The Health Blog by Ryan Healy

Einstein Bagel Nutrition Facts

My brothers and I meet every week at Einstein's or Panera Bread for breakfast. It's somewhat of a ritual.

When I began to become more conscious of what I was putting into my body, I decided to check out the nutrition facts and ingredient lists for Einstein bagels.

As I suspected, most Einstein bagels contain a fair share of refined sugar. They also contain preservatives and other ingredients your body should do without.

If you eat at Einstein's, I recommend the Lower-Carb 9 Grain Bagel. As far as I can tell, it's their healthiest menu item. I actually now like it better than my old standby—the oh-so-tasty-but-unhealthy blueberry bagel.

For Einstein's ingredient list, you'll have to visit the store. They have a three-ring binder behind the counter that has every piece of nutritional information you could possibly want.

For just the nutrition facts, check out the partial menu listed at DietFacts.com.

Chick-Fil-A Choked with MSG

My sister once worked at Chick-Fil-A and told me their chicken sandwiches were loaded with MSG, a known trigger of migraines. So I did some digging to verify whether it was true or not... and the survey says, "It's true!"

Two of the first three ingredients in a classic Chick-Fil-A chicken breast include MSG. Before you get to the bottom of the ingredient list, you'll also find partially hydrogenated oil (in the chicken breast and bun) and mono- and diglycerides (just in the bun).

FYI... You're not safe with the chargrilled sandwiches either. The second ingredient (seasoning) includes "autolyzed yeast extract," a hidden name for MSG.

I guess this shatters the myth that MSG is only in Chinese food. Now both you and I know it's in Chick-Fil-A's food. And, according to The Migraine Web, MSG is used heavily in the food served by Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, and Burger King. Check out the "How to Avoid MSG" article for their findings.

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Fast Food Calorie Bomb

Hardee's just unveiled their new Monster Thickburger, the fast food industry's biggest calorie bomb to date. Tipping the scales at 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat, it makes McDonald's 600-calorie Big Mac look like a welterweight. Read the full article at MSN.

Starbucks' Scary Nutrition Facts

My wife and I love Starbucks. In fact, we consider the Barnes & Noble/Starbucks at Park Meadows our second home. Nevertheless, I realize Starbucks beverages are not as healthy as we all would like. So I picked up a Starbucks Nutrition Facts sheet a couple nights ago to find out how unhealthy their beverages really are.

Everybody looks for a different "key performance indicator" when they look at nutrition facts labels. I happen to be tuned in to sugar, so I looked for the two Starbucks beverages with the most sugar. Here they are.

Sugar Offender #1: Caramel Apple Cider
A tall (12 oz.) Caramel Apple Cider packs a whopping 53 grams of sugar and 340 calories! If you were to set this 12 oz. Caramel Apple Cider next to a regular 12 oz. can of Coca-Cola, the cider's sugar content would whallop the can of Coke by an astonishing 14 grams of sugar. (A can of Coca-Cola has 39 grams of sugar and "only" 140 calories.)

Sugar Offender #2: Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino
A venti (20 oz.) Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino is a monster next to the Caramel Apple Cider. This nefarious beverage sneaks in 123 grams of sugar and 780 calories in its frothy pinkness—the sugar-equivalent of drinking 3.15 cans of Coca-Cola. Another way of saying it: it takes 37.8 oz. of Coca-Cola to achieve the same sugar content of a 20 oz. Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino. Take that and slap it on your hips!

With all the different sizes, it can be difficult to see each of these three beverages on a level playing field. So let me boil it down to sugar density.

• Coca-Cola — 3.25 grams of sugar per oz.
• Caramel Apple Cider — 4.42 grams of sugar per oz.
• Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino — 6.15 grams of sugar per oz.

Everybody's blaming soft drinks for diabetes and obesity, but I see another player looming giant-like on the horizon....

You'll notice I linked to two different web sites so you could view some of the nutrition facts yourself. Probably the best site I found is DietFacts.com. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any source except my brochure that listed the sugar content of a venti Strawberries & Creme Frappuccino.

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