Posted on 04/08/2006 7:29:41 AM PDT by Cvengr
What's the largest fast junk food chain in the country?
Wrong.
It's not McDonald's.
It's Subway.
Subway overtook McDonald's last year in the United States and now has 15,874 locations in the U.S. compared to 11,533 for McDonald's.
Worldwide, Subway has 21,528 restaurants in 75 countries.
McDonald's has more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries.
Subway founder Fred DeLuca says he wants 30,000 outlets worldwide by 2010.
Of course, Subway would not want you to think that it is not a fast junk food chain.
In fact, the privately held firm has overtaken McDonald's by riding a wave of publicity featuring Jared Fogle, who says he lost 245 pounds on the following diet coffee for breakfast, Subway sandwich for lunch, and Subway sandwich for dinner.
Soon, the word was out you could lose weight eating Subway sandwiches.
And tomorrow, on the National Mall, Subway founder and CEO DeLuca will join with Fogle, the American Heart Association, members of Congress (including the corporate liberal Rose DeLauro, D-Connecticut, whose district contains Subway's corporate headquarters), and various "nutritional experts" to "galvanize support for fighting childhood obesity."
We went and visited our local Subway and found that in fact, there was health and diet information displayed, including a nutritional and dietary guide with the American Heart Association's stamp of approval.
But as at most fast junk food outlets, Coke machines, the rows of bags of chips, and the rubbery chicken and unappetizing beef were screaming unhealthy, stay away.
You could order a salad, or a vegetarian sandwich. The chain markets seven subs with six grams of fat or less.
But for the most part, the staple of this franchise is processed meats and cheeses, soft drinks and chips.
Subway sandwiches include such classics as Steak and Cheese, Subway Melt (a first class blend of turkey breast, ham, crispy bacon, and melted cheese) Italian BMT (pepperoni, genoa salami, and ham) and the Cold Cut Trio (turkey based ham, salami, and bologna) not your typical heart healthy sandwiches.
Should members of Congress and the American Heart Association be promoting this multinational junk food company?
Of course they shouldn't.
The American Heart Association has sullied its reputation by getting in bed with whatever corporation comes around with its checkbook open.
According to a report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the American Heart Association has taken big corporate cash from a long list of drug companies, junk food companies, and even from the National Livestock and Meat Board, which gave $189,000 to sponsor a HeartRide cycling series "to help ensure that people don't think that AHA recommends abstaining from meat."
In return for endorsing only Bayer aspirin, AHA gets $500,000 a year from Bayer. Nice deal, if you can cut it.
And how much money has Subway kicked in?
According to the AHA, Subway has given $4 million to the American Heart Association (AHA) since 2002, and will gave an additional $6 million through 2007. That's a total of $10 million.
In exchange, Subway gets to put the AHA "fighting heart disease and stroke" logo on its materials throughout its chain of stores, according to an AHA spokesperson.
In a written statement, the AHA said it will only accept sponsorships from "those restaurants that have a public/market positioning associated with healthy foods or have heart-healthy and non-fried food alternatives on the menu."
"Subway actively promotes low-saturated fat meal options and exercise in their advertising messages," the AHA said in the statement. "Their messaging reinforces that a well-balanced diet and exercise are important tools in maintaining a healthy weight."
We agree with Commercial Alert's Gary Ruskin that it's "not the proper role of the federal government or public health groups to hawk Subway or any other form of fast or junk food."
"This is part of the broader story of the corruption of the American public health movement," Ruskin said. "AHA ought to drop its support for Subway. They have been converted into an auxiliary marketeer for Subway. They are apparently for sale."
"The fast food companies are running in a panic over the obesity epidemic," Ruskin said. "They are striving to do something to make it seem that they are not responsible for it or part of it. This is just one more way that companies like Subway try to hide their tracks and boost their public relation images."
The government and independent public health organizations should be helping the American people fight off the hyperbreeding of fast food outlets cannibalizing the country not promoting it.
