The Unhealthiest Sandwiches At Jimmy John's

Stopping at Jimmy John's for a quick bite at lunch time or picking up a meal for an easy supper sure sounds sweet when the hunger pangs hit. But making the wrong choice at this ubiquitous sub shop can send your fitness goals flying off the rails, even if you have no fitness goals to speak of. The Jimmy John's menu holds a world of unhealthy options that may sound like real appetite-crushers, but they're also primed to compromise your systems in ways you may not expect.

How can a sandwich deliver such a sucker punch of poor dining decisions in one fell swoop? By packing in high concentrations of the usual suspects in the poor nutrition lineup: calories, fat, cholesterol, and sodium, with a side of highly processed ingredients that act as instigators for the other troublesome elements. These picks may not be menu items Jimmy John's staff avoids, but anyone who cares about their well-being should consider scrubbing these items off their list of go-to grub — even if they happen to be some of the more popular items on the Jimmy John's menu.

The allure of a good, old-fashioned sandwich like the Spicy East Coast Italian is difficult to resist. The familiar blend of salami, capocollo, and provolone never disappoints when it comes to full-bodied flavor. This may be the grand ancestor of the modern submarine sandwich, but it carries a legacy of questionable considerations where healthful eating is concerned.

If you love your heart, you'll seriously consider backing away from this salty coast and heading to safer ground. While a basic 8-inch order on French bread will deliver 850 calories, 49 grams of fat, and 155 milligrams of cholesterol, the eye-popping 3,020 milligrams of sodium are the super deal-breaker here. Interested in a lettuce-wrapped Unwich version? Good luck with the 2,550 milligrams of sodium — not much of a reduction for a breadless sandwich. Thinking a flour wrap might work better? Think again. That brings 3,170 milligrams of sodium, more than even French bread. But the highest sodium count by far comes from the garlic herb wrap version, with 3,430 milligrams, a stratospheric number that should be avoided at all costs.

Ah, the Vito, with a name derived from the Italian word for "life." Too bad this super stack of sorrowful nutrition possibilities is more likely to shave years off your lifespan than to add to it. Yes, you'll surely enjoy the taste of salami and capocollo (aka capicola) topped with provolone and zesty Italian dressing. But enjoying life and prolonging life are two wildly different pursuits, and only one of them is represented on this health-crushing heap of unfortunate nutrition.

The 570 calories and 26 grams of fat you'll get by ordering an 8-inch Vito are relatively modest, though the 85 milligrams of cholesterol is something of a nutritional challenge. Wrapped in a flour tortilla, the sodium is kept down to 1,950 milligrams; in an 8-inch French bread roll, it slides down to 1,850 milligrams, which is still under your daily total allowance. But pile that stack of delicious cold cuts into a garlic herb wrap and your sodium total bounces up to 2,210 milligrams, just under a full day's worth of what's recommended. Add in the salt on the chips and soda you'll inevitably be enjoying with it, and the Vito becomes a life choice you'll wish you'd made differently.

Don't be swayed by the cleverly named Jimmy Cubano; this tribute to the classic Latin sandwich, considered one of the greatest sandwiches of all time, is a major mistake in the sandwich world, no matter how much charm its applewood smoked bacon, smoked ham, pickles, and provolone may exude. It may conjure images of tropical escape, but after a few bites, your system will be wishing you'd stayed put.

How can such a suave selection prove to be such a nutritionally challenging option? The 710 calories aren't the worst you could do in an 8-inch sandwich on French bread, and the 38 grams of fat are a bit high. But at 2,630 milligrams, the sodium in this sandwich really clobbers your chances of having a good time with your Cubano. In an Unwich, the count is still high at 2,160 milligrams. Wrapping it up in a flour tortilla makes the number jump to 2,730 milligrams, and going with a garlic herb wrap gets it all the way up to 2,990 milligrams. With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines recommending a daily sodium intake for adults of no more than 2,300 milligrams, any one of these sandwiches eats up just about your entire allotment or more. Loyalty will not be rewarded, so kiss the Jimmy Cubano goodbye.

You don't have to be a nutritionist to know that using the word "gargantuan" to describe a sandwich means you'll be getting heaps of whatever lies beneath the bread. If this was a J.J. Veggie Gargantuan, you might stand a chance of overloading on garden-fresh plant fare that delivers fiber and micronutrients in hearty doses. In reality, a J.J. Gargantuan is another way of saying "lots and lots of meat," a simplified description of the quintuple cold-cut combo featuring salami, capocollo, ham, roast beef, and turkey — a round-up that draws from every pen on the food farm.

Let's skirt the 1,080 calories, 49 grams of fat, and 205 milligrams of cholesterol, all dietary downfalls unto themselves that compound in conjunction with one another. It's the 3,930 milligrams of sodium in an 8-inch French bread roll that galls the cautious eater. How does this half-sandwich carry such a high salt content? Going with a lettuce-based Unwich only brings the sodium down to 3,220 milligrams, and a flour wrap puts levels at 3,790 milligrams, which proves there's no escaping the sodium here. By the time you find out a garlic herb wrap makes the leap to 4,050 milligrams — almost twice your daily recommended allowance — it should be clear that this isn't the sandwich that nourishes your health goals. Shrink the J.J. Gargantuan down to size and order something better.

