How healthy are egg cakes?

The egg cake recipe consists of flour, sugar, eggs and baking powder. The difference with most other types of cake is that no fat is used in an egg cake. So no butter, margarine or oil. This ensures that the calorie content of such a large egg cake is considerably lower than that of other large cakes such as filled cakes, rondos or stroopwafels.

That is the only positive point. Egg cakes mainly consist of carbohydrates and a large part of that is sugar. Most egg cakes are also made from white flour. An egg cake actually contains nothing healthy at all.

It’s not about fat

The reason that Sonja Bakker ‘prescribed’ egg cakes can be explained because at that time (with the heyday in 2006) a slimming diet was mainly aimed at avoiding fat and counting calories. Everything that was fat-free or low-fat became synonymous with healthy. We now know that fat is not really the culprit. You also need fat. The fact that an egg cake contains little fat does not necessarily make the cake healthy.

Alternatives that are healthy

Do you want to lose some pounds, but eat something in between? Then it is better to resort to snacks that provide you with valuable nutrients such as fiber, vitamins and minerals. A better alternative is a slice of wholemeal currant bread, a handful of nuts or student oats, a bowl of yogurt possibly with a piece of fruit, some raw vegetables (candy tomatoes, cucumber slices) or a few olives.

Fewer calories than an egg cake, but more nutrients

• 2 tangerines
• 1 apple or 1 pear
• 1 latte macchiato without sugar
• 1 chai latte without sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 bowl of semi-skimmed yogurt with some honey
• Smoothie of 1 piece of fruit with a dash of buttermilk or low-fat yogurt
• 1 slice of whole wheat currant bread
• 1 whole-wheat crispbread with a little honey or apple syrup
• 2 dried apricots or plums
• Carrots or cucumber strips with 2 tablespoons of hummus