Jun 3, 2012

Watermelon vs. the Twinkie

I bought some watermelon at the store this morning. I cut it up to snack on throughout the week.

A friend on Facebook the other day mentioned that she decided to make a better breakfast choice on Friday. She said she had two Twinkies on Thursday for breakfast. On Friday she had a quarter of a watermelon.
She decided to search on Google: calories in quarter watermelon. She found the answer of 339 after her search. I found that same answer.
I personally don’t like Twinkies. I love watermelon. What an amazing summer fruit. It’s sweet, delicious and so great to eat, especially when it is hot outside.
I decided to do a little more research on Twinkies and watermelon.
Two Twinkies are 300 calories, 9 grams of fat and 18 grams of sugar.

A wedge of watermelon is 86 calories, 0.4 grams of fat, 18 grams of sugar and 1 gram of fiber. Her quarter of watermelon was roughly 344 calories, 1.6 grams of fat, 70 grams of sugar and 4 grams of fat.
According to Livestrong.com, there are a lot of nutritional benefits to eating watermelon: Watermelon is high in vitamin C. One serving of watermelon does not provide a significant quantity of any one mineral, but you do get a wide range of them. And eating watermelon may help lessen your risk of developing hypertension.

The natural sugar found in fruit is so much better than the sugar found in a Twinkie or any snack in the Twinkie family. Check out this article to read about how various sugars are broken down once eaten.

I spotted these Twinkies at the store this morning as well. Not being a Twinkie fan, I wasn't even tempted. But the Hostess Donettes above them had me linger a little longer.

In the article, The Truth About Sugars in Fruit, Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD says: Fresh fruit offers so much more than the natural sugar it contains – including water, vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients.
When I went to Google and typed in nutritional benefits of Twinkies I didn’t find much. I did find a CNN article titled, Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds. Apparently this is true. But it was more about portion control and not necessarily about healthy eating.
Wow, if you really want to do some reading up on the Twinkie, you can read The Political Economy of Twinkies: An Inquiry into the Real Cost of Things.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat a Twinkie or two (once in a while) if you really want. Believe me, I have all kinds of junk food cravings and I do indulge. I just try not to do so too often.
But if you are making a choice between Twinkies or watermelon for breakfast, go with the watermelon.