Who wouldn't be drawn in by the pizzazz of an Italian Night Club? It's not just the jazzy name that holds sway with hungry Jimmy John's customers; the combination of salami, ham, and capocollo dressed up with the zing of oil and vinegar sounds like a disco for your taste buds, all flash and panache to keep you dancing through dinner. When the music stops and you realize who your partner in nutritional nightlife actually is, you'll be headed for the door without waiting for the DJ to cue up the next song.

It'll take a few spins around the dance floor to burn off the 930 calories and 46 grams of fat you'll be eating in an 8-inch version on French bread. And that doesn't take into consideration the 130 milligrams of cholesterol, which are entirely avoidable by moving to a different dining groove. When the 2,850 milligrams of sodium drop the beat, you'll be wondering why you didn't check the nutritional listing online before setting foot in this Club. Trimming back on the bread with a flour tortilla wrap only reduces the sodium to 2,760 milligrams, while an ultra-slim Unwich with its lettuce wrapping at least gets the number down to 2,140 milligrams, less than a day's recommended total. But with all this working against you, wouldn't you rather just step to another sandwich altogether and learn to dance to a different beat? Sure you would.

Though this sandwich sparkles with the promise of a true Old World dining experience, you'd be wise to take the Tuscan Italian off your culinary travel map. In keeping with tradition, the character of this international delight makes use of salami, ham, and capocollo, topped with veggies and a Parmesan hat. A generous helping of mayo, oil, and vinegar adds that zingy thing that makes a sandwich sing, likely something operatic, in this case.

But all that heft makes for a heavy lift when it comes to keeping nutrition in focus, and the Tuscan Italian doesn't even try for a light touch. Queue up an 8-inch French bread roll, and you're walking away with 840 calories, 45 grams of fat, and 130 milligrams of cholesterol in your main dish alone. The 2,760 milligrams of sodium on that Italian stallion only complicates things further, though grabbing it as an Unwich drops the number to 2,210 milligrams — still high, but just below your full day's recommended allowance. Go with a flour tortilla, and the sodium bumps up to 2,780 milligrams, 20 more milligrams than the French bread version. But make the mistake of doing the extra-Italian thing with a garlic herb wrap, and you're headed for the danger zone, with 3,040 sodium milligrams wreaking havoc on your internal systems. Take a detour from Tuscany, and keep your daily macros in more favorable territory.

Boy, the folks at Jimmy John's never seem to run out of clever sandwich names. You know what they do run out of? Healthy options, especially with the Billy Club waiting to clobber your digestive system with a one-two combo of bad decisions. To be clear, the mix of ham, roast beef, and provolone sounds like a classic deli delight, but nobody ever improved their health by ignoring nutritional numerology in favor of a fun ride through the checkout line.

A basic Billy Club on 8-inch French bread bops you in the stomach with 810 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 110 milligrams of cholesterol, which you might as well round upward considering you're likely to make this club a combo. Keep it a solo affair, and you're taking in 2,360 milligrams of sodium, just over your advised 2,300 total milligrams for the day. Go for a flour wrap, and watch that number drop to 2,220 milligrams — still more than you should be surrendering to in a single sandwich. Season things up with a garlic herb wrap, and you've got 2,480 sodium milligrams just waiting to knock the wind out of you. A Billy may make your belly happy, but your other internal organs will be in a miserable state.

It sounds like a classy little get-together, a sandwich named in honor of a Country Club. But all the elegant table settings and snooty waitstaff in the world can't turn this sub-par sub into a wise nutritional encounter. It sounds simple enough: turkey breast and smoked ham dressed up with their finest provolone cheese, with a dab of mayo and classic lettuce and tomato adornments. Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you'll find the upper crust yearnings are just an illusion cast on top of some unsavory nutritional truth.

Delivered in an 8-inch French bread carrying case, the Country Club bestows 780 calories, 30 grams of fat, and 100 milligrams of cholesterol upon the temple you call your body. Sprinkled throughout are 2,350 milligrams of sodium, dialed down to 2,210 milligrams if you opt to wrap the goods in a flour flat bread instead. But choose the garlic herb wrap to add extra flavor, and you're also elevating the sodium content to 2,470 milligrams. If there's such a thing as a richness of poor nutritional value, the Country Club is practically swimming in it. You should aspire to greater health and better sandwich selections.

Beware what lurks in the dark heart of the Hunter's Club, for this sandwich is peppered with traps and snares waiting to take your health asunder. Even without the frilly phrasing, you can figure that a club sandwich delivering double roast beast — er, roast beef — has something dastardly to say about your well-being. It's a selection you should fight tooth and claw to avoid to keep your nutritional needs in peak form.

