Subway Sandwiches' Secret Ingredient: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Healthy sandwich? Depends on how you define that. (Photo: theimpulsivebuy/Creative Commons)

Think you’re doing yourself a favor by eating at Subway? Think again.

Your nine-grain bread is a fake. What you’re really downing is a bunch of high fructose corn syrup and…get this…plant fertilizer.

Over at Slashfood today, Nichol Nelson broke down what your Subway sandwich really means. And it's not pretty.

For starters, the "nine" grains in the bread are technically in there, but that doesn't mean you're getting much of them. In fact, they make up less than 2 percent of the ingredients.Just like white bread, the nine grain bread at Subway is mostly...white flour. Beyond white flour, there is more high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the bread than the "grains" it's named after. (If you don't know what HFCS can do to your bod, check out this TakePart post.)

With all that white flour, how'd the bread get to be so golden brown? Well, with the help of a little compound called ammonium sulfate, added to nourish the yeast until it turns the same shade as Paris Hilton. But at what health cost does your bread look good?

Ammonium sulfate is also in plant fertilizer. That can't be good. Kind of makes you worry for Subway dieter Jared's digestive tract...

Photo: theimpulsivebuy/Creative Commons via Flickr