Two meals I ate this week include an Italian sub sandwich and a bowl of butter bean soup. The soup was homemade, the sandwich purchased at subway. A table comparing nutritional numbers for each is placed after the text, below. The table contains the data from which this analysis is made.
Soup vs. Sandwich vs. Pasta Roni
The soup is better: it has fewer calories (309 vs. 390), about half as much fat (9 g vs. 17 g) as the sandwich, aand about the same amount of protein and carbohydrates. The soup also contains 1/3 the cholesterol and about 2/3 the sodium content of the sandwich, and greater amounts of key vitamins and minerals.
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"Comparison of Food Nutritional Labels".
When compared against Pasta Roni, the soup has slightly fewer calories (309 vs. 360), a lot more fat (9 g vs. 0.5 g), fewer carbs (38 vs. 48), and more cholesterol (15 vs. 0). Except for iron, the vitamin content is lower. However, the Pasta Roni has about half the protein. Deciding which one is better depends upon which nutritional numbers matter to one – the soup has more protein and lower carbs, which makes it better, in my opinion. Protein feeds the brain, and lower carbs support blood sugar maintenance. The fats are high, but come from organic coconut oil added to the soup. But, for people who prefer to manage fat and cholesterol, the Pasta Roni might look better. I’ll stick to the soup.
Justification
The National Institute of Health provides several different sets of nutritional recommendations on what foods to eat that one may use . The guidelines followed come from NIH’s smart choices plan, which recommends nutrient-dense foods as preferable to carbohydrate dense foods. Comparing the three items (soup, Subway sandwich, and Pasta Roni) in terms of these guidelines, one finds the soup is the most nutrient-dense food, whereas the sandwich, and Pasta Roni are carb dense – the Pasta Roni being especially so. Based on that analysis, I would choose the soup, again.
- Institute of Public Health. (n.d.). Chapter VI: Food Nutrition Evaluation. In I. o. Health, The Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Crops for Food and Feed Use (pp. 42-50). Brussel-Bruxelles, Belgium: Institute of Public Health. Retrieved from http://www.biosafety.be
- MyFitnessPal, INC. (2017). Calorie Chart, Nutrition Facts. Retrieved from MyFitnessPal Free Calorie Counter, Fitness, and Exercise Journal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calorie-chart-nutrition-facts
- National Institute of Health. (2017). NIH: National Institute of Health. Retrieved 10 28, 2017, from NIH: National Institute of Health: https://www.nia.nih.gov
- Sage Creek Veggies. (2017). Allen’s Large Butter Beans Nutritional Information. Retrieved 10 28, 2017, from Sage Creek Veggies: http://SageCreekVeggies.com
- Subway IP, INC. (2017). Nutritional Values: Italian B.M.T. Sandwich. Retrieved 10 28, 2017, from Subway Sandwiches: http://www.subway.com/en-us/menunutrition/menu/product?ProductId=4263&MenuCategoryId=1
