How healthy are mooncakes? How much sugar and calories are in mooncake? Can elder enjoy healthier mooncakes?
Its the mid-autumn festival or the mooncake festival coming soon on 1st October 2020 (15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month). On this date, many friends and relatives would love to indulge in a seemingly harmless mooncake.
Can elderly or diabetics enjoy eating mooncake?
Yes, elderly or diabetics can still enjoy mooncakes but in small amounts. The reason is that mooncakes has a high amount of sugar and calories and should be sparingly eaten by diabetics or the elderly. In fact, even healthy adults should refrain from eating too much mooncake at one go. Do consult your nutritionist or doctor and if they advise that you should not even take a small piece of mooncakes, do obey their recommendation and indulge on healthier treats. There are some health tips on how to enjoy your mooncake healthier, but let’s look at why we should avoid eating too much mooncakes:- the amount of sugar and calories in each mooncake is huge.
How much sugar is in a mooncake?
One traditional baked mooncake has about 30-45 teaspoons of sugar. That is about 120g to 180g of sugar, around 60% of an entire mooncake in weight. It is no surprise mooncakes has so much sugar in it, they are sweet treats after all.
How many calories are in one mooncake?
A single mooncake contains almost 1000 calories, which is a FULL MEAL. Yes, an average-size traditional mooncake with lotus seed paste with two egg yolks (around 200g) has about 900-1000 calories. You probably get fewer calories eating a home-cooked dinner. 1 mooncake is equivalent to
- 4 bowl of rice
- 1 and a half can of soda drink
- or 2 double cheese burgers.
Here is a popular chart of how fattening mooncakes are:-
How can the elderly or adults eat mooncakes healthily?
Mooncakes are full of calories, fats, and sugars but you do not need to avoid them totally. It is once a year seasonal treat so we can have a little bit to satisfy our cravings and cultural habits. With these suggestions, you can have a little bit of indulgence Reduce your carbohydrates before or after having mooncakes. You may plan your meal accordingly and cut down on carbohydrates such as rice, noodles, pasta, potatoes etc from your meals before and after a mooncake treat. This will help moderate the overall amount of carbohydrates you are taking for the whole day.
Have mooncake as a dessert
After you had your lunch or dinner, you would be more full and would not overeat. Also sharing mooncakes as dessert with your family helps in the family bonding and also restricts the number of calories you will take it. A simple 1/8 of a mooncake would be a nice simple treat for yourself
Enjoy your mooncake with unsweetened drinks such as Chinese tea
You may feel thirsty after having mooncakes as they are dry food, do enjoy a nice drink that has no sugar. Some suggestions would be your coffee or tea without milk nor sugar. Plain water is great, be it warm or chilled refreshing cold water. Chinese love enjoying their sweet mooncakes with healthy Chinese tea.
Choose healthier mooncakes.
Traditional baked mooncake has more calories than snowskin mooncakes. And different fillings pack different amount of sugar and calories too. New innovative fillings like OREOs or durian fillings can be fun to eat, but do watch the portion size as they contain more calories than usual. You can choose smaller mooncakes (a box of 8 small ones instead of 4 average-sized cakes), or choose healthier mooncakes that use less or no sugar. Similarly, there are many new types of mooncakes that use healthier fillings instead of lotus seed paste. Of course with moderation, you can still visit the Guide to Best mooncakes 2020 Singapore to select luxurious treats for yourself. It is hard for us to avoid eating this traditional Chinese treat, so just buy some great mooncakes for your family and eat in moderation!
Diabetes and other diseased people who should not eat mooncakes
These people should avoid mooncakes, or at least eat small pieces.
- Diabetes
- Liver disease patients
- patients with duodenitis or gastritis
- patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
- seborrheic skin disease patients
Diabetes, pre-diabetics patients
Mooncake contains a large amount of sugar, so your blood glucose will spike up sharply after eating just half a mooncake. For people with diabetes, this is a big no-no, so they can only take small-sized treats or avoid them. Even healthy adults should refrain from eating too much mooncakes at one go to moderate their blood sugar.
People with poor livers
If you have poor liver, you should avoid eating mooncakes to avoid thinning of blood vessels, rupture of the lower esophagus section. Your liver is weaker and it is best you avoid rich fattening food like mooncake.
Patients with duodenitis or gastritis
People with stomach or duodenal ulcers should avoid eating too much mooncakes too as they stimulate secretion of stomach acid, and this aggravate the disease.
Patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
A large amount of fats and sugar in mooncakes can increase blood viscosity and extra work on the heart, it can induce onset of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. Heart disease is the number 1 killer in modern societies like Singapore.
Seborrheic dermatitis, acne and skin disorder
A large amount of sugar and fats can trigger outbreaks, as they increase sebaceous glands secretion. As with all good tasty food, mooncakes should be taken in moderation. It may be unhealthy, but it is a once a year seasonal treats, and if taken in moderation, it should not affect our health. The key point is to have them in small pieces so as not to overload your body with excessive fats and sugar in a short span of time. If you are pre-diabetics or diabetics and need to monitor your blood glucose level, do check out blood glucose monitors in SeniorCare.