Can People with Diabetes Indulge in Mooncake?

It’s the season of mooncakes. Mid-autumn festival is celebrated in many East-Asian and Southeast Asian communities every year to worship the moon as the Chinese believe the moon is at its brightest and the biggest, coinciding with harvest time in mid-Autumn.

During this season, families are seen gathering around for dinners and playing with lanterns. One of the iconic foods on the table is of course the mooncake! Most people are familiar with the traditional Cantonese baked mooncake—they’re made with thick lotus seed paste, wrapped around salted egg yolk, and covered with thin and glossy crust. Nowadays, there are more sweet and savoury flavours available in the market such as snowskin lotus, ice cream fillings and even durian filling mooncakes.

While mooncake may look small in size, just one could contain the same number of calories as a whole meal. The illustration in Figure 1  shows the amount of sugar and calorie contents in mooncakes.

Apart from the calories, mooncake is also loaded with sugar and fat. The fat content of the mooncake is derived from vegetable shortening, which contains trans-fat that increases the bad cholesterol in our body and causes blood clot. This may be detrimental to individuals with underlying diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart diseases.

Well, that does not mean that you shouldn’t consume them at all, after all it is a seasonal delicacy, just opt for a healthier option with the following:

1.       Sharing is caring, cut the mooncake in slices and share them with your family or friends instead of eating the whole.

2.       Go sugar-free or enjoy low sugar content mooncakes.

3.       Pair your mooncake with a glass of tea to improve digestion and reduce the absorption of fats.

4.       While you enjoy them, don’t forget to also monitor your blood glucose level and blood pressure.