Numerous people regard Subway as the healthiest fast-food alternative. Their menu contains many low-calorie meals and agreed to remove the dangerous bread additive found in yoga mats after a signed petition by concerned citizens.

However, maybe another petition will take place before long, as research conducted by the CDC Marketplace found another disturbing secret. Apparently, the Subway’s chicken strips are not completely chicken.

Researchers examined the DNA of the chicken used in Subway’s grilled sandwiches and wraps and discovered that the strips had only 50% chicken DNA in 2 popular Subway sandwiches.

• Subway Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki (chicken strips)
• Subway Oven Roasted Chicken Sandwich
• Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich
• McDonald’s Country Chicken (grilled)
• A&W Chicken Grill Deluxe
• Tim Hortons Chipotle Chicken Grilled Wrap

The truth is that an unadulterated piece of chicken should come in at 100% chicken DNA, but this number might drop due to processing, seasoning, and marinating. Yet, these two Subway sandwiches contained the least chicken DNA. These were the results:

• A&W Chicken Grill Deluxe – 89.4%
• McDonald’s Country Chicken – 84.9%
• Tim Hortons Chipotle Chicken Grilled Wrap – 86.5%
• Wendy’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich – 88.5%;
• Subway’s oven-roasted chicken -- 53.6%
• Subway’s chicken strips -- 42.8%!

You might wonder what is chicken replaced with in these sandwiches.. and the answer is simple- soy!

Namely, every time you have a bite of these delicious sandwiches, you are eating a dangerous potential allergen.

Moreover, the investigation led by the Marketplace investigation also showed that the fast-food chicken also had 1/4 less protein than usually found in a home-cooked piece of the poultry.

Also, the levels of sodium found were 7-10 times higher than in a piece of unadulterated chicken. Therefore, even though their ads convince us that the Subway’s chicken is fresh from the farm, it is far from it.

According to Ben Bohrer, a food scientist at the University of Guelph, the fast-food industry often uses “restructured products” –which is a composition of smaller pieces of meat or ground meat held together by other ingredients which prolong their shelf life and improve the taste.

Hence, you should definitely avoid Subway meals if you want to maintain your optimal health and prevent possible side-effects.

These meals are harmful to heart and diabetes patients. As stated by the nutritionist and registered dietitian Christy Brissette, most of the added ingredients in fast-food meats are salt and sugar variants, and the added sugar in them might skyrocket the carbohydrate levels of a chicken breast.

Yet, this is the statement of Subway:

“Our recipe calls for one per cent or less of soy protein in our chicken products. We will look into this again with our supplier to ensure that the chicken is meeting the high standard we set for all of our menu items and ingredients.”

Furthermore, Subway Canada maintained:

“SUBWAY Canada cannot confirm the veracity of the results of the lab testing you had conducted. However, we are concerned by the alleged findings you cite with respect to the proportion of soy content.

Our chicken strips and oven roasted chicken contain 1% or less of soy protein. We use this ingredient in these products as a means to help stabilize the texture and moisture. All of our chicken items are made from 100% white meat chicken which is marinated, oven roasted and grilled.”

Source: naturalsociety.com
Other included sources linked in Natural Society’s article:
CBC News
IFLScience!