eat healthy, a person can actually put their health at risk without even knowing it.
People do not take the time to think how I can possibly lose weight by just eating and no exercise at all. If subways actually cared about the people’s weight and health, they would include in their advertisements that constant exercising is needed when on the subways diet. Also they should add how unhealthy some of the sandwiches really are. Some sandwiches that people have to stay away from are the 6 inch spicy Italian that is loaded with Zesty salami, pepperoni, and different cheeses. This sandwich has a lot of oil, 480 calories, and 25 grams of fat. Another very unhealthy sandwich and possibly the worst choice have to be the 6 inch chicken and bacon ranch which is about 580 calories, 30 grams of fat and 400 mg of sodium.
In 2009, Zagat fast food survey rated subways as the number one overall provider of “Healthy options”, “best service”, and “most popular”. There should not be any popular choice to fast food because any way it is put, fast food is unhealthy that’s why it is fast food. Subways are in the same line of business as McDonalds and Burger King. It is crazy how people prefer to go on a fast food diet instead of eating at home, saving money, and protecting themselves from risks of strokes and heart attacks from the high amounts of calories and sodium that is put in these foods.
All of the subways advertisements show slim people dancing and singing the $5 foot long theme song. None of these people are overweight, and at no time do the commercials mention that exercising is key to lose weight, not eating sandwiches with processed meat and heaps of salt. Instead of going on these kind of diets and wasting more money, people should really spend their money on healthy organic foods and cook at home, which is so much healthier, and cheaper than the other. No diet is successful without exercising, so when dealing with any diet, whether it is the subways diet or home diet, exercising is key to a healthy life.

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