For any chocolate lover, chocolate cream pie is usually at the top of the list of favorite desserts. The creamy and smooth chocolate flavor is hard to beat, but the nutritional information is not as tempting. Chocolate pies are typically high in fat and sugar, and the Kirkland brand pie, produced by Costco, is no different. Although Kirkland does not post nutritional information regarding its pies online, the chocolate pie can be compared to other traditional chocolate cream pies, to help you get an idea of the nutritional information.
Counting Calories
The actual amount of calories in a slice of Kirkland's chocolate pie is not posted online, but most chocolate cream pies have close to 500 calories or more per slice. Marie Callender's chocolate cream pie contains as many as 630 calories. Chocolate pies such as Kirkland's usually all have a high number of calories per slice, and would not be a good option if you are looking to stay within the 2,000 daily calorie range recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Fat Content
Typical chocolate cream pies contain about 30 g of fat per slice. This is a very high number, considering the USDA guidelines recommend only consuming 44 to 78 g of fat total each day. The USDA recommends that the total amount of fat in your diet should only range from 20 to 35 percent of your total calories. Generally, chocolate cream pies contain up to 45 percent of their calories from fat, placing them out of the recommended range for the USDA guidelines.
High Sugar Content
Chocolate cream pies, such as Kirkland's, typically contain about 28 g, or about 115 calories, of added sugar per slice. Recent reports released by the American Heart Association in August 2009 suggest that you should consume no more than 100 calories per day of added sugar if you are a woman, and no more than 150 calories of added sugar per day if you are a man. The American Heart Association adds that high added sugar intake is linked to obesity, and therefore recommends only a moderate amount of added sugar in your diet.
Healthy Swaps
CookingLight.com features a light version of chocolate cream pie that is healthier and lower in calories that the Kirkland version. You can make similar healthy swaps when making your own chocolate cream pie by swapping whole milk for fat-free milk in the recipe. CookingLight.com also uses reduced-fat whipped topping to reduce the amount of fat per slice. If the higher-calorie Kirkland chocolate pie is calling your name, reduce the amount of fat and calories you consume by cutting the slice in half and saving a portion of it for another time.
References
- "The Wall Street Journal"; Sweet Surrender: Sugar Curbs Urged; Ron Winslow and Shirley S. Wang; Aug. 25, 2009
- US Department of Agriculture 2010 Dietary Guidelines; Healthy diet: End the Guesswork With These Nutrition Guidelines; February 2011
- Marie Callender's Nutritional Calculator: Chocolate Cream Pie
- CookingLight: Chocolate Cream Pie Recipe
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