I like eating mooncakes, but I have never bought a box in my life. They are not only ridiculously expensive, they are also very bad for your health. Please accept them graciously if someone gifts them to you, but eat as little as you can.
I was doing grocery shopping this morning at the Fairprice supermarket when I saw some Hong Kong mooncakes displayed upfront. I took a photo of the ingredients to analyze. Each metal tin contains four mooncakes with 2 salted egg yolks each, and is going for $73 ($4.56 per quarter slice!!)
- There are 15 ingredients, making this an ultra-processed food (i.e., not real food).
- Each quarter of the mooncake has 834kJ, or about 200kCal. In general, a daily meal should be around 500kCal, so half a mooncake is equivalent to your lunch.
- However, not all calories are created equal. Each quarter slice has 17.5 grams of sugar, or about 4 teaspoons. The World Health Organization recommends that we reduce our daily sugar intake to 6 teaspoons a day.
- Each quarter slice has 5.4 grams per 100 grams of saturated fat. The British Heart Foundation considers a product high in saturated fat if it has more than 5 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams of food.
Some alternatives to mooncakes:
You like the taste of the lotus paste? Buy a freshly made lotus paste bun (usually less than $2)
You like sugary stuff? Eat sweet fruits like watermelons, pears and apples.
You like throwing money away? Give the money to needy relatives. You may put the money in a fancy metal tin too, just like mooncakes.
I hope to see the corporate practice of giving away expensive, unhealthy mooncakes go away in my lifetime. But I’m probably more likely to see a rabbit on the moon.
07-Sep-2024
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