How Fat is your Fat Tuesday?

Photo from https://www.facebook.com/buschs

Somehow, I spent 18 years in Michigan, home to a large Polish population, and never consumed a single Pączki.  Now that I live in Brooklyn, which also has a sizable Polish community, I still haven’t tried them.  I keep forgetting to travel to Williamsburg to seek them out because Mardi Gras always sneaks up on me.  Have you had your Pączki yet today?   Pączki, for the uninitiated like me, are essentially donuts filled with fruit or sweet cheese.  They are eaten in Eastern Europe and places with lots of eastern Europeans to celebrate Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras before the austerity of Lent begins.  An article on Huffington Post reports that paczki were created to clear out all of the “bad” foods from pantries like lard and sugar before Lent.  This article also reports that one can now find lower-calorie versions, gluten-free paczki, and a baked-not-fried version:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/paczki-day-2013-polish-doughnut-diet_n_2662549.html 

Frankly, the low-fat and low-calorie paczki sound ridiculous and defeat the entire purpose.  Pączki are meant to be eaten once a year, and indulging in some greasy sugar bombs before Lent won’t make your cholesterol, blood sugar, or weight shoot up overnight.  Of course, it’s wise to know exactly how much you’re going to indulge.  Nutrition information for pączki varies greatly from brand to brand.  Calorie counts range from 320 to more than 500 per donut, fat from 9 to 38 grams, and anywhere from 25 to 75 grams of carbohydrates.  I wouldn’t recommend having more than one, but enjoy each and every sticky bite!