Buffalo Chicken Sub Carries Its Caloric Weight

Of the different entrée options he had for lunch at the dining hall on Saturday—from tomato quiche to golden nuggets—Caspar W. F. Jopling '14 picked up an innocent-looking sandwich with the label, "Buffalo Chicken Sub."

"I thought [the sandwich] was pretty nice," Jopling said. "Perhaps a little dry and a bit spicy, but nice nonetheless."

But some may have been surprised to read the ingredients of such an unassuming sub.

According to the nutrition facts on the Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services' website, each serving of the sub had 1159 calories, 85.6 grams of fat, and 2467.5 milligrams of sodium. In comparison, McDonald's Big Mac has 540 calories, 29 grams of fat, and 1040 mg of sodium.

HUHDS's Buffalo Chicken Sub lists bleu cheese dressing as its first ingredient, which is made of cream, egg yolk, and high fructose corn syrup, followed by a list of ingredients that is difficult to pronounce, including Carrageenan and dipotassium phosphates. Then comes French bread and southern style chicken tender. In total, there were 240 words in the ingredients.

Jopling said the sub—a simple meal of chicken and bread—did not strike him as particularly unhealthy. He added that he would like to know beforehand what he is eating, and would prefer the nutrition facts to be on the label rather than on the website.

Luckily, Jopling, a rower on the Harvard men's heavyweight crew team, said he was not too bothered by what he ate for lunch because he had a hard practice that morning.