Not to bring you down off your barbecue high, but Subway has health-ified its bread. Each footlong loaf now is fortified with calcium and vitamin D, so your BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich has the nutritional equivalent of drinking two glasses of milk. Maybe it’s best not to think about that at lunch. Focus on porking out.

Here’s the blueprint: 9.5 ounces of pulled pork, barbecue sauce, lettuce, onions and pickles on your choice of Subway’s iconic fresh-baked breads. I recommend the Hearty Italian, but it’s strictly your pick.

Lettuce, onions and pickles come standard, but you can customize your sandwich with any of Subway’s array of veggie and cheese toppings. Subway does not have coleslaw, the traditional partner on an authentic North Carolina or Memphis pulled-pork sandwich. But Subway has 24,000 restaurants in all 50 states and a policy of the customer always being right. Even if lettuce on pulled pork is so wrong.

Total calories: 1,140 (for the footlong). Fat grams: 34. Sodium: 2,680 mg. Carbs: 136 g. Dietary fiber: 10 g. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $8.

That’s the all-time-high price tag for a Subway sub, tying the mark set by the Philly Cheesesteak. Which begs the question, Is this sandwich worth eight bucks, plus chips, plus soft drink, plus tax, no tip? We’re approaching the same price as your local barbecue joint, where the pork is smoked in house and the waitresses are dressed like Annie Oakley. You want a large or small sweet iced tea with that sandwich? Pecan pie for dessert?

The pork for Subway’s BBQ Pulled Pork Sub is cooked off-campus and delivered to your neighborhood Subway. At the rate Subway is growing, you could have two Subways in front of your house pretty soon.

The pork is naturally smoked with hickory and other hardwoods. It’s prepared without any dry rubs, sauces or seasonings. Pitmasters call this style of cooking “naked.” The natural sweetness of the pork is allowed to shine. The only added flavor comes from the wood.

Subway uses both the butt and picnic cuts for its pulled pork. While the thought of eating a pig’s rear end is funny and disconcerting, the pork butt is the upper part of a pig’s shoulder; the picnic is the lower part. Anatomy is not a pig’s best subject.

Does this sandwich make my butt look big? Of course it does; it’s 9.5 ounces of meat.

The meat is mixed with Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce in the restaurant and warmed to serving temperature. Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce is a national brand with a top reputation. It’s a distinctive Kansas City-style sauce with a touch of heat — one of the best and priciest brands in the supermarket. It’s not the 88-cent bottle of no-name sauce on the bottom shelf of the condiment aisle. You know how we feel about recognizable brand names in the drive-thru. It’s a comfort thing.

Cheese does not belong on a pulled-pork sandwich, but if you like to add cheese to everything, including a grilled cheese sandwich, and you think hiding cheese in pizza crust is the greatest idea ever, then go with pepper Jack. But you didn’t hear that from me.

And when you’re asked, “Would you like this toasted?” … just say no. It’s closer to authentic untoasted.

(c) 2011 by King Features Syndicate.