Cookies, digestive biscuits, soda crackers, sandwich biscuits... the various flavors and types of biscuits in a supermarket can fill two or three shelves. With so many different kinds of biscuits, do you know how to choose the healthiest ones?
First, let's see what biscuits are actually made of.
1. Flour. To make biscuits particularly crispy, the key is to use "low-gluten flour," which is wheat flour with relatively low protein. Therefore, biscuits are low-protein foods, with less protein content than steamed buns.
2. Fats. Among the fats used in making biscuits, ordinary vegetable oil is relatively better; animal fats like butter, lard, and tallow have higher saturated fat and lower nutritional value; while "shortening," "vegetable cream," and "hydrogenated vegetable oil" containing trans fatty acids are the most unhealthy.
3. Sugar. Whether it's white sugar, glucose syrup, or maltose syrup, "starch syrup," "corn syrup," these are all simple sugars that contain energy, and their health effects are the same. Be wary of some companies that replace white sugar with other syrups and then claim to be "sugar-free."
4. Other ingredients. The various flavors of biscuits basically come from flavorings and colorings. The richer and more novel the flavor, the more unhealthy the biscuit might be. For convenience and to reduce costs, chocolate biscuits often use imitation chocolate made from cocoa butter substitutes, which often contain trans fatty acids.
Leavening agents are an essential ingredient in many biscuits, making them crispy and delicious. Wafers and soda crackers are prime examples. Leavening agents may contain aluminum, and excessive consumption can promote the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Therefore, the key to choosing the healthiest biscuits is to select those with a light flavor and low fat content. You can tell if the flavor is light by tasting, but it's a bit harder to choose low-fat varieties. The simplest way is to choose less crispy, i.e., harder biscuits, such as the "animal crackers" or "calcium milk biscuits" we used to eat. Or, wrap a biscuit in a white paper towel, place a heavy object on top, and check how much grease is on the paper after 20 minutes. The more grease on the paper, the higher the fat content. In general, biscuits containing vegetables, with a light salty and sweet taste, and low fat content are healthier.