The Unknown Doughnut

This past weekend my brother and I both made the trip home to visit my parents.  I was specifically going home to see the high school musical (Into the Woods) and my brother had some paperwork he needed to bring home and really wanted to see his sister (... or at least that's how I tell the story).  On his way home he picked up a dozen doughnuts to share with us from his local bakery.  These doughnuts are the real thing. Made that day,  light, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth kind of doughnuts. I don't think I'll ever have another doughnut from Tim Hortons ever again.  I definitely ate my fair share of doughnuts that weekend and brought one back to school with me for breakfast Monday.  I then decided I was going on a "doughnut diet" until next time some of those delicious doughnuts find their way home.

My friend posted this video on Facebook.

[Go watch it, it's only 5 minutes and really interesting... plus I have a few spoilers below so you should watch before reading]

It's called the Calorie Detective and the creator looked at the discrepancies of calories in the typical foods he might eat in a regular day.  He compared this discrepancy to big macs, hamburgers and doughnuts that you "ate unknowingly."  In his experience, he would have eaten 2 doughnuts worth of calories unknowingly!!!!

I was quite surprised at the large discrepancies between the companies' reports of the calorie count and what the calorie count actually was.  I've never been a calorie-counter but I do tend to make choices of snacks by how many calories are in a serving (Snack A has 300 calories, Snack B has 275? I'll take snack B... most of the time). So far in life I have been blessed with the ability to maintain a healthy weight without too much concern, but it is really an eye opener when you consider the amount of overeating that occurs in the United States. 

This video made me wonder: 

How many calories am I really eating? 

Can I really trust what the boxes tell me? 

He touches on how the law requires companies to put nutritional information on their food but that the calorie count is not actually enforced, creating these misleading reports.  

Does the information actually help if it's inaccurate? 

Should there be regulations on this? 

Is regulating this even practical/worth while?

This semester I have not been eating the healthiest or really exercising as much as I would like due to stress (which I know only makes the stress worse), and looking back it's scary how many extra "doughnuts" I may have eaten this semester without even knowing it.  I'm definitely a "stress eater" and I don't tend to eat the healthiest of things when I'm stressed.  I think I am going to make a conscious effort to eat a bit healthier so that instead of eating doughnuts without realizing it, I can have (and enjoy!) a doughnut or two next time my brother comes home.