Friday, June 27, 2014

Doughnut Versus Banana - Comparing Nutrition

What You Get In Your Doughnuts

LABELLE, FL. -- Fast food choices are all around us and with the opening of a new franchise doughnut shop in LaBelle this week we though it might be interesting to compare the nutrition of an inexpensive banana compared to a fairly pricey doughnut one might buy in a bakery.

Here's the nutrition facts comparing a Dunkin' Donuts Chocolate Coconut Cake Donut, one of the company's highest calorie foods with lots of added fat, salt and a very large list of added ingredients including artificial flavors, to an 8-ounce banana, with no added ingredients.

(Dunkin' Donuts, with a menu of about 408 items does have a category they call DDSmart with 36 food items considered to be "Better-For-You Choices That Keep You Running," according to the company.)

Doughnut: 550 calories, 39 grams fat, 390 mg. salt, 47 grams carb, 2 grams fiber, 22 grams sugar, 5 grams protein

Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Enzyme, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Palm Oil, Water, Sugar, Skim Milk, Soybean Oil, Cocoa processed with alkali, Contains less than 2% of the following: Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Egg Whites, Whey (a milk derivative), Salt, Artificial Flavor, Sodium Caseinate (a milk derivative), Soy Flour, Modified Corn Starch, Defatted Soy Flour, Soy Protein Isolate, Wheat Starch, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Guar Gum, Carbohydrate Gum, Soy Lecithin, Gelatinized Wheat Starch, Xanthan Gum, Cellulose Gum, L-Cysteine Hydrochloride; Coconut Topping: Coconut, Sodium Metabisulfite (Preservative); Glaze: Sugar, Water, Maltodextrin, Contains 2% or less of the following: Mono and Diglycerides, Agar, Cellulose Gum, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Artificial Flavor.

(source: Dunkin Donut) and (Company's complete menu nutrition guide)

Banana (cost, 30 cents at Save A Lot): 200 calories, 1 gram fat, 1 mg. salt, 51 grams carb, 6 grams fiber, 28 grams sugar, 2 grams protein

Ingredients: banana

(source: Nutrition Data)

Photo: courtesy Dunkin' Donuts website

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