Thursday, October 22, 2009

Last night I was watching tv and there was a Dunkin Donuts commercial on. They were advertising all of their pumpkin muffins and donuts. I really wanted to try their pumpkin donuts, so I thought maybe I would before the holidays are over.

This morning Mark and I decide to go by McDonald's on the way in and get our usual. Mine is a bacon and egg biscuit. When I got to work, there were signs up about there being donuts in the library. I was bummed because I already had my egg and bacon biscuit.

Mark called me and I told him I really wanted a donut and he said; go get one. I told him there were donuts for all in the library and he said oh. Donuts don't appeal to Mark all that often. After eating my planned breakfast, the donuts kept creeping up in my mind. So, I went and got one. I picked out the one I thought was pumpkin and made way back to my desk. While I was eating it, I decided to go out on the internet to see if there was nutritional value for Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds. I give Dunkin credit for their easy to find, easy to read chart for nutritional value. The pumpkin donut has 300 calories and 35 total grams of carbs. Go out and take a look. (donuts are below the coffees)

https://www.dunkindonuts.com/aboutus/nutrition/nutrition.pdf

Then I went to McDonald's site. Nutrition value was also fairly easy to find, their chart not as easy to read. My planned breakfast has 37 carbs for a regular sized biscuit and 43 for a large one. I didn't know they had different sized biscuits, so since I'm not sure whether mine was a large or regular, I'll split the different and say 40 carbs.

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutritionexchange.do

I had heard that Long John's did not report their nutrition information, but I thought I'd check. If they didn't in the past, they do now. I can eat 3 chicken planks and 1 serving of coleslaw for 42 carbs.

http://www.ljsilvers.com/pdf/LJSnutrition-info2009.pdf

So, I've consumed 75 carbs this morning and don't feel nearly as satisfied as if I'd stayed with my cereal or oatmeal then chosen Long John's for lunch! Krispy Creme glazed pumpkin spice as 2 more grams of carbs, but for me is much tastier than the Dunkin pumpkin donut and worth the extra 2 carbs.

Tip: If there is something you like to eat on a regular basis, go find the nutritional value on the Internet. You may be surprised that something you were turning down is better for you as an occasional treat, than what you would choose without looking at the actual nutrition information.