It's all Jared's fault.

When I was a kid, when you ordered a sub -- or hoagie, grinder, muffaletta, etc. -- you knew what you were going to get: a big, crusty bun loaded with fat-laden deli meat, rich cheese and add-ons like peppers in oil and dressings whose primary component seemed to be pure beef tallow.

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Subs were everything a growing boy needed.

Then, in 1999, Subway introduced us to Jared Fogle. The formerly 425-pound college student dined on little but Subway sandwiches daily and dropped 245 pounds. The subsequent ubiquitous advertising campaign shook the sandwich business to its foundations, as sub shops everywhere suddenly found themselves scrambling to come up with healthier alternatives.

Of course, the move toward leaner sandwiches didn't actually begin with Jared. For years, independent shops and chains alike had experimented with lighter, leaner sandwiches. Once purchasers started voting for the less-fattening subs with their wallets, the revolution began in earnest.

Along the way, what some predicted would be the doom of truly great subs bore surprising fruit. Deprived of the crutch of loads of fat, sub makers were forced to find flavor in other ways. Exotic flavors from Asian and Hispanic cuisines, as well as traditional Italian and American tastes used in new ways, began to appear on menus and work their way into our hearts.

Of course, the full-fat subs will never truly go away. No matter how healthy we get, that craving for a sandwich squishy with fat will occasionally rear its ugly head and demand a half-pound of hot pastrami and melted cheese on a crusty, toasted roll. Even in these sandwiches, though, the flavor experiments that have taken place elsewhere have left their mark.

Take, for example, the Prime Rib and Peppercorn sandwich from Quiznos. It is basically a classic steak and cheese sub, but with the addition of a peppercorn sauce that adds flavor without truckloads of added fat.

With the tremendous variety of sandwiches offered by three nationwide chains -- Subway, Schlotzky's and Quiznos -- making a one-to-one comparison among them is next to impossible. However, by looking at where the sandwich world has been and where it has gone, we managed to find two sandwiches from each chain that had similar ingredients and could be laid against each other.

Quiznos threw a bit of a wrench into the comparison machinery, however, by not providing nutrition information on their sandwich offerings. The company's customer service representative said the information would be available "by the end of the summer," and I plan on keeping an eye out. Schlotzky's and Subway have excellent nutritional breakdowns on all their sandwiches readily available on their Web sites.

And now, to the ratings!

Classic Subs

Subway: The Italian B.M.T. features Genoa salami, pepperoni, ham and cheese, along with your choice of veggies and extras. The 6-inch sub packs 450 calories, 21 grams of fat, 55 mg of cholesterol and 1770 mg of sodium. It offers 35 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin C and 25 percent of the RDV of iron.

Schlotzky's: The small Original offers lean smoked ham, Genoa and cotto salamis, melted cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses layered with black olives, red onion, lettuce, tomato, mustard and Schlotzky's signature dressing on toasted sourdough bread. It has 563 calories, 27 grams of fat, 85 mg of cholesterol and 1840 mg of sodium. No vitamin or mineral content was offered by the company.

Quiznos: The Classic Italian meats it up with salami, pepperoni, capicola and ham along with mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, red onion, black olives and red wine vinaigrette dressing. As stated, the company does not have nutritional information available.

While the pepperoni on the Subway offering is excellent, the chain's preference for characterless processed cheese was a strong down note among the testers. If the test had been simply "meat to meat," Subway would have taken the win by a nose. However, taken as a whole, Schlotzky's was the runaway winner. The blend of cheeses and the dressing made it irresistible.

Quiznos' Italian was tasty, but half the testers disliked what they described as a greasy feeling in their mouths. Altogether, it ranked a close third behind Subway's B.M.T. The red wine vinaigrette was a nice touch, though.

The Veggies

Subway: Subway's Veggie Delight is probably the most famous of the big-chain "light" sandwiches. It's loaded with lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, olives, pickles and your choice of fat-free condiments. The 6-inch sandwich has just 230 calories, 3 grams of fat, no cholesterol and 500 mg of sodium. I chose the sweet onion sauce for this test.

Schlotzky's: The Fresh Veggie has cheddar cheese, cucumber slices, red onion, tomato, black olive and lettuce drizzled with fat-free spicy ranch dressing. The small sandwich has 355 calories, 10 grams of fat, 23 mg of cholesterol and 772 mg of sodium.

Quiznos: Quiznos' Italian Caprese, a new offering, has mozzarella, basil pesto, romaine lettuce, tomato and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

This was a very, very tough choice for the testers -- at least, among two of the contenders. Schlotzky's, the runaway winner in the first category, didn't make the finals here. The cucumber slices weren't a favorite with two testers, and overall the flavor was just a bit pale.

That left it to the old classic, the Veggie Delight, and the newcomer, the Italian Caprese. The Caprese is certainly more adventurous, but the abundance of fresh vegetables and the very tasty sweet onion sauce carried the day for Subway.

I suspect that when and if the nutrition information is released, that the oil in the basil pesto combined with the mozzarella will easily make the Quiznos sandwich the heaviest of the three, but this test proved that fat doesn't necessarily win any extra points when it comes to flavor.

So, if veggie sandwiches are what you're after, you can rest easy in the knowledge that the best-tasting one also happens to be (apparently) the one that is kindest to your waistline.

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