What does your cupcake contain?

Cupcakes are becoming more and more popular now with a huge amount of options available in different flavours, shapes and sizes. Bakers are using their creativity to present the most delectable and tempting cupcakes that can totally indulge all our senses. Cupcakes are replacing the traditional sweets at birthday parties, mariage invitations, for birth announcements and various other occasions. But, all that crumbling goodness has high chances of over indulgence leading to several health risks.

As we discussed in our earlier blogs, bakery products are avoidable due to the long list harmful ingredients and cupcakes surely feature amongst the top few.

Primary Ingredients used in cupcakes

All purpose flour/ Maida – This is finely milled flour with little nutritional value and no significant benefits to the body. In fact, this product causes more glutinous mass formation in the stomach which is not digested effectively. It is classified under refined carbohydrates which have been blamed for the new-age lifestyle disorders such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.

Sugar – Large amounts of sugar is required for making cupcakes no matter how healthy, no matter which flavour. We do know by now that white table sugar is just an empty calorie food with no nutrients!

Butter/ margarine: Like we discussed under biscuits, no bakery product can be made without this kind of solid fats. Solid fats have several advantages such as improved taste and texture, flavour, increased shelf life and low cost. But the downside of this type of fats is that it contains substantial amounts of saturated fats which can block the arteries supplying blood to the brain, heart and extremities. Also, the deadly trans fats feature to a large extent in baked goods. The list of harmful health effects of trans fats include increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol , decreases in HDL (good) cholesterol, increased risk of obesity and diabetes which in turn causes coronary heart disease and many more

Given below is the Nutritive value of ONE cupcake.Yes, mind you that the stipulated serving size of cupcakes is one cupcake only at a time since that itself will suffice (or rather exceed) a major portion of your daily requirement of calories and fat.

Vanilla Cupcake With Buttercream Frosting

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

So we see that cupcakes will provide huge amounts of calories, bad fats and carbohydrates with negligible protein and other micronutrients which are more vital to the body.

Please note that although the pack may mention that one serving does not contain any trans fat, it is misleading because the regulation states that upto a certain level it can be taken as 0mg. The fact remains that it does contain small amounts and even 1% calories coming from trans fats are harmful.

All said and done, moderation is the key. Enjoy the flavour and taste but keep a check on the quantity consumed.

Reference:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/my-vanilla-cupcake-with-buttercream-frosting-45010527