An original 8-inch on French bread is your ticket to 830 wild calories, 34 savage grams of fat, and 130 untamed milligrams of cholesterol — a nutritional safari that's difficult for thoughtful fast-foodies to negotiate without sustaining a bit of damage. That's not including the 2,080 milligrams of sodium, which is below the daily recommendation, but not by much. A flour wrap will take it down to 1,990 milligrams, which is herding the wily critter in the right direction. But head toward a tastier garlic herb wrap, and the fiend unleashes 2,250 milligrams of sodium, leaving your nourishment wounded in the weeds. It's safer to shoot down the Hunter's Club from the beginning, and set your sights on fairer fare in the Jimmy John's jungle.

Et tu, Caesar? Is there no sandwich in the Jimmy John's empire that dares not compromise the nourishment of the people without making a surreptitious attack on the very system it claims to serve? Actually, anything carrying the Caesar label in a restaurant probably isn't destined to be your best bud in the realm of nutrition. It just so happens that Jimmy John's Chicken Caesar's take on the creamy, zesty combination is particularly unfriendly to your health, in every wrapped or sandwiched disguise it wears.

In the arena of Chicken Caesar sandwiches, the common 8-inch French bread version will get you 930 calories, 49 grams of fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol. Translated into less cryptic terms, that's nearly half-a-day's calorie count, almost a full day's fat quota, and almost a third of a day's worth of cholesterol. And the 2,330 milligrams of sodium exceed the recommended daily allowance, none of which leaves you much wiggle room for your other meals. Give up the French bread for a flour wrap, and the sodium scales up to 2,350 milligrams; go for garlic herb, and it leaps to 2,610 milligrams. If you care about nutrition like you claim to, you'll avoid this sandwich like it's the Ides of March, and you're the emperor in question. Maybe skip the laurel crown and toga while you're at it.

There's a storm rolling in and casting shade on this Beach Club, in the form of shifty nutritional content caught between the bread. It might sound like the kind of sandwich you swing by Jimmy John's for on your way to watch the waves and shoot the curls on your longboard. Even with the turkey and avocado spread lending a golden California glow, adding this heart-unhealthy concoction to your picnic basket means waving goodbye to sunny times for your dietary upkeep — and it's a long way back to shore once you set out on such rocky seas.

What if you choose to dig your toes in and stay? Well, on 8-inch French bread, you'll be diving into 850 calories, 39 grams of fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol. These aren't the worst figures to contend with, especially considering that some of those fat grams come from healthier avocado fat. But the salt in this sea comes out to be 2,050 milligrams, almost a full day's exposure. A flour wrap brings the sodium down to 1,910 milligrams, which is a tad less turbulent, but a garlic herb wrap plunges you headlong into 2,170 milligrams, which will have you swimming in the wrong direction. No need to flip-flop on which 'wich to go with. Skip the Beach Club altogether, and find healthier terrain instead.

Don't be deceived by the lure of garlic and herbs added to chicken dressed with jalapeño ranch. These robust aromatics may ordinarily be part of a healthier profile, but in the case of Jimmy John's Jalapeño Ranch Chicken, they're a deceptive device that throws cover over one of the more compromising creations on the wrap menu. So much for going lighter and healthier by skipping the mounds of bread in a traditional hero roll. Wraps may be a permanent Jimmy John's menu item, but in this instance, choosing a tortilla over a bakery roll isn't going to save you from nutritional heartache.

Grilled chicken replaces cold cuts in the 8-inch French bread sandwich version, a change that has only a modest effect on the nutritional layout. With 850 calories, 44 grams of fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol, it's a bigger nutritional sacrifice than some of the other sandwiches on the list with more complex ingredients. The 1,810 milligrams of sodium may be a bit lower, but it's still higher than advisable for a single sandwich. Opting for the garlic herb wrap instead takes that number up to 2,090 milligrams, which is obviously the wrong direction. But go for a lettuce wrap, and the sodium drops to 1,260 milligrams, which finally gets you into a more favorable range. Still, there are better possibilities on the Jimmy John's menu that don't require this sort of nutritional negotiation.

Usually, calories, fat, and cholesterol would be the main health considerations. But this time, sodium was the real loss leader among the nutritional aspects. Some of these sandwiches exceed the FDA's recommended daily amount of 2,300 milligrams of sodium in a single order. Even some of the lower-calorie sandwiches were sodium bombs (it's worth knowing what happens when you eat too much salt). We used an 8-inch French bread version as a baseline to isolate sandwiches with the most out-of-pocket nutritional profiles, then checked the nutrition facts on the other bread styles to find that sometimes, the bad news got even worse.

What do they all have in common that could elevate the sodium content so dramatically? Seasoned cold cuts and heavily salted dressings appear to be the culprits. Reading Jimmy John's nutritional documentation made it seem like some of these sandwiches are little more than a meat-based salt lick slapped between slices of bread. While that's a humorous exaggeration made to illustrate our point, the truth of the matter is that sodium content in the sandwiches we chose is at five-alarm status and should be considered carefully by anyone thinking of putting these selections on their tray.