Doughnuts can be an occasional treat, if eaten in moderation, as part of a healthy diet. A plain glazed doughnut is one of your better choices because it lacks the chocolate frosting and cream or jelly filling that adds extra calories, sugar and fat. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that a glazed doughnut has fewer calories and carbohydrates than your average bagel.
Nutritional Overview
The nutrition in your glazed doughnut can vary from bakery to bakery, but much of it depends on whether it's a cake doughnut or a yeast doughnut. Krispy Kreme glazed yeast doughnuts have 200 calories each, with 22 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat -- including 3 g saturated fat -- and 2 g protein. Dunkin Donuts glazed cake doughnuts contain 360 calories each, with 44 g carbohydrates, 22 g fat, 10 g saturated fat and 3 g protein.
Simple and Complex Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are not inherently bad. Vegetables, fruit, dairy and whole grains all contain carbohydrates. You must determine which type of carbohydrate you're consuming: sugar, starch or fiber. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that your body can quickly convert into glucose, and if you eat too much sugar, it gets stored as fat. Stored fat is your body's way of saving energy to use later. But if you're constantly eating, you may never need that stored energy, and it remains excess fat. Doughnuts contain simple carbohydrates. Fiber and starch are complex carbohydrates, found in nutrient-dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains. Refined grains, the type of starch found in donuts, are easily converted to glucose because the fiber has been removed.
Carbohydrates -- Dietary Guidelines
The 2010 US Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that between 45 and 65 percent of your calories come from carbohydrates. But the guidelines suggest that the majority of your carbohydrates should be whole-grain carbs and that you "limit the consumption of foods that contain refined grains, especially refined grain foods that contain solid fats, added sugars, and sodium." Doughnuts are a perfect example of this type of food, which should be only an occasional treat.
Carbohydrates in Doughnuts
Glazed yeast doughnuts contain 22 g carbohydrates, including 10 g sugar and less than 1 g fiber. To give you a visual estimate, 1 tsp. of white table sugar contains 4 g sugar -- so each doughnut contains 2.5 tsp. sugar. Glazed cake doughnuts contain 44 g carbohydrates, including 19 g sugar -- almost 5 tsp. of sugar in a single doughnut. Each gram of carbohydrates has 4 calories; so the yeast doughnut has 40 calories coming from sugar and the cake doughnut has 76 sugar calories.
Member Comments