Arby’s “Good Mood Food”

The new Arby’s slogan: “Good mood food.”
The recently released item meant to harbor in all this joy?

Arby’s Angus Three Cheese & Bacon Toasted Sub
[source]

April Fools? 660 calories, 33g fat (13 saturated), 0.5g trans fat, 1810mg sodium, 2g fiber, 3g sugars, 47g protein

Highlights of Joy:

• A load of calories and fat coming from processed meat, bread and cheese. Your body will not metabolize these as efficiently as less processed food calories [see here].
• Processed red meat, which is linked to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, since it’s got those lovely sodium nitrates. See here and here.
• Trans fat (from the bread) is pretty unanimously considered a bad fat (it’s synthetically produced). Trans fat is shown to increase bad cholesterol and reduce good cholesterol, which increases risk for heart disease. You know a food has trans fat not just from the nutrition label (since, technically, if a food has less than .5g trans fat/serving, the product can list “0g trans fat”), but also from the ingredients list as “partially hydrogenated __ <insert type of oil here>.” The World Health Organization recommends zero consumption/daily.
• More sodium than is recommended in a day for about half of the U.S. population. Consider that the USDA’s 2010 dietary recommendations (published 2011) included reducing daily sodium intake to < than 2,300 milligrams (mg) and decreasing intake to 1,500 mg for persons 51+ and those of any age who are African American or who have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease [via Fooducate here].
• Azodicarbonamide. Say that with me three times. According to Fooducate, it’s a dough conditioner found in bread products that also bleaches the flour. Unfortunately: “It’s considered safe in the US at up to 45 parts per million, but is banned from use in Europe because studies showed it could cause asthma or allergic reactions” [via Fooducate's "5 Bread Ingredients to Avoid" here]. If Europe bans it, I consider it banned here.
• DATEM. No, this isn’t an abbreviated command to “date him,” it’s an acronym for Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Monoglycerides found in the bread. According to Fooducate: it’s a dough conditioner that is “considered safe by the FDA, but a study in 2002, on rats, showed ‘heart muscle fibrosis and adrenal overgrowth.’” [via Fooducate's "The Top 20 Ingredients Used in Bread" here].
• High Fructose Corn Syrup in the Parmesan ranch sauce. Though it’s still considered safe by the FDA, the jury’s still out on just how safe this chemically altered sugar is.
• “Caramel coloring” (in the meat) is linked to cancer [here].

And, honestly there’s even more to investigate. What’s propylene glycol alginate (in the Parmesan sauce) or natamycin (in the cheddar) or L-cysteine (in the bread)? It would take me a day of research to unravel the many “good mood”-inducing horrors of this toasted sub. And I’m tired. And cranky. And I have a full day of more good-mood-inducing research tomorrow, though this time on Jack Kerouac, On the Road & ecocriticism. Fun times

Are you feeling that good mood yet?

<3,

The Cranky One

Watch the commercial here:

Tags: arby's, deceptive marketing, fast food, FDA, fooducate, nutritional information