Deconstructing Tim Hortons' muffins

I find Tim Hortons' muffins are too sweet, and to me, aren't really muffins at all, they're more like cake. Muffins should be more dense, and usually contain fruit or nuts. I've asked them to make their muffins more nutritious, but they just defend their products as they are. They've also discontinued their raisin bran muffins which were probably one of the better muffins they served. Why? I've never received an answer from them on this.

So yesterday I bought a Tim Hortons' Whole Grain Pecan Banana Bread Muffin, which apparently has two servings of whole grains, and no artificial colours or flavours.

So what did it contain?

It contained not a single pecan inside the muffin.

As for the banana, it tasted like banana, but there was no discernable pieces of banana inside the muffin. If you've ever made banana bread or banana muffins, you'll easily notice the tiny bits of black in the cooked product. When you bake bananas in something, there are always the black flecks. I couldn't detect even one speck of black inside the muffin.

It also contained 27 grams of sugar in each muffin. That's a whopping 6.75 teaspoons of sugar in one muffin. Ever read the book Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us? I'm reading it now and it's quite the eye opener. I believe it isn't only the food giants who are hooked, it's also the fast food giants as well. Why all the sugar? Because it tastes good--they think.

Here are the ingredients in these muffins:

Whole Grain Pecan Banana Bread Muffin: Whole grain blend [bleached enriched wheat flour, wheat bran, wheat germ], banana purée, sugar, water, soybean and/or canola oils, liquid whole egg, pralines [sugar, pecans, corn syrup, butter (milk), salt], chicory root inulin, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), modified cornstarch, salt, monoglycerides, guar gum, citric acid (acidulant), xanthan gum, ascorbic acid (acidulant), natural flavour, corn syrup solids, whey powder (milk), enzyme (amylase).

I did count 8 tiny bits of pecan on top.

Nope. No visible banana inside. Or pecans.

And here are the 6.75 teaspoons of sugar the muffin contains. I decided not to eat the second half of the muffin. I decided it was just a waste of calories.