Lady fingers, shortbread, wafer... What are the best cookies for your health?
If removing “doudou” foods seems pointless, we can nonetheless learn how to better manage our consumption of biscuits by putting quality over quantity.
Dry, soft, puff pastry, chocolate ... There are 85 families of biscuits and cakes like so many temptations! In the successful run for Peach Peaches: Madeleine and Cake, followed by Betty Bury, Lady Fingers and Choco. Let's be clear, we all know that these delights are sugar bombs, not to mention the addition of fat, additives, and salt ... As evidence, among the 36 references tested by "60 Million Consumers" magazine (September 2019), 31 indicate the letter E on their packaging, which is the worst What's in the Nutri-Score that rates the nutritional quality of food!
Additives: Read labels carefully
Your first reaction, "is to prefer short lists of ingredients and noble ingredients (flour, butter or non-hydrogenated rapeseed or sunflower oil, sugar, eggs) like the ones we use in our recipes at home," advises Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen, author of The Guide Shopping for Good Eating (1st ed.). Second reflex: Look at the ingredient that comes first, and the better is flour rather than sugars (carbs). Reflex Three: Go products with a bunch of chemical names and bad sugars: sugar syrup, glucose, fructose, and invert sugar (a mixture of glucose and fructose).
Biscuits: adapting your consumption to your needs
Of course, there is no doubt that cookies are good for your health! But even if it means eating it, you can also do it on purpose and adapt your consumption as much as possible to your profile and activities ... The goal is to control intake and portions.
If you watch my cholesterol: lady finger, lady finger. "It has 2 to 4% saturated fat (fat) versus 30% in a madeleine or bun," says nutritionist Florence Dane. For other varieties, prefer recipes that contain rapeseed oil (unsaturated fats that are not harmful to the cardiovascular system) and avoid those that contain palm or coconut oil.
If you're an athlete: Trays of jam and chips. These varieties contain up to twice as much sugar as the flour which provides readily available energy. First of all, this is not cool! But this ratio turns out to be a good plan when hiking, on a long bike ride, or between two indoor fitness classes. Or even after trying to replenish your stores of glycogen (a reserve sugar). Correct formula: 3 trays = 1 piece of cereal.
If I have diabetes: Petit Puree, shortbread. Rich in grains and less sweet (20 to 25%) than other varieties, these crackers don't raise blood sugar levels too much or too quickly at the end of a meal. But in this case it is necessary to play the equations: 3 petit puri = 40 grams of bread = 100 grams of cooked starch. If you taste it at snack time, combine it with one of your regular dairy products to reduce its effect on your blood sugar.
Food or Fruit Cookies: Run away from fake friends!
Cookies with the words "sugar-free" or "high-fiber" or "source of magnesium"... may be of interest, depending on the category, for diabetics or athletes, but you should know that they contain as many calories as the classic The same is the case with low-fat biscuits. When fat is removed we add sugar and vice versa, and sugar is often replaced by polyols (sweeteners), which are sources of stomach ache. As for organic biscuits: palm oil, even organic, remains harmful to health (increased cardiovascular risk). bloody).
Fruit cookies. They are believed to be healthier, and lighter! But the fruit content is often only 5% or less, according to a CLCV National Consumer Advocacy Association survey. On the other hand, the list of additives, colorings and flavorings can be long (up to 22!) and the sugar level is high. The association also wants to create a minimum fruit that cannot be distinguished by a drawing or picture on the packaging or with the name of the product...
Biscuits: Slip Reduction
Evaluate food portions better on what criteria? First, the weight. The biscuit weighs on average from 8 to 20 grams, which makes a huge difference in energy! Then the amounts of fat (best: less than 25% fat per 100g) and sugars (no more than 30g per 100g). Finally, our preferences. We get rid of non-essential
biscuits, for example "breakfast specials", where in the morning the sandwiches with butter are more suitable for satiety and energy. And we keep the morale essentials, like a cookie for retro snacks. Another tip: beware of biscuits served in individual bags. There are often 4 or 5 per bag. Which suggests that this is the correct part. But this is a lot! The right part: two!
Taste rather than swallow. To limit distractions, simply take a couple of cookies out of the package. Put them on a pretty dessert plate. Add a hot drink (unsweetened!) as well as a couple of healthy foods to balance them out and make it look like a real snack. Start with the fruits and dairy products that will really put you off and save the best for the end with a touch of fun.
