Holly Heglin has few indulgences.
One of them is the sweet potato date muffin at Urban Herbivore, the hugely popular vegan eatery that serves up soups, salads and sweets at its three Toronto locations.
Heglin, who is a vegan and allergic to wheat, gets the muffin at least three times a week.
While she considers it a treat — it is, after all a sweet baked good — Heglin also believes it’s a healthier choice, with its organic, nutritious ingredients.
Wanting to be absolutely sure, Heglin wrote to The Dish — a request filled with many ‘pleases’ — to find out the muffin’s calorie content.
“I have asked the staff at all locations and they do not have the numbers,” she wrote in her request. “Very suspicious.”
I was curious, too. A sweet potato date muffin sounds healthy, and Urban Eatery declares on its website that “Surrendering to your sweet tooth has never been (and tasted) so good for you!”
But it is also an extremely big muffin. The one I tested weighed 265 grams, or about half a pound.
Both Heglin and I guessed the muffin contained between 400 and 500 calories.
Both she and I were off — way off.
This muffin contains — wait for it — 986 calories. That’s about half of what the average woman should eat in a day. It’s also the same number of calories as what’s found in 14 chocolate glazed Timbits.
“Oh my God, really?” Heglin said after hearing the numbers. “That is insane.”
Registered dietitian Carol Harrison was also surprised.
No one, she said, not a dietitian, not a health conscious diner like Heglin, and not the average consumer, would ever guess a muffin contained almost 1,000 calories.
“You can’t expect people to know that,” said Harrison, adding that such a revelation is why restaurants should be required to post nutrition information for consumers.
“People might guess that a triple chocolate fudge brownie muffin is high in calories, but there is no suggestion, except for its size, that a sweet potato date muffin would be so astronomically high.”
Though not a direct comparison, especially for vegans, it’s interesting to note that a double chocolate muffin with Oreo crumble from McDonalds has 450 calories and 15 grams of fat. No diner would mistake it for health food, yet it has half the calories and fat of the sweet potato date muffin.
Harrison said the Urban Herbivore muffin’s 38 grams of fat — which is about half of what the average woman needs in a day — is equivalent to eight teaspoons.
“This is a reminder that baked goods are a major source of fat in the Canadian diet,” she said.
This calorific muffin also shocks because The Dish investigated a salad bowl from Urban Herbivore last year. Those numbers provided a good news story — something that fans of this column know isn’t usually the case for takeout fare.
Harrison also points out the Urban Herbivore muffin is quite salty, with 689 milligrams of sodium, about 45 per cent of what our bodies need in a day.
“Again, who would guess that a muffin would contain so much salt?”
She would like to see Urban Herbivore reduce the size of its muffins by 30 or 40 per cent, which would help make the nutrition numbers more reasonable.
As for other store-bought muffins, Harrison said it is possible to find healthy versions. She suggests looking for ones that have no more than 350 calories and list “whole grains” as the first ingredient.
When nutrition numbers aren’t available, pick small. This muffin’s the size of a grapefruit. A muffin the size of a Clementine is a better choice.
Heglin, who had actually just purchased a sweet potato date muffin before hearing its nutrition numbers, is hugely disappointed her favourite sweet is a calorie bomb.
She will still treat herself, but only once a week.
“People eat bacon double cheeseburgers and know that they are 1,000 calories,” she said. “This muffin is the same for me. It’s my only indulgence.
“I’m going to enjoy every bite of this muffin knowing it’s my last meal for the day.”
VERDICT: This muffin contains almost 1,000 calories. Need we say more?
DISH: Sweet potato date muffin
RESTAURANT:Urban Herbivore
LOCATION: Urban Eatery, The Eaton Centre, one of three locations in Toronto
PRICE: $2.79, including tax
Serving size: 265 grams
Calories: 986
Fat: 38 grams
Sodium: 689 milligrams
Carbohydrates: 146 grams
Protein: 14 grams
