Want some Sodium Silicoaluminate with that?

In our Indiana neighborhood, we’re hearing about the expansion of dunkin donuts stores. Just out of curiosity, I checked their site and the ingredients in their cake and glazed donuts. One donut has: calories: 280, sodium: 260mg, total carbs: 26g., enriched bleached flour, and oh yeah, sodium silicoaluminate (say that 10 times real fast), and everyone’s favorite ingredient: Phospholipase. Loaded with palm oil, partially hydrogenated soyben and cottenseed oil, it’s truly, as Michael Pollan calls it, a “food product” not food at all. I’m doubting that having JUST ONE would be anywhere nutritionally satisfying for anyone, and there’s the problem. Undoubtedly, the more anyone would eat, the closer their bodies would near their pre-diabetic state. The “black hole” of nutrition knocking at our front door again, right? Marketing wins again over nutrition?

So, and unfortunately, stories in the local media abound with teenagers staying up all night anticipating the open doors of the local donut shop, and then, after imbibing this heavily marketed food product, shuffle off to work at Best Buy in a diabetic coma. Stories of fathers, taking their young children to the store and highlighting how the colored sprinkles reflect in their shiny eyes.

There’s a better way, and most of us are still missing it. Maybe these donuts are just for aliens and Ace Frehley.