It’s that time of year. Being mid-September, it is most certainly pumpkin spice season. It seems as though almost every food and drink is now available in pumpkin flavor - from coffee to muffins to cereal to protein powders and more. So are pumpkin flavored products good for us, bad , indifferent? Let’s take a look at the facts.
Using canned pumpkin in a recipe is pretty much like boiling a pumpkin on your own, just much easier! One serving has approximately 50 calories and 5 grams of sugar, and provides lots of Vitamin A. Usually 1-2 servings are used in a whole recipe so the amount of calories and sugar we get is minimal. So making pumpkin pancakes, muffins and oatmeal would give us added vitamin A and not a whole lot more. That’s a win!
There’s a big difference between canned pumpkin and canned pumpkin pie filling, however, so beware. Pumpkin pie filling is much higher in calories and sugar - providing 135 calories for one serving and 25 grams of sugar.
The flavoring used in pumpkin spice coffee is a whole different story. Most stores use a pumpkin spice syrup when making their coffee and lattes. Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts for example, each use a different syrup for their coffees. The syrup that Starbucks uses has approximately 33 calories and 5 grams of sugar per pump, while Dunkin Donuts’ syrup has approximately 53 calories and 11 grams of sugar per pump. That may not sound too bad, right? Well… it wouldn't be too bad if they were each only using 1 pump. But they’re not! Far from it! Starbucks uses 3 pumps for their tall coffee (99 calories and 15 grams of sugar), 4 pumps for their grande (132 calories and 20 grams of sugar) and 5 pumps for their venti (165 calories and 25 grams of sugar ). These calories and sugar levels are for black coffee so added milk, cream and sugar would, of course, add more calories.
Dunkin Donuts uses 2 pumps for their small (106 calories and 22 grams of sugar), 3 pumps for their medium (159 calories and 33 grams of sugar), and 4 pumps for their large (212 calories and 44 grams of sugar) - that’s a whole lot of sugar!
So, as usual, the closer to nature the product is, the healthier it is. Canned pumpkin is pretty much just pumpkin while the flavoring for coffee drinks is mostly sugar.
If you’re a pumpkin spice fan and ‘tis the season, a happy medium may be to ask for fewer pumps in your coffee.
Happy Fall!