According to research, Whether we buy biscuits for midday snacks, filling the kids’ lunch boxes or serving with our afternoon cuppas, the biscuit industry is worth a staggering $4billion – and we’ll be the first to admit we might have contributed to that more than a little!

Biscuits are our go-to treat, and we all have our favorites: Hob Nobs, Tim Tam, Oreo, Wakodo children biscuits, Britannia, Khong Guan Biscuits, we don’t know where we’d be without a biscuit or two on the treat menu from time to time. But is our child’s craving for a sweet treat causing harm to our child’s daily regime? And are we putting our child’s health & well-being in danger? We decided to investigate…

Biscuits are everywhere… You can find them in boardroom meetings, sports meet, tea time parties etc… But the question is are they good for health…?

Let’s see what biscuits are made up of and let’s us look at each ingredient.

1.Wheat flour- this is nothing but maida aka refined wheat flour which is low in fiber. Although now whole wheat flour now is being added but the maida or refined flour is still the main ingredient. Hence can cause blood sugar spikes which in the long term can cause diabetes.

2.Sugar- very high in sugar and hence in calories too.

3.Hydrogenated fats- vegetable fats or hydrogenated fats are added in very high quantities and are baked at very high temperatures. So next time you pick up a pack saying trans free, they are fooling you. Biscuits cannot be low fat or fat-free. The labels contain partially hydrogenated fats which are similar to hydrogenated.

Fats found in biscuits, cakes and processed foods could have a harmful effect on memory, researchers have warned.

The fats, known as trans fats, are used both in processed food, often to improve the texture, shelf life or flavor.

Be it the Khong Guan Biscuits that we have all grown up with or the Oreo biscuits that we lick only the cream off; the biscuit has long been a part of life. So, let’s see if biscuits are as healthy as the companies claim them to be.

First, let’s glance through what generally most of the biscuits contain…

What goes into commercial biscuits?

To understand what your favorite biscuit actually contains, we have done some research on biscuit ingredients. For this purpose, we have selected some of the most common biscuits given to babies and children in Singapore – Rafferty's Garden Teething Rusks, Bahlsen Zoo Jungle Biscuit, Meiji Hello Panda and Oreo biscuits.

Generally, the ingredients of any product are listed in order of decreasing quantity, so the first ingredient in the list will have the highest concentration, which means that it is the major ingredient in that product.

The term wheat flour can be misleading as some may think that it refers to whole wheat flour, when in reality, ‘wheat flour’ simply means that it’s refined flour, or maida.

Disadvantages of Maida (white refined flour)

Maida is refined wheat flour, stripped of all its nutrients.

The refining process removes not just the nutrients, but dietary fiber and proteins as well.
Refined flour can mess up a baby’s digestion and may create constipation in babies.
What biscuits can I give my baby?

Now you know what kind of biscuits you can’t give your baby, so let’s get to the good ones that are safe for babies and kids. You can choose biscuits that fall into any of these categories:

Homemade
Whole wheat
Without preservatives and additives
No artificial sugar
No salt
No baking powder or salt

The best option is to bake your own biscuits, of course!

Here’s our round-up of the best and worst biscuits on the supermarket shelves, so you can make a healthier choice next time you find yourself in the biscuit aisle. Now you just have to remember to stick to one.

McVitie’s Chocolate Hobnobs: 3/10
Cals: 92
Fat: 4.4g
Saturates: 2.2g
Sugar: 6.2g
Verdict: These have more than 7 times the amount of saturated fats and almost double the amount of sugar compared to plain HobNobs.

Fox’s Moos Malted Milk: 8/10
Cals: 44
Fat: 1.9g
Saturates: 0.9g
Sugar: 1.7g
Verdict: These biscuits have a high malt and milk content as well as having one of the lowest calories amounts per biscuit and a low sugar and sat fat content.

Oreo Thins
Cals: 30 Lowes Calories
Fat: 1.2g
Saturates: 0.5g
Sugar: 2.3g
Verdict: Watch your sugar intake, as more than a couple of these could cause it to spike, but who would have thought that a chocolate biscuit could contain less calories.

So think smart and nourish only delicious and yet nutrient dense to your children. Wishing your child a healthy lifestyle forever.