You didn’t know this about crackers (and don’t fall for it again!)
Having a healthy breakfast with a tasty, light crispbread? Some crackers look healthier than they actually are, the AD recently revealed. That’s because they contain more sugar, salt and calories than you might think.
Dietitians Berdien van Wezel and Desiré van der Kruk examined a few packs of crackers for the AD. Are they really as healthy as they claim? That depends, the two experts say. Traditional crispbread consists of rye flour, water and salt – so there’s little wrong with that. But these days, supermarket shelves are full of fancy crackers with extra seeds and kernels. ‘They are filling, but in terms of nutritional value? Not really relevant,’ says Van Wezel.
Brown isn’t better
You might think you’ve picked up super-healthy crackers because they are dark brown in colour. Wrong, you’re being fooled: the crackers get that colour from malt. But that doesn’t make them any healthier. ‘One example is Bolletje’s appealing Oerknäck range,’ dietitian Van der Kruk warns. The same trick is used with waldkorn bread and toast.
Put it back!
The two experts’ conclusion: the cheaper the cracker, the healthier it is. And check the ingredients list: if it says rye flour, you’re fine. The experts recommend Leksand’s triangular crackers, as well as Wasa’s lightweight, wholegrain and high-fibre crackers. If the packaging says that the crackers mainly contain regular flour, you’d better leave them on the shelf (yes, we’re talking about you, Bolletje), because they contain nothing but calories and no fibre. Is there a lot of salt in them? Put them back; that’s not healthy either.
Chocolate as dessert
In general, crispbread contains quite a lot of calories compared with bread. A slice of wholegrain bread has 80 calories, while a cracker has 40 to 60. So add it up and do the maths, because two crackers naturally mean twice as much topping as that one slice of bread. A slice of cheese (110 calories), boom. What’s more, people risk thinking they’re doing the right thing with those wholegrain crackers, only to reward themselves with a chocolate in the evening, and then another one. Well, that defeats the purpose.
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Source: AD.nl