In addition to promoting his beloved Subway and making millions a year doing so, DeLuca wants to bring an Indian gambling casino to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Call it the junk food/junk economy connection.
According to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, DeLuca invested $10 million in the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation's successful effort to gain federal recognition so they could build a casino in Connecticut. Blumenthal is challenging that recognition.
And the House Government Reform Committee is in the middle of an investigation of how the Schaghticoke Tribe and the Eastern Pequots gained such recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Earlier this year, the Hartford Courant reported that a rival band of Indians charged that the federal recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation "was hijacked by outside investors and high-priced lobbyists intent on winning a lucrative gambling franchise for their own benefit."
Whether or not the investors and lobbyists hijacked the process we'll leave to federal investigators.
But what is clear is that Subway and DeLuca have hijacked the American Heart Association, Congresswoman DeLauro, and various federal agencies to promote their own brand of fast junk food.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
This article is posted at: http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2004/000181.html
I was shocked that Bayer would encourage homosexuality amongst preeteen adolescents and then have the nerve to associate their product with medical advise. I haven't found a copy of the ad to confirm the exact wording, but the message was clearly sent. Meanwhile, I discovered this intereting beit of trivia between the AHA and Bayer.
Crappiest sub I've ever had. 2 paper-thin pieces of roast beef, 1 piece of cheese, and a tiny amount of lettuce and tomato. No wonder that fat slob lost all that weight eating there. It's 95% bread. I've never gone back and never will.
Is anyone holding a gun to the customer's heads forcing them to buy the less healthy alternatives? You can get a diet soda and baked chips just as easily as the higher fat and calorie options.
Congress has no business concerning itself with what people eat. The American Heart Association is a sham.
Subway donates considerable money to liberal causes. If you want to help support the democrat party then eat at Subway, because a portion of every dollar you spend there goes in the democrats political pockets and almost none in anything conservative.
The american public health association is one of the foremost liberal support groups in the United States. The work they do with grants keeps the liberal activists funded in your area as well as the rest of the country.
Now I'm hungry
Our WalMart Supercenter here in North Little Rock, is converting it's cafeteria area to a SubWay Franchise operation.
I don't know if this is a "trial" run or if all the WalMart Supercenters Nationwide will have Subway, but if so, they hit the jack pot!
sw
I wish the busybodies would just open up their own cabbage, tofu, and brussels sprouts emporium and compete in the marketplace with everyone else.
So "Yay Go AHA, It's your birthday!"
I don't know if this is a "trial" run or if all the WalMart Supercenters Nationwide will have Subway, but if so, they hit the jack pot!
It appears to be happening nationwide . . .
Quizno's seems to have much better subs.
There may be more Subway locations than McDonalds', but I'll bet MickeyD's shows substantially more gross revenue. Just because you can open a Schlubway in every strip mall from here to Kingdom Come doesn't mean they make any money.
I love Quizno's. Toasty!
If the American Heart Association shouldn't be taking donations from Subway, the AIDS Coalition shouldn't be taking money from gays.
This article is ostensibly focused on highlighting the 'evils' of cooperation between corporate fast food giants, the government, and the AHA. But, notice how deftly the propagandist switches gears between bashing Subway for the purported unhealthfulness of much of their menu, to bashing the CEO of Subway for the totally unrelated issue of his personal investment in an Indian casino opportunity.
Clearly the junk food angle in the article is a mere pretext for the true agenda of the author. These Commies are so predictable that it is laughable...
Subway sells bread and lettuce. There's no junk there because there's no there there.
I think the commercial says "overcome hemophelia" or some other blood disease, totally different stuff.
As for Subway this writer uis a whiney jerk. Basically he's declaring Subway not healthy because, horror of horrors, you can eat unheathily there. Gloss over the fact that it't the easiest fast food place to eat smart at and jump all over the availability of chips and soda.
The Wall Mart in Clinton Mississippi
just recently closed one kind of eating place I don't
remember what and replaced it with a Sub Way.
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