To me, ‘healthy sandwiches’ are low-fat. This means they have no fats like mayonnaise on them or vinegar and oil as on an Italian hoagie or grinder.

Yes, I know condiments and extra toppings do make sandwiches and food in general taste better. But, if you are like some poor unfortunates, future health problems (from decades of ‘wrong eating’) may manifest in disease, ailments and/or conditions. I hate aches and pains! How about you? What’s so wrong about feeling good and cancelling all those doctor appointments?

Pain is a great motivator for changing ones ways. I had the very personal experience of a ‘ruptured appendix’ in my mid thirties. It was solely caused by ‘poor eating habits’.

I was your ‘average Joe’ who ate double-decker (maybe, triple) hamburgers with everything on it, drank alcoholic drinks by the bucket full, deluxe deep dish pizzas, chips and dip, cheese and salami on crackers and every kind of junk food imaginable! Hungry yet? My weight shot up to over two ‘hundred and five pounds’ in my early twenties.

In my opinion, 'healthy sandwiches' basically have no mayonnaise, no meat and no bread! What kind of sandwich do you make with no bread? Take a guess... Ding, ding, ding! It's a salad!

Little did I know that a decade later I was going to be ‘laid up’ in the hospital with an excruciatingly painful ruptured appendix! It hurt bad! I almost died. The preacher came in the emergency room and said ‘the lord’s prayer’. Then, I knew something was up. I almost didn’t make it. I had a two week hospital stay.

I remember they wanted me to get up and start walking around shortly after the operation. It was hard to straighten up and walk with all those staples and drain tube coming out of the side of my belly! I wheeled around my IV up and down the hallway a couple laps. I had to take pain medication, too.

I voluntarily stopped taking the pain medication because I began hallucinating seeing the blinds surrounding my bed blowing around (by the way, hospital rooms are not windy!) and people who weren’t there (angels?) standing over looking down at me! Scary!

My first ‘solid meal’ in the hospital was the same type of ‘unhealthy food’ that put me there in the first place! They served up a steak, baked potato drenched with butter and sour cream, salad topped with blue cheese dressing and sugary desert.

I didn’t know all food tasting good was not necessarily healthy eating. In those two weeks, my weight dropped substantially to 165 lbs. Believe me, you never want to lose weight this way!

My healthy eating recommendation: pass on the sandwich and make a ‘huge green salad’ instead. Be sure to include a snippet of kale and handful of spinach with a few roasted unsalted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top! Skip the ‘cardiovascular damaging’ olive oil! Voila! Dig in!

Note- before you change your diet, consult with your doctor.