Dunkin’ Donuts as a Healthy Alternative?

I came back to the office yesterday with a couple Dunkin Donuts bags and drink carrier. I was met with raised eyebrows. “What were you doing at Dunkin Donuts?” Anyone who knows me knows that I never, unless under great duress, eat at fast food “restaurants”.

So, why am I having Dunkin Donuts for lunch? I had recently been told about the DDSmart menu (introduced this past August 2008) and wanted to try some of their “smart” offerings. There’s a reason for this madness: I was stranded in the airport the other day with the none too appealing dinner choices of  Burger King (meat? No way), Starbucks (a scone, perhaps?), Cinnabon (death by sugar) or the Gate B watering hole (martini dinner). Had I known about the DDSmart menu with vegetarian options, I would have hunted one down. So, indeed, my DDSmart lunch today included an Egg White Veggie Flatbread sandwich with a Latte Lite. I got my husband the Southwest Chicken Flatbread sandwich and a classic cup of DD Jo. OK, he got a French Cruller too! The sandwiches went over well. The Egg White & Veggie Flatbread sandwich has only 290 calories. It’s certainly not vegan raw food, but I will do egg whites on multigrain flatbread over a packaged rusting iceberg lettuce and not-quite-ripe-tomato-with-bagged-dressing salad any day. Good to know if you are stranded in an airport or a shopping mall or other generic area of town.

It seems that any of the Dunkin Donut items labeled with the DDSmart logo are good choices with 25% fewer calories, sugar and saturated fats and most sandwiches having between 300 and 350 calories.

Just thought you’d like to know!