Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwich

Since I have to get up at 4:30 am three times a week to get to dialysis by 5:30 am, breakfast is always an issue. The dialysis center wants patients to eat before the session in case our blood sugar drops too much during the session. I’ve been alternating between eating cereal with almond milk, and just toast with some jam or peanut butter. There’s not enough time to prepare something more elaborate unless I want to get up even earlier.

I know there are pre-cooked breakfast sandwiches and Jimmy Dean seems to be the most common brand. I thought they were available at Costco but I didn’t see anything on their website. Since my parents were going grocery shopping today, I asked them to pick some up at our local Albertson’s (supermarket). I went to the Jimmy Dean website to send them the specific sandwich, and saw the nutritional information for the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit sandwich.

Nutritional Item	Breakfast Sandwich	% DV
Serving Size	408 g
Calories	1,250
Total Fat	75 g	96%
Saturated Fat	36 g	180%
Trans Fat	1 g
Cholesterol	410 mg	137%
Sodium	2,880 mg	125%
Total Carbohydrates	102 g	37%
Dietary Fiber	8 g	29%
Total Sugars	16 g
Protein	41 g
Vitamin D		10%
Vitamin A		0%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		50%
Iron		40%

Wow! When I first saw the numbers, I thought they screwed up and listed the values for an entire box of sandwiches. Nope. Just one. How can a breakfast sandwich contain so much fat and sodium? Forget dialysis patients… normal people shouldn’t be eating this for breakfast either. It’s also pretty big: 400 g is almost a pound. I think I’ll stick to my two pieces of toast for now. I told my parents that I can’t eat this so don’t buy it.

Ingredient list:

Biscuit: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Contains Bleached Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin And Folic Acid), Water, Bleached Enriched Wheat Flour (Contains Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin And Folic Acid), Palm Oil, Dried Buttermilk, Contains 2% Or Less: Isolated Soy Product, Dextrose, Leavening (Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Salt, Sugar, Baking Soda, Acidic Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Natural And Artificial Butter Flavor [Natural Butter Flavor {Maltodextrin, Enzyme Modified Butter [Butter (Cream, Salt), Enzymes], Annatto Extract (Color), Turmeric Extract (Color)}, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Lactic Acid], Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate, DATEM, Natural And Artificial Sautéed Butter Type Flavor [Maltodextrin, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Annatto Extract (Color), Turmeric Extract (Color)]. Grilled Egg Patty: Whole Eggs, Nonfat Milk, Soybean Oil, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Natural And Artificial Butter Flavor (Soybean Oil, Butter, Lipolyzed Butter Oil, And Natural And Artificial Flavors), Citric Acid, Soy Lecithin (Release Agent). Pasteurized Process American Cheese: Milk, Water, Cream, Contains 2% Or Less Of Cheese Culture, Citric Acid, Color Added, Enzymes, Potassium Citrate, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Soy Lecithin, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate. Fully Cooked Round Bacon: Bacon (Cured With: Water, Salt, Sugar, Smoke Flavoring, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite).

The nutritional information chart does not give any information on potassium and phosphorus, the two things dialysis patients need to look out for. Judging by the ingredient list, there’s probably a lot of both in the sandwich as well. Also, that’s a lot of chemicals in the ingredient list.

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Weird. I had given up on the entire line of breakfast sandwiches but decided to look at some other products on the website. The nutritional value for other sandwiches are much more reasonable. They’re probably never going to be classified as “healthy” but it’s much better. I’m guessing it’s the bacon in the first sandwich since the rest are made with sausage.

For the sausage muffin (Egg McMuffin clone!), it’s only 130 g so it’s much smaller, and only has 350 calories, 20 g of total fat, and 760 mg of sodium. Again, not great, but not a widow-maker like the other sandwich.