For 7 days every year, bakers and coffee shops up and down the country sell doughnuts to raise money for The Children’s Trust. Every doughnut sold by participating bakers in National Doughnut Week (this year it’s from 10th-17th May) raises money for this national charity that provides specialist care and rehabilitation for children with multiple disabilities.

National Doughnut Week has raised over £775,000 for children’s charities in the last 22 years so this post is about supporting this fantastic charity and encouraging you all to buy a doughnut!

Before we get stuck in to the doughnuts, let’s have a bit of history. Who invented the doughnut? Americans say they did, but the Dutch disagree and have long claimed the squidgy, sugary treats as their own. It would now appear however that they are both mistaken, because the humble doughnut was actually invented by the British HURRAH!

A recipe has been found for doughnuts that dates back to 1800. Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale’s recipe for ‘dow nuts’ was taken from a local cook, known as Mrs Fordham. Her ingredients included sugar, eggs, nutmeg, butter and yeast, which are made into a dough which is rolled out and cut into ‘nuts’. The nuts are then deep-fried in ‘hogs-lard’ before being covered in sugar and left by the fire to rise.

So what doughnut shall it be? For me it has to be jam. That oozey raspberryness that bulges out when you bite into it, dripping down your chin that is now covered in sugar. Delicious! This is closely followed by a custard filled Krispy Kreme that I have been introduced to relatively recently Mmmmmm!

So if you wish to pick a doughnut, here are my top 3 – a traditional sugary jam doughnut, a sugar glazed krsipy Kreme (which is one of the most popular doughnuts bought today) and a ‘go on have a blow out’ krispy kreme caramel crunch…………..

The Jam doughnut

Calories 205

Carbohydrates 32g

Sugars 8.5g

Total Fat 6.9g

Saturated Fat 2.5g

Protein 3.6g

Dietary Fiber 1.5g

Original glazed Krispy Kreme

Calories 222

Carbohydrate 25g

Sugars 7g

Total Fat 12g

Saturated Fat 6g

Protein 3g

Fibre 0.5g

krispy creme caramel crunch

Calories 397

Carbohydrates 45.2g

Sugars 22.3g

Total Fat 21.8g

Saturated Fat 11g

Protein 4.4g

Fibre 1.1g

So the good old-fashioned British Doughnut wins the race! It’s the ‘healthiest’ option in terms of being lowest in Calories, sugar and fat so you don’t need to feel guilty at all, doing your bit for charity 🙂 Now when I say healthy I do feel obliged to say the doughnut is definitely a treat item; something not to be consumed every day please.

Krispy Kreme is hugely popular in Britain. Despite the anti-obesity message that dominates our health media, we still indulge regularly in these treats. There are two massive trends in food right now – one is health, the other is indulgence and both are similar in size. It’s a bit of a myth that we’re all charging off to the salad aisle, when actually we are equally spoiling ourselves.  Our stressful lives mean  we seek out comfort food that gives instant gratification.

And Mr krsipy kreme does us no favours at all in helping us moderate our consumption of this fluffy yet crispy, sugary sweet coated ring. They draw you in by offering deals on multiple doughnuts. You only went in for 1, how on earth did you come out with a gift box of 12?! Through glamorous branding and clever advertising, krispy kreme now dominate the market. These doughnuts have had cameo appearances on television shows such as Sex and the City and The Sopranos. With well-publicised fans such as Madonna and Beyoncé people have been known to travel an hour just to get one, despite being more than twice the price of a traditional jam one. So it looks like they are here to stay and as I said, do your bit for charity this week and make you treat  a doughnut 🙂