Worst Sandwiches You Can Have for Lunch

Fast food outlets started back in the fifties as a quick way to fuel up while on the road. The American fascination with the automobile allowed people to get out of their houses and travel more. It also changed the way that we lived as restaurants, motels, and roadside attractions sprang up along all of the interstates.

Back then, people weren't very health conscious about what they put into their bodies. They smoked. Doctors were even on the television and in the popular magazines of the time extolling the benefits of smoking. All the movie stars did it.

And the sure sign of success was to have a nice fat juicy steak every night. Shake on the salt and be sure to have a baked potato slathered with lots of butter and sour cream. How about some cake and ice cream for dessert?

The fast food restaurants were just a way to have that very same unhealthy meal, only the steak was chopped into hamburger meat and put on white bread and the baked potatoes were chopped into French fries. If you missed all of that butter and sour cream that was on the backed potato, you could simply order a high fat milk shake.

But even then the hamburger restaurants started out with small cheeseburgers and a 6-ounce soda. The fry portions were pretty small too, about the size of a kid's fry today. Then the chains started the burger wars in the seventies and tried to outdo each other when it came to clogging arteries. But at least when you ordered a triple cheeseburger with 8 strips of bacon and extra cheese, you knew what you were getting into. It kept the cardiologists really busy.

Then the country went on a health kick and the sandwich chains started emphasizing healthy foods. Or so we thought. Salads appeared on the menu. Salads are healthy, no? Sure, until you start adding all of the fatty dressings, cheese, and bacon bits. A taco salad, for example, has a healthy bed of lettuce, but then it's topped with chili, cheese, and sour cream.

And that's the problem. The quick lunch and dinner places are making sandwiches that you might think are healthy at first glance, but if you look a little closer, some of them are disastrous to your diet.

Take the humble turkey sandwich. Turkey by itself is lean and packed with protein. Put some on a couple of slices of whole wheat bread, add a little mustard, maybe some lettuce and tomato, and you have a good, healthy sandwich.

But add bacon, salami, and a couple of different cheeses and you have a sandwich with over 800 calories, 35 grams of fat and a whopping 2,550 grams of sodium.

According to WebMD:A large tuna melt at Quizno's has almost a hundred grams of fat, way more than most people should eat in a day. Get the large one and that fat content jumps to 135 grams. It also has about 1200 calories and 1300 grams of sodium. A much better choice would be a small Honey Bourbon Chicken on wheat. It only has 300 calories and 5 grams of fat.

A super-sized BLT like Blimpie's has can have 45 grams of fat and over a thousand calories. Better to get a Roast Beef and Provolone on wheat at only 430 calories.

A lot of deli chains are offering specialty breads now. These breads can be loaded with extra fat, calories, and sodium. Best to stick with whole wheat.

Arby's turkey and bacon sandwich has over 800 calories, lots of fat, and a whole day's supply of sodium. Better to just order a small regular roast beef and skip the cheese. As a matter a fact, this is a good rule in any restaurant. Get the regular version of the sandwich rather than the one on steroids, and you'll save a lot of calories, fat, and salt.

Beware of the words "crisp" and "hearty" when ordering a sandwich. Crisp means that it is deep fried in fat and loaded with high calorie dressings like ranch or mayo. Hearty means that a lot of extra high calorie and fat stuff has been added.

And if the sandwiches aren't bad enough, side dishes that are deep fried or baked potatoes with butter and sour cream can almost double the fat and calorie load. Add a huge corn syrup ladened soft drink and you probably shouldn't eat again for at least a week.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-worst-sandwiches-and-wraps