Kitkat is a popular chocolate-clad wafer snack with over 11.50 million consumers in the year 2020 in the USA. This chocolate wafer stick is owned by Hershey's in the USA and Nestle in other parts of the world. Here we'll discuss its ingredients and nutrient consumption and decide whether it's good for health.
Ingredients
Sugar, wheat flour, skim milk, cocoa butter, chocolate, vegetable oil (palm kernel oil, palm oil), milk fat, lactose, and contains 2% or less of lecithin, PGPR, vanillin, and a few more.
Sugar: Sugar is a necessary part of our nutrition. It can cause severe health issues when not consumed in regulated amounts. (More about sugars here)
Wheat Flour: Though considered healthy, wheat flour contains gluten - a compound many are allergic to.
Skimmed Milk: Skimmed milk has more added sugars than whole milk.
Cocoa Butter: It's a good source of calories. Excess KitKat consumption could make a person obese.
Chocolate: Chocolate is often associated with weight gain, migraine, high sugar, bone health, and heavy metals if had in excess.
Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil: 50% of the total fats in palm oil and 82% in palm kernel oil are saturated. Saturated fat is harmful to the heart and can cause heart-related diseases.
Milk Fat: Mostly contains saturated fat.
Lactose: The compound could harm those who are lactose intolerant.
Soya Lecithin: It's a source of Choline, an essential nutrient. The deficiency of Choline can lead to organ dysfunction, fatty liver, and muscle damage.
PGPR (Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate): PGPR is recognized as safe when added in amounts lesser than 0.3%.
Vanillin: It's a synthetic replacement for original vanilla extract. The compound doesn't have any nutrient, vitamin, or mineral, unlike vanillin.
Now, let's see the nutrient composition of a 42 gram KitKat.
Nutrient Composition
This is the nutrient composition of a small pack of KitKat (42 grams).
KitKat isn't the only processed food that you may have in a day. Repeated consumption of processed foods like KitKat throughout the day can exceed the daily limit of compounds and lead to diseases.
For example, having a KitKat (of 4 fingers), a box of Pringles, and a little Honey Bunches of Oats in a day can increase the sugar and fat levels (beyond the recommended limit).
The daily sugar limit for women is 25 grams. And KitKat supplies 22 grams of sugar. Having anything more than the KitKat could essentially exceed the daily sugar limit.
Frequent transcending the sugar limit could cause diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, weight gain, and teeth decay.
Similarly, the amount of saturated fat in KitKat is low. However, a person could easily cross the suggested limit when eating other food (mainly processed food).
Therefore, it's crucial that one doesn't have KitKats regularly.
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