Calories in Au Bon Pain's Cinnamon scone

WeightWatchers Points are estimated by carbohydrates, fats, protein and fiber in product. They are not an affirmation of better quality or nutritional value of the product or its manufacturer. Only way to count for dieters. Less points are better.
Read more at Weight watchers diet review

This includes both naturally occurring and added sugars. According to the USDA, every man woman and child in the US consumes approximately 80 pounds of caloric sweeteners per year! That works out to 25 tsp of sugars per day, or 400 extra calories!

While cholesterol has been shown to be less harmful than once believed, you should not consume more than 300mg a day. This product has 90 mg of cholesterol or more. If you're on a low cholesterol diet, make sure you pay attention to portion: 10% of your daily allowance can quickly become 50% when a hamburger turns into double cheeseburger AND your allowance has been reduced to 200mg. Trouble sticking to daily goals? Try limiting your meat, cheese and dairy intake to one item per meal and avoid items with multiple sources of cholesterol (like chicken with ham and cheese, breakfast sandwiches with sausage and cheese or bacon cheeseburgers).

Not all fats are created equal. Saturated fats are the ones responsible for bad cholestrol buildup in our blood vessels, as well as contributing to coronary disease. Some recent studies are refuting this claim. They explain that removal of saturated fats from our diet and their replacement with processed carbs has led to an increase in obesity and heart disease. There is no doubt that processed carbs are bad for you. But that does not mean that returning to saturated fats is good.

* FoodPoints are calculated by Fooducate based on fats, carbs, fiber, and protein. They are not an endorsement or approval of the product or its manufacturer. The fewer points - the better.

This product is highly processed. If you'll take a look at its ingredient list, you'll discover new words to add to your vocabulary. Many of theses ingredients are required to increase the shelf life of the product and improve the flavor that disappears when food is not fresh.

Carrageenan is an additive made from seaweed. It is used as a thickener in products such as ice cream, jelly, chocolate milk, infant formula, cottage cheese. It is a vegetarian and vegan alternative to gelatin. It has been used for hundreds of years in Ireland and China, but only made headway into modern food processing in the last 50 years. The processing steps after harvesting the seaweed include drying, grounding, filtration, treatment with potassium hydroxide, removal of cellulose by centrifuge, concentration by evaporation, drying, and grounding. Interestingly, the Philippines account for the vast majority of the world supply of carrageenan. In some animal studies, carrageenan was shown to cause intestinal lacerations and tumors. A 2001 meta-study of 45 peer-reviewed studies concluded that carrageenan consumption may result in gastrointestinal malignancy and inflammatory bowel. The FDA has approved carrageenan as safe, basing its decision on industry funded studies. European agencies and the World Health Organization have also deemed carrageenan safe, with the exception of infant formula. The fear is the a baby's gut may be unable to handle the large carrageenan molecules. In some individuals carrageenan may cause intestinal discomfort or worse. ---- Sources: Tobacman JK. Review of harmful gastrointestinal effects of carrageenan in animal experiments. Environ Health Perspect. 2001 Oct;109(10):983-94. Marcus R, Watt J. Seaweeds and ulcerative colitis in laboratory animals. Lancet. 1969 Aug 30;2(7618):489-90. Yang B, Bhattacharyya S, Linhardt R, Tobacman J. Exposure to common food additive carrageenan leads to reduced sulfatase activity and increase in sulfated glycosaminoglycans in human epithelial cells. Biochimie. 2012 Jun;94(6):1309-16. Bhattacharyya S, O-Sullivan I, Katyal S, Unterman T, Tobacman JK. Exposure to the common food additive carrageenan leads to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance and inhibition of insulin signalling in HepG2 cells and C57BL/6J mice. Diabetologia. 2012 Jan;55(1):194-203. Bhattacharyya S, Dudeja PK, Tobacman JK. Tumor necrosis factor alpha-induced inflammation is increased but apoptosis is inhibited by common food additive carrageenan. J Biol Chem. 2010 Dec 10;285(50):39511-22. Bhattacharyya S, Borthakur A, Dudeja PK, Tobacman JK. Carrageenan induces cell cycle arrest in human intestinal epithelial cells in vitro. J Nutr. 2008 Mar;138(3):469-75. Bhattacharyya S, Borthakur A, Dudeja PK, Tobacman JK. Carrageenan reduces bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP4) and activates the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in normal human colonocytes. Dig Dis Sci. 2007 Oct;52(10):2766-74.

The vitamin A in this product comes from real food, not as a fortified ingredient. This is important because it means you are getting hundreds of additional nutrients from the real food.

Lecithins are oily substances that occur naturally in plants (soybeans) and animals (egg yolks). Soy lecithin possesses emulsification properties. This means it can keep a candy bar “together” by making sure that the cocoa and the cocoa butter don’t separate. It is also used in bakery items to keep the dough from sticking and to improve its ability to rise.

This product contains sodium aluminum phosphate. Food manufacturers will tell you that this additive is not a problem. And yes, normally, people will have some amount of aluminum in their body by means of inhalation, ingestion or dermal contact. The Department of Health and Human services says most this aluminum will leave your body quickly through feces, and the small amount that enters your bloodstream will leave via urine, but . . . they also say that excess aluminum can cause problems. Some research has implicated aluminum with Alzheimer's and research both supports and refutes this. Doctors blame aluminum of exacerbating the effects of kidney disease and causing bone or brain diseases. Bottom line: There's no tangible benefit of consuming products with sodium aluminum phosphate. To err on the side of safety, particularly with products you consume everyday, choose ones without added aluminum.