‘Healthy’ Dining Undone at Subway

Posted on 16 September 2007 under Catering etc.

Reuters is reporting that people who eat so-called “healthier” meals at restaurants end up not eating so healthy when they assume they have a little wiggle room. From the MSNBC version of the report:

“People think that the same 1,000-calorie meal has 159 fewer calories if it comes from Subway than if it comes from McDonalds,” Dr. Pierre Chandon, at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, told Reuters Health. “If they choose to consume this fictitious ’calorie credit’ on other food, and it they eat at Subway twice a week, they could gain an extra 4.9 pounds a year.”

Researchers used a number of tests to find out what was going on:

Next, the researchers offered people a coupon for a Big Mac (600 calories) or a Subway 12-inch Italian BMT sandwich (900 calories), and asked them whether they would like to order a drink or cookies with their sandwich. People eating the Subway sandwich were more likely to choose a large drink, less likely to opt for diet soda, and more likely to get cookies. This meant that, on average, they wound up consuming 1,011 calories, compared to 648 calories for the people given a McDonalds coupon.

The overall perception of where the diner is eating is what’s important here. People are assuming Subway is healthier simply because the chain makes that claim. Even the company name, Doctor’s Associates, can be misleading in terms of how people see the chain’s food. In 1965 Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear physicist, loaned his friend Fred DeLuca $1000 to open a sandwich shop. That’s where the association with a doctor comes from for the company name.

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

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