No meal is ever complete without a sweet ending. The cherry on top, the last hurrah, the "finish him" of food fatalities - to many, dessert stands out to be, if not, the best part of one's meal. By dessert I mean chocolate shavings, cream cheese frosting, molten caramel, all of which packs a knock-out punch of sinfulness. None of these fruit platters and low-calorie yogurts please. Dessert is a dangerous thing: sublime, exquisite and dreamy yet undoubtedly deadly.
My golden rule is that as long as you know your poison well, then you do not have to fear it. When it comes to dessert though, knowledge on calorie count doesn't come so easy. According to the iDat Application by the Health Promotion Board of Singapore, below are some indicative statistics for your meal's grand finale:
1 slice of:
- Apple Crumble - 354 kcal
- Brownie - 227 kcal
- Banana Cake - 146 kcal
- Black Forest - 259 kcal
- Carrot Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting - 145 kcal
- Chocolate Cake w/ Frosting - 537 kcal
- Cheesecake w/o toppings - 335 kcal
- Chocolate Eclair - 206 kcal
- Tiramisu - 250 kcal
I compared these numbers to other sources and concluded that they are quite conservative. I would probably add another 100 or so calories as a buffer. Safe to say, an average cake for dessert ranges from 250 to as much as 700 calories depending on the toppings and ingredients. Banana cake stands out to be the least sinful of the bunch at 140-160 calories, but do it ala P.S. Cafe (my favorite banana cake) with butterscotch syrup and vanilla ice cream then that will come close to 400 calories at the very least.
The stats above are not meant to scare. Honestly, if you have a sweet-tooth I doubt these numbers will hinder you from enjoying your cake. It doesn't hurt though to know how much calories dessert contributes to your daily needs. On a dessert day, try to be more mindful of what foods are taken and be aware of your total calorie consumption. Another quick win is to share the cake slice with someone, in turn, halving the pain of the calorific encounter. After all, dessert doubles its pleasure over coffee and conversation.
Loving dessert doesn't mean you're unhealthy as long as you recognize that it entails the responsibility to keep yourself fit through exercise and a balanced diet. I run 5 kilometers to enjoy my banana butterscotch cake without worry and guilt. What would you do for cake? How much do you really love your dessert?
There are 3500 calories for every pound of body fat.
ReplyDeleteOn average, a person burns 100 calories per mile.
Constant sugar intake, even just a bit each day, will trigger insulin. This leads to fat storage mode due to the excess sugar in the blood stream.
70% of glucose in the form of glycogen is found in muscles, while 30% goes to the liver.
As long as glycogen stores in muscles are full, excess glucose will trigger insulin and bring it to the liver for fat storage.
The only way for the body to use glycogen in muscles is through high-intensity, adrenaline inducing activities, ie. sprints and maximum effort strength training.
Conventional modes of exercise ie. running will not help because low intensity, steady-state exercise will not make the body use up glycogen found in muscles.
If you can't run 35k to burn 3500 calories, you'll just get tired of running without using glycogen, you'll just get hungry after, eat a lot, and end up with a Net Gain in calories.
If glycogen in muscles are used up, glucose will be diverted there instead of fat production.
But as long as sugar is ever present and exercise is not intense enough, insulin will keep on storing fat.
So it's not just how much you love dessert, but how much you love any form of sugar, including carbohydrates. :)
Thanks Benny for taking the article a notch higher. My main aim was to inform on how much calories a slice of cake packs and of course, to highlight the importance of diet and exercise. Glad you shared the info as this gives a better perspective to those who are more conscious of what they eat and of their fat percentage. Surely helps! Much appreciated :)
ReplyDeleteNowadays, almost everyone is well aware of good nutrition and what we should/ought to eat. And yet, look around, so many people are so over-weight to the point that they are obese. Makes one wonder why is it that the more knowledgeable we are about proper nutrition, the bigger we get? I for one am not considering eating oatmeal everyday to live to be a hundred! Food is one of life's greatest pleasure and I am not willing to forego that so I can be slim like the oh-so-very-young models who are anorexic. Everything should be taken in moderation. Come on now, isn't it so much nicer to go out and eat good food and then share that sinfully delicious dessert with friends or someone you love?
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that food is one of life's greatest pleasures and hey what is a birthday without a birthday cake? I'm with you Nenette when it comes to moderation. Like all things, balance is key.
ReplyDelete