The annual Mid-Autumn Festival is here again. While the moon is full, it is inevitable to be attacked by the sweet temptation and heat of moon cakes. How many calories does a moon cake have? Why are moon cakes so high in calories? This is a question in the minds of many people, but the purchased moon cakes do not always have a nutritional ingredient list, and we may not know how moon cakes are made after eating moon cakes for decades. Hope to dissect the “moon cake” that you may not be able to through 5 keywords
This special article on Xixi nutrition is prepared for foodies who want to eat and are afraid of getting fat. After reading this article, you can know how delicious moon cakes are made, and how to make delicious moon cakes. Why are delicious moon cakes so high in calories? You can easily forward them to friends who need weight control before eating moon cakes while watching the moon.
Keyword 1: Lishui – Crust is indispensable
I wonder if there are many friends who, like Xixi, love the soft and delicate crust more than the filling when eating moon cakes.
Then what is the source of the luster and crispiness of the mooncake ice skin?
Shui, this other ingredient that is rarely used in desserts and baking plays an important role
Traditional mooncake skins are tanned with flour, invert syrup, peanut oil, and water and brushed with a little egg wash for baking The cake that comes out is bright in color, delicate in taste, and fragrant on the lips and teeth.
The water is a mixture of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate. The main function is potassium carbonate, which can adjust the pH of the dough and make the baked cake crust. The color is deeper and more delicate.
So what ingredients do the calories in the crust come from? Sausage has no calories. The calories of the crust mainly come from flour, syrup and peanut oil, which is about the same as a biscuit. The calories of a classic-sized moon cake crust are about 164 kcal.
Keyword 2 Sweet Spot – Perfect Glycolipid Ratio
Moon cakes come in a wide variety of fillings, and there are even many new flavors emerging one after another, but the most classic ones are still inseparable from lotus seed paste, bean paste and five kernels.
The person who invented the dessert, moon cake, must be a very smart gourmet, well versed in the human pursuit of the sugar-to-lipid ratio. Only sweet will feel tasteless and tasteless, and only oil will feel greasy, but all the “food” that people remember are often sugary and fat. There is a book about the food industry called “Salt Sugar and Fat”. Documenting how the snack industry makes us want to buy and eat.
The deliciousness of mooncake fillings also lies in its perfect sugar-fat ratio,
For example, how is lotus seed paste, the base of various fillings, made? Lotus seed paste is made of dried lotus seeds mixed with a lot of sugar and oil after soaking and boiling. The weight ratio is basically lotus seeds: sugar: oil = 2:2:1.
To boil 100g lotus seed paste requires 25g dried lotus seeds, 25g sugar and 12.5g peanut oil, and the calories are around 300 kcal.
The main macronutrient composition of lotus seeds is carbohydrate + fat, which has the perfect sugar-to-lipid ratio, just hitting the “sweet spot” of our taste buds, so it makes people feel delicious
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Another common filling is red bean paste,
Red bean paste is made from dried red beans, sugar and oil. The ratio is similar to lotus seed paste. Dry red beans: sugar: oil = 2:2:1. It is also the perfect glycolipid ratio.
The filling of the five-nut mooncake is roasted and smashed with various (including but not limited to 5) nuts, but the nuts themselves do not hold together, so additional lard and glutinous rice flour are needed. Condense the nuts together and add some sugar to temper the nutty flavor. Nuts themselves are foods with high fat content, so the five kernel fillings are also high in glycolipid content.
It seems that we just can’t say no to foods that are high in sugar and fat.
Illustration Lotus seed paste is boiled with sugar and oil from broken lotus seeds
Keyword 3 Oil return – why moon cakes are more delicious when put away
The filling of moon cakes contains so much oil. Although it is delicious, it is not healthy. Is it okay to put a little less oil? For example, is it better to use low-fat and low-sugar red bean paste as a filling at home?
The answer is, this modification is not delicious!
Moon cakes must use fillings with high oil content, because if there is not enough oil, the ice skin of the moon cake will collapse, and the cake skin will not have a shiny luster.
There is a special term called “return oil”. Mooncakes cannot be eaten immediately after they are baked. They need to be left for 2-3 days. This is because they have just been baked. The moon cake skin that comes out is very easy to break, and the cake skin can absorb the grease in the filling during the placing process, making it shiny and firm.
Therefore, the fillings of moon cakes must be filled with fat to taste good. And it takes a few days for the best taste.
Keyword 4 Calories
If you want to be a foodie who understands health and nutrition, you naturally need to know the calories of food. Mooncakes are undoubtedly calorie bombs, but what order of magnitude is the calorie?
Mooncake calories=crust+filling+yolk or nuts
As mentioned earlier, the calorie value of a classic-sized moon cake crust is around 164 kcal. Mooncake fillings are high in sugar and fat. Common normal size mooncakes require 80-100g of filling. A typical lotus seed paste or bean paste has a heat of about 350kcal. The lowest calorie moon cake is about 500kcal
If the filling is egg yolk or five kernels, you need to add the calories of nuts or egg yolk. A salted duck egg yolk is about 100kcal, and 85% of the calories come from fat. The five-nut mooncakes, on the other hand, are higher in calories and fat due to the high nut content.
SoA piece of 189g egg yolk or five kernel mooncake is about 700-800 kcal.
What is the concept of 800kcal? Equivalent to 2 small burgers. Burning these calories requires 1.5 hours of cycling, 80 minutes of running, or nearly a day of housework from morning to night.
Keyword 5 Best Serving Size – One Eighth
A 189g mooncake has about 700-800 kcal.
In addition to being high in calories, moon cakes are also high in added sugars. The WHO recommends that the daily intake of added sugars should be less than 10% of the total calories, which means that for ordinary adults
So, is it possible to lose weight without eating moon cakes?
Xixie doesn’t think so, any food itself is not good or bad, and there is no such thing as weight loss that you cannot eat, only there is to eat more or less, as long as you eat the right amount, reduce Heavy doesn’t prevent us from having a reunion Mid-Autumn Festival with our family.
Actually, the recommended single intake of mooncakes is 1/8 of a piece, which is exactly 100 kcal, it is more suitable as a dessert. So moon cakes are still suitable for sharing rather than exclusive use.
So can all kinds of mooncakes claiming to be healthy and sugar-reduced mooncakes can be eaten casually?
The answer is of course not. Xixi does not recommend eating all kinds of sugar-reduced and xylitol moon cakes unless there are special diseases. The calorie of xylitol is still about 80% of that of ordinary sugar, It’s just that the blood sugar level is not so fast. An 800kcal mooncake becomes 640kcal, which doesn’t seem to reduce the burden much.
In addition, excessive intake of sugar alcohols may lead to increased intestinal osmotic pressure and diarrhea. Some people around Xixi have eaten some common sugar alcohols. Everyone should pay attention to the occurrence of diarrhea in healthy moon cakes.
The promotion of sugar-reduced moon cakes and mini moon cakes is easy to see and gives people psychological comfort, but it is easy to exceed the total intake. It’s better to enjoy the original mooncakes, but strictly control the amount you eat.
Finally, I wish everyone a “Happy Mid-Autumn Festival and a happy family with a full moon”
Remember to continue to pay attention to Xixi Nutrition. I hope that I can continue to pay attention to life, nutrition, and become better with you in the future