A typical turkey sandwich in the 1980s contained 320 calories.
Today it can contain up to 820 calories.
As a result, an analysis of federal nutritional survey data found that sandwiches alone account for approximately one-fifth of daily sodium intake, 19 percent of total saturated fat calories, and 7 percent of daily added sugars.
The implication is that we are eating too many sandwich-based foods today.
I disagree. I think a sandwich is an excellent food item. The perfect vehicle for transferring calories from the world into your stomach. The sandwich is handheld, portable, and simple to eat. It can contain bread, meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, and condiments, allowing you to eat a host of items from a variety of food groups in a single bite.
It’s also a highly efficient food source.
Alone at lunchtime?
Hiking the Adirondack Trail?
Driving from one client to the next?
Running from a wild boar
Take your sandwich on the go.
No need to sit with a fork and knife and eat alone. When you have a sandwich, you can move about. Get things done. See the world
And sandwiches often leave little behind in terms of cleanup. A paper plate or no plate at all is perfectly fine for a sandwich. Perhaps a cutting board and a knife are all you need to assemble the sandwich.
That’s it. A couple of minutes later, you’re ready to go with your choice of sandwich that day:
Ham and cheese
BLT
Peabut butter and jelly
Tuna fish and peanut butter (my invention)
Grilled cheese and tomato
Turkey and cranberry jam
Bologna and salami on white
All of those awful tuna and chicken salad sandwiches with their disgusting mayonnaise
The choices are endless.
And if you agree to stretch your definition of a sandwich to include anything encased in bread and handheld — which you should — then foods like burgers, hot dogs, meatball subs, and bagels make the category of sandwich even more appealing.
Yes, the sandwich has grown in size and calories over the years, but only because it is an extraordinary piece of food architecture. A portable package of caloric goodness with the flexibility to eat something different every time you make one.
Sometimes bigger is better.
