“I started my company, R Super Foods, in 1990 with the goal of improving the doughnut. Instead of demonizing the doughnut and eliminating it from our diet, why couldn’t we make one that gives you minerals, vitamins and proteinfi” said Harris, who studied food service and administration at Penn State University before joining the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1972.

Each Super Donut packs 14 minerals, vitamins and protein — 7 grams of protein, in fact — while delivering all the sugary sweetness, calories ‘n’ carbs, fabulous fat and greasy goodness we love in a doughnut.

Super Donuts have no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives and no trans fats. And it still tastes like a legit doughnut. Does the sun still rise in the eastfi

Here’s the blueprint of a Super Donut: enriched flour, water, sugar, palm oil, cottonseed or canola oil, yeast, wheat protein, milk protein and a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals.

Total calories: 240. Fat grams: 13. Fiber: 1 gram. Carbs: 24 grams. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $2.99 for a box of six, available in the frozen-food aisle at select supermarkets in Pennsylvania.

But here’s the weird, and kind of wonderful, thing about Super Donuts. They’re also available in school cafeterias in all 50 states, plus nursing homes, hospitals and health-care facilities across the country and at military bases around the world.

“Our mission was first to make a doughnut that tastes like a doughnut. We’re not pretending that this isn’t a doughnut — it is. But it’s a doughnut that has nutritional value,” Harris said.

Here’s the tricky part. Harris says — right on the box, even — “enjoy just ONE Super Donut a day!” Good luck with that. You’re supposed to let them thaw at room temperature or nuke them for 12 seconds in a microwave. Who can waitfi I ate a couple of them frozen (I also eat Sara Lee pound cake frozen).

Super Donuts tasted like fully loaded and bloated doughnuts that have absolutely no nutrition and will make you a big, fat tub — that’s a high compliment.

I also ate a few all hot and sticky from the microwave. Ooh, those are dangerous. I could eat the whole box, no sweat. And no self-control, either.

“Don’t do that. People eat a dozen doughnuts and then blame the doughnuts. Eat just one,” Harris said. If only he meant one dozen.

Harris plans on expanding his retail operation to supermarkets across the country, with the East Coast and Midwest next in his sights.

He’s also borrowing a page from Wheaties by putting sports figures on his doughnut boxes. Right now, Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward has the honor of gracing the glazed.

“It was always my dream to combine sports and good nutrition,” Harris said. “We’re going to use a different criteria to pick our athletes for the boxes. They have to be MVPs off the field, too. We want to honor athletes for their contribution to the community, and in return we’ll donate a portion of the proceeds from the doughnuts to that athlete’s favorite charity or foundation.”

Hines’ Helping Hands Foundation focuses on boosting literacy among young people and fights discrimination against biracial kids. It’s a sweet cause.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B6.