Firehouse Subs Nutrition could be better

Firehouse Subs is a sub shop established by former firefighter brothers Chris and Robert Sorensen in 1994. The first Firehouse Subs restaurant opened in Jacksonville Florida. The chain has over 1,000 locations across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The restaurant has become famous for its delicious subs but today, we take a look at Firehouse Subs nutrition.

Firehouse Subs menu

The restaurant specializes in subs but they also carry other foods for example salads, fries, and soups. To go with the food, they have a wide selection of drinks ranging from sodas to teas. Their side selection is not so wide with most of their sides being prepackaged foods such as Lays chips. Indeed the only category of food with a wide variety is the subs category with the rest serving 1 to 5 items for example the salad menu has only 6 options.

Firehouse Subs Nutrition

While Firehouse doesn’t make a large effort to promote good nutrition, they have extensive nutrition information on their dishes. The nutrition information is easy to read and it is provided for all foods in all sizes and variations.

Allergy information

Firehouse Subs’ food contains a number of allergens but they have a feature on the website that lets you filter out foods that contain a specific allergen. You can select one or more allergens and a menu with foods that do not contain that allergen will be generated. You can filter out eggs, soy, peanuts, wheat, and many others.

The Calories of Firehouse Subs

The subs from Firehouse are very high in calories. This is because they are made from high-calorie components particularly bread, meat and cheese. The large subs are especially high in calories going over 1500 calories for a serving. The restaurant also carries a few lower calorie subs with as little as 350 calories. However, if one was to get these subs in medium or large sizes, the calories would go up to more than 1000 calories. The sides, salads and soups are also fairly high in calories with some having 500 calories. They do, however, have a number of low-calorie options.

In 2014, Firehouse Subs launched the ‘Hearty and flavourful under 500 calories’ menu with dishes designed with nutrition in mind. The menu has a total of 10 dishes including salads, chicken dishes, and roasted beef.

Fat and Sodium content of Firehouse Subs

The amount of fat in Firehouse Subs’ food is high as expected since they use cheese in many of their recipes. A significant portion of the fat is saturated due to the presence of meat and dairy. The subs are also high in cholesterol which can have a negative effect on heart health.

The sodium content of the food is also high reaching almost double what is recommended in a day. This is probably due to large amounts of salt or the use of packaged ingredients with sodium-containing preservatives. The cheese too may be contributing more sodium to the meals.

Firehouse Subs’ Sides 

Firehouse Subs serves a small range of sides that include soups, chips, and salads. The sides are lower in calories than the subs. All the salads are below 500 calories without dressings and the dressings range from 90 to 300 calories. The soups, chips, and desserts are also in the same range of 50 to 500 calories.

How does Firehouse Subs rank in terms of nutrition?

Firehouse Subs gets a 3 out of 5 for their nutrition. The restaurant does not serve nutritious food but this is not the reason for the low ranking. There seems to be close to no effort put in to ensure that their customers get good nutrition from the subs. The efforts towards nutrition all seem like a formality instead of genuine concern for their customer’s health. Apart from the nutrition information provided for the foods, there is no other visible work done to maximize good nutrition. The salad menu is also very restricted and narrow providing only 6 items that are a variation of the same dish. Making a low-calorie menu is a move in the right direction but health is about much more than calories.

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