This Is the Unhealthiest Snack You Can Order at the Snack Bar
From KFC chicken bitterballen to homemade cheese sticks, and from disco-dellen to lobster croquettes: the choice is endless in the Dutch snack landscape. Ideally, I’d stop by the local snack bar every week for a greasy bite, but I also watch the calories (every now and then, at least). But which of the most popular deep-fried snacks in our country is actually the unhealthiest?
Having a croquette straight from the fryer or a few fries from time to time isn’t necessarily unhealthy, let’s establish that first. It does become unhealthy when you eat too much of it, especially with too much salt and too much lemon mayonnaise. After all, all deep-fried snacks contain a lot of calories, unhealthy fatty acids and plenty of salt. But if you study the snack on its own and look at what’s in it, one snack is still ‘healthier’ than another, Quest concluded. We can definitely get behind that.
The Middle Ground
The five snacks compared by Quest are the croquette, frikandel, bami disc, cheese soufflé and berehap. In the middle, finishing in third and fourth place, are the cheese soufflé and bami disc. The imitation cheese in a cheese soufflé contains a lot of unhealthy fats, while a bami disc is packed with sugar. Next comes the frikandel, which ranks second. Frikandellen contain less fat, but still a lot of salt and therefore aren’t the healthiest snack either. Although they do become one if you make a (toasted sandwich) frikandel speciaal out of one, by the way…
Best and Worst Snack at the Snack Bar
So which one is the unhealthiest? That would be the berehap. Not only does a berehap weigh twice as much as the other snacks (which means twice as many calories), but even if the meatball threaded onto a stick weighed the same as the other snacks, you’d still consume 50% of the recommended daily amount of salt. That makes it the worst snack of them all. Which snack is better to order? An old-fashioned croquette. Croquettes contain slightly less salt than frikandellen, so they take the honor.
Balance Is Key
None of these snacks are truly nutritious, but I still find it hard to say no every now and then to such a deliciously indulgent snack with a big dollop of mayo. My advice: alternate that croquette with a well-filled salad from time to time and find your balance. Because a good balance is the healthiest thing of all.
And snack bar owners, if you’re reading this: we miss these snacks at the snack bar and want them back!
Also read:
- What on earth is in a cheese soufflé?
- Baking in an Airfryer: is it really that healthy?
- These are the most delicious Airfryer bitterballen in the world
Source: Quest, image: Instagram
