The Dish: Popular crêpe a safe food court bet
October 22, 2010
Megan Ogilvie
HEALTH REPORTER
On a recent trip to a Toronto shopping mall, I decided to undertake an experiment for The Dish: Follow a group of teenage girls to find out what they eat during a break from browsing for hair bands, plaid shirts or bright-hued hoodies.
After identifying a gaggle of teenagers, a riot of skinny limbs and swishing hair, I trailed the group to Sherway Garden’s food court to see which vendor caught their fancy.
They passed by the burger joint, skirted the place that sells small buckets of French fries and ignored the frozen yogurt stand. The teens ended up at Crêpe Delicious, near the rear of the food court, likely lured to the stand by the sweet smell of gently sizzling batter.
It’s probably where I would end up, too. A crêpe seems like lighter fare, still a treat, and without the definite guilt of fried foods.
The Tuttie-Fruittie crêpe, composed of a freshly made crêpe with sliced strawberries, chopped banana and a generous smear of chocolate-hazelnut spread, was the most popular with the teens. It’s also, I was told, the most popular crêpe, period. Especially since diners almost always choose to add a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on the side.
The Dish decided to test the plain version; most of us know adding a cup of cream, whether iced or whipped, won’t garner any health points.
It turns out the teenagers were doing okay. At 422 calories, the Tuttie-Fruittie crêpe won’t break your daily calorie budget. But only, says registered dietitian Shannon Crocker, if you treat the crêpe more like a meal than a snack.
“This has too many calories for a snack,” she says, noting the average person should aim for a 150- or 200-calorie snack. “But the crêpe would totally be okay to share with a friend.”
The crêpe’s one to two servings of fruit, which provide vitamins and some fibre, is a definite plus. So is it’s relatively low sodium content; 155 mg is roughly 10 per cent of what your body needs in a day.
Crocker says opting for the plain fruit crêpe sans chocolate-hazelnut spread will save calories and fat, moving it into the realm of a snack. One tablespoon of chocolate-hazelnut spread contains 100 calories and 6 grams of fat.
If you are craving chocolate on your crêpe, then Crocker suggests getting the spread on the side so you can add a little with each bite. This kind of judicious dipping may save you 100 calories and a few grams of fat.
Side note: Crocker says chocolate-hazelnut spread can be confused as a nutritious food item thanks in part to commercials that insist it’s a healthy way to start the day. “But its first ingredient is typically sugar, and the second is modified palm oil. It’s not just made of nuts, cocoa and milk. It’s sugar, followed by fat. You would be better off having natural peanut butter. While the fat content would be the same, natural peanut butter is more nutritious, has slightly fewer calories and a lot less sugar.”
Before giving the crêpe a wholehearted stamp of approval, Crocker says diners need to be aware that, although freshly made with fruit, the crêpe has more fat, calories and carbohydrates than a McDonald’s strawberry sundae.
The crêpe is a more nutritious choice than a sundae, she says. But a comparison is helpful to show that, calorie-wise, it isn’t any better than drive-thru ice cream, something we obviously recognize as a treat.
“So don’t also have french fries for lunch or a sugary coffee treat on the way home because you think the crêpe is healthy. That’s the wrong way to think.”
VERDICT: A mostly healthy choice among the many dining dangers of a shopping mall food court.
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