- Share This Post
- submit
- 11
-
Sparkle (0)
Once upon a time, a smart working gal started her days at the corner coffee shop, fixated on a pumpkin muffin (pumpkin? it's a vegetable!) and a latte (with skim milk! women need their calcium!). Turns out, the smart working girl (who, me?) wasn't so smart, spending $6 a day ($1600 a year!) and consuming nearly 700 calories (the equivalent of a double cheeseburger and a small fries!).
Starbucks' New Breakfast Muffin
Starbucks is looking to increase our average ticket with the addition of healthful breakfast options. "Start your day right!" they say when presenting the new breakfast foods. So what about their Apple Bran Muffin? How healthful is it, really? Hmm. It's impossible to say since -- what's up with this? -- no nutrition data is supplied by Starbucks. All we get is:
"Apple Bran Muffin -- A good source of fiber, with hearty grains, dried cherries and baked apple."
~ nutrition information ~
Right. Like this is enough, Starbucks? Even if you're not required to provide the information, isn't it the right thing to do, given that you're promoting good health?
Panera Muffins
Panera quick-serve restaurants are a favorite hangout for American bloggers hungry for caffeine and free WiFi. (We appreciate the free WiFi, really we do, thank you, Panera!) But the muffins -- my favorite pumpkin muffin, say -- are dangerous ground for eaters.
First, there's the calorie issue. A pumpkin muffin has 530 calories, 20 grams of fat and a full 47 grams of sugar. YIKES, that's 11 Weight Watchers points, more than half a day's calories for the avereage-sized woman who follows the eating plan. In part, this is due to the muffin's size, it's huge. (For the record, Panera does offer options, the Low-Fat Blueberry Muffin say. It's an improvement, with 360 calories, 10 grams of fat and 35 grams of sugar -- and 7 Weight Watchers points, still 1/3 of a day's calories.) And then there's the ingredient issue, just look at what's in the muffin -- take note, especially, of the first ingredient, sugar. (Did you know? Ingredients are listed in order of their contribution.)
Panera's Pumpkin Muffin Ingredients:
Ingredients: Sugar, enriched wheat flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), pumpkin, soybean oil, palm oil, whole eggs, leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), water, salt, natural and artificial flavor, spice, honey, corn starch, mono & diglycerides, polysorbate 60, wheat starch, glycerin, caramel color, citric acid, red 40, yellow 5 & 6.
~ By the way, Panera, is there some reason why your nutrition information doesn't load? Is it just Firefox on a Mac or all browsers and Windows too? OH WAIT -- it does open, but in another window, making it easy-easy to miss. What's up with that, Panera?
See what I mean? No wonder that smart girl got into trouble, spending and consuming too much.
What's the Solution?
Regular followers know that my bias is always -- always -- to cook and bake at home, whether we're looking to save money on groceries or to control our diets for calories and whole foods. Trouble is, many home-style muffin recipes are disasters in their own right, really just cake baked in a muffin tin, sweet and gooey -- which is fine, really, so long as we know we're eating dessert for breakfast.
But what makes a muffin healthy?
Photo by Dani Spies
How to Know a "Healthy" Muffin Recipe When You See One
Muffin Size - If a recipe calls for 'giant' muffin tins, the portion sizes are going to be big-big-big. Instead, look for (or instead, use) recipes that call for either regular-size or mini-size muffins: instant portion control.
Fat - Healthy muffin recipes will usually call for fewer than four ounces of total fat, for example, that would be less than a half cup of fat, less than a stick of butter, say. (This assumes the recipe is making a dozen muffins.) Recipes that call for an unsaturated fat (a plant-based fat such as vegetable oil or olive oil or canola oil) are preferred over recipes that call for saturated fats (usually butter). Any recipe that calls for a hydrogenated fat (such as Crisco) should be avoided or the fat substituted with a more healthful fat. Some recipes go so far as to replace the fat, partially or entirely, with applesauce or smashed prunes. I've used small jars of
