The Dish is back!
Megan Ogilvie returns with her popular column to let you know how much that cookie (or ‘healthy’ salad) will really add to your waistline
From cupcakes to cookies, leafy salads to meaty burgers, the Dish is here to sate your caloric curiosity.
Since the column began in March 2010 — with a reveal that an innocent-looking pile of pad Thai had nearly 1,400 calories — hundreds of Toronto Star readers have asked to find out the number of calories lurking in their favourite meals.
Over the years, we have learned that a handcrafted vegetarian roti can contain two days’ worth of sodium. That a luscious chocolate cupcake has more than a meal’s worth of calories. And that yes, bacon-topped poutine really is not health food.
The Dish is returning after a two-year hiatus. Already, I have heard from dozens of Star readers who are eager (and also a little afraid) to know whether a much-loved meal can be enjoyed guilt-free or should become a once-in-a-while treat. Stay tuned to find out nutrition numbers for a beloved nacho platter, a vegan sandwich, a meat-strewn pizza and a veggie-filled crepe.
For those new to the Dish, here is how the column works: I choose a food to profile based on its popularity, potential calorie surprise factor and the reader’s request (some are funny, some are heartfelt; most appeals have a hint of desperation). I buy the food, posing as a consum- er, and send it to an accredited laboratory for nutrition analysis. A few weeks later, I reveal the results to the Star reader (cue the gasps and shrieks), chat with a registered dietitian about the nutrition numbers and pass our findings on to you.
Please send me your requests. This column is for you. Thank you for making the Dish so fun. Even after hundreds of calorie reveals, I still can’t wait to open the lab report. Still, I gasp in surprise. Still, I laugh out loud. I hope that you will, too.
The ask Sol Orwell is a man possessed. He adores the chocolate chip cookie baked in-house at Le Gourmand Café and considers it — as do many other Torontonians — the best in the city. What makes it so delicious?
According to Orwell, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who eats at least one cookie a week, three critical things:
It is loaded with good-quality chocolate chips. It has a crispy exterior and a chewy, sugary middle. And it is big enough — and tasty enough — that you don’t crave more after licking up the last crumb.
“It’s that rare cookie,” he says, “where one is enough.”
Orwell, who recently hosted a citywide chocolate chip cookie taste test with 34 entries from professional and amateur bakers (yes, Le Gourmand’s cookie won), is longing to know the calorie count of his favourite treat. The guess Orwell polled six friends to guess the cookie’s calorie count.
“We decided that 543 calories was the magic number,” he says.
“It’s a heavy cookie and it’s incredibly buttery. I’ll be shocked if it comes in under that number. I won’t be surprised — at all — if it is more than that number.” The exclusive results Calories: 650 Fat: 36 grams Sodium: 437 milligrams Carbohydrates: 74 g (including 46 g of sugars)
Protein: 8 g The breakdown
This is a colossal cookie; it’s the same diameter as the average dessert plate (about 12 centimetres, or five inches) and weighs 132 g, more than a quarter of a pound.
A typical store-bought chocolate chip cookie weighs about 16 g and contains 80 calories. The chocolate chunk cookie served at Starbucks — already a large cookie at 70 g — is half the size of the Le Gourmand cookie with half the number of calories.
The 46 g of sugar in this cookie is the equivalent of 11.5 teaspoons. The World Health Organization recommends people consume no more than 12 teaspoons of added sugars each day.
Eat the entire chocolate chip cookie and you will have consumed more calories than a McDonald’s Big Mac, which clocks in at 520 calories. Another compar- ison? The cookie is the caloric equivalent of eating six medium-sized bananas. The expert “This is not a snack, it is not a dessert, this cookie is meal-sized,” says registered dietitian Shannon Crocker with a laugh.
For the average person who aims to consume 2,000 calories a day, this cookie represents about a third of their daily calorie allotment.
“For a cookie, the portion size here is way too big.”
And while a cookie is meant to be deliciously sweet, Crocker is concerned about its 11.5 teaspoons of added sugars — just shy of the World Health Organization’s daily recommendation.
So, explains Crocker, eating the whole cookie means there is little room in your daily diet for any other meal, snack or drink that may contain added sugars.
“I would love to see the café offer a smaller size cookie,” she says.
Meantime, she advises people who are looking for a reasonably sized dessert to split it in two and share it with a friend.
“It’s the first couple bites that taste the best,” Crocker says, adding that most people can’t afford — calorie-wise — to eat a couple of these cookies every week.
What would she say to those who will still devour an entire cookie?
“Eat it and love it and don’t feel badly about it. One giant cookie, once in a while, won’t make or break you. But you might want to see about finding a friend who loves to share.” The reaction “This does not surprise me at all,” says Orwell, who admits, with a chuckle, that he will continue to eat his favourite cookie each week — likely the entire thing.
“The calories are definitely on the higher end. It means that I will slow down, savour and enjoy each bite of the cookie — much more than I did before.”