BlogHer - Healthy Muffins: Reality or Ruse? - Comments

I rarely buy muffins out.

elitsirk — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:02:42 -0500

I rarely buy muffins out. Commercially produced ones are made extra tender and extra rich and with extra ingredients to improve their shelf life. And they're all huge--I have a "texas-size" muffin pan that makes 5-6 muffins out of recipes that usually yield 12. Personally, I prefer homemade ones, and not necessarily the strangely textured "healthy" recipes that substitute applesauce for oil. My favorite basic muffin recipes only have maybe 1/4-1/3 cup of oil and 1-2 eggs max for a batch of 12. And I like things like bananas & walnuts, blueberries, or 100% fruit preserves, not chocolate chips (those taste more like cupcakes than breakfast to me).

At the same time, I don't think 300 or even 500 calories for one of those store-bought muffins is excessive. I've never done weight watchers, but is 530 calories really 1/2 your daily caloric allowance? I thought healthy adult women needed at least 1500 to maintain their weight, maybe closer to 2000. In that case, 700 calories worth of muffin + latte for breakfast sounds about right. It might be a fatty breakfast, but if you're not buttering your steak & fries with dinner, its only 1/3 of your daily calories, and includes a lot of calcium. What's so bad about that?

Before anyone gets annoyed, I'm not a skinny-minny who's weighed the same since she was 14 years old. I'm an average-sized 31 year old woman who's only moderately active (with 2 little kids, I'm lucky if i get a single real workout in per week). But I also believe in cooking at home, eating when you're hungry (and what you're actually hungry for), and not fretting over every calorie and fat/sugar/carb gram. Your body and your hunger level will tell you when you've eaten too much or not enough, if you only listen.

http://elitsirk.blogspot.com

I heavily adapt recipes

WordVixen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:25:15 -0500

I found a relatively healthy bran muffin recipe on AllRecipes because I thought store bought muffins were always too sweet.

I substituted natural applesauce (preferably just water and apples, salt or vitamin C is ok), Mott's pomegranate sauce, half a can of pumpkin puree, or pulverized nectarine/apricot/peach with raw honey for the fat, and halved the brown sugar (from 2/3 cup, to about 1/3 cup for 1 dozen muffins).

I do use unbleached all purpose white flour, and I want to experiment with other grain flours, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Since I only have one of those muffins a day, I share with coworkers, and have become quite popular since adapting my recipe. :-D

I posted my pomegranate bran muffin recipe on Squidoo. Just replace the pomegranate sauce with whatever ground up fruit you like, use wheat or oat bran (oat is better for the nectarines, etc), and remove chocolate chips to reduce calories. That's my recipe!

We make a lot of muffins here.

kazari — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:00:47 -0500

Pineapple Coconut or Cappuccino Date Muffins

We have some basic subsitutions we make with any muffin recipe - because Ryan usually eats 3 or 4 a day (crazy cycle-commuter!)

use half wholemeal flour (you can't usually taste the difference, it adds fibre, and makes for more 'hefty' muffins, which ryan appreciates). if you are feeling really virtuous, substituting quick oats for up to half a cup of flour usually works too.
substitute 1/3 cup canola oil for 1/2 cup butter (in most recipes)
replace any milk/cream with low-fat yoghurt or skim milk
I definitely agree about the healthy additions! We like LSA and oat bran best

I think I have a recipe for that...

Regionalized menus

alvenable — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:25:31 -0500

Starbucks has select regional food items, so you may not be able to get the low-fat marionberry muffins outside the Pacific NW, for example.

A. L. Venable is a Random Citizen. She primarily writes at Dimple and a Smirk (dot) com and Our PDX Network.

Here's a healthy homemade muffin!

MrsWsKitchen — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:24:14 -0500

I've got a lovely muffin recipe for you--Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal muffins. No wheat flour, it uses oat bran cereal and oatmeal. Make it even skinnier by (a) using skim milk and (b) replacing half the oil with applesauce. It does contain one chopped apple, but only has 1/4 cup sugar for the whole recipe. It's good. Really good.

Amanda
Mrs.W's Kitchen

Yes, yes, YES.

Alanna Kellogg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:29:58 -0500

You've made great points here, thank you, Innin!

And you've got me laughing out loud. All these "healthful" adjustments are all for naught, yes, if we actually eat the whole darned panful in a sitting or a day or even a week!

Alanna Kellogg
Kitchen Parade &
A Veggie Venture

Excellent 'lemonade', Karina!

Alanna Kellogg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:26:57 -0500

I admit to being lazy about relying on wheat flour: usually because the recipes I see call for two or even three different kinds of flour for a single recipe, which seems like a real investment. And I've not yet had luck with olive oil in baked goods. Maybe you could point me to a recipe of yours for a good head start?

Alanna Kellogg
Kitchen Parade &
A Veggie Venture

US sugary recipes

Innin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:13:01 -0500

Hi there!

Sorry, but I agree on the fact that sweet US muffin recipes often contain far too much sugar. I love US American and English baking a lot, I even got myself measuring cups which are hard to get here in Germany. But the first muffin recipes I tried - and they were on allrecipes.com and recipezaar.com, and were highly recommended by many users - were far too sugary for me, I just could not eat them. And our cakes and muffins over here are not salty or stale at all, some of them are even very sweet, too! In general, we have a similar problem here with buying food to go, as many rolls are just not wholesome and with far too much butter, e.g.

I would have noticed if I had converted the cups into grams but I just didn't. Now I always cut back at least 1/2 cup and then add the rest according to taste. Even many American users do so when you look at the comments under the recipes - which I should have done first, too! And there are also some nice healthy recipes which e.g. recommend to use unsweetened apple sauce instead of too much oil in apple muffins, etc.

I also recommend baking only regular muffins, as mini muffins tempt you to eat more than one - as they are mini, so one more cannot hurt, right? ;) - except if you exactly know how many you are going to eat. And use paper cups and put them in the muffin pans, you'll save the grease and you can transport them immediately.

In general, you should look at how many calories you invest and how much nutrition you get out of the recipe. If there are many nuts in the dough, the grease they add is not necessarily unhealthy. You just shouldn't eat the whole pan of muffins. And more fibery muffins will fill you longer than non-fibery ones.

Love,

Nina

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

- Eleanor Roosevelt -

One positive about celiac and food allergies...

Karina Allrich — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:56:12 -0500

Gluten intolerance encourages experiments! I am using higher protein grains in baking now. Quinoa, buckwheat, millet, oats, and nut flours make a better tasting muffin than the usual refined flours and sugar. And I love using agave in baking. My fat? Olive oil. It helps make a lovely, tender muffin.

k a r i n a

Karina's Kitchen: Recipes from a gluten-free goddess

Karina Allrich- Contemporary Abstracts

Ha. That's really obvious.

Alanna Kellogg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:28:29 -0500

I'm glad that Starbucks does include the nutrition information but -- is it just me? -- it sure seems like a passive aggressive way to provide the information. "Okay, it's there, but we're going to make it REALLY hard to find, completely NOT obvious, so you'll think it's not there and won't go hunting." Who enters a zip code to get nutrition information?

Alanna Kellogg
Kitchen Parade &
A Veggie Venture

I don't usually defend

tanyat — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:22:00 -0500

I don't usually defend Starbucks - but the nutrition facts for the item is posted (330 calories). You need to put in your zip code, select a store and then it's under muffins and scones. Panera Bread has unbelievably bad nutrition facts for even their sandwiches. One look and my favorite free wifi spot was on my no-go list :-(

I've reviewd a few lower cal muffins for those who don't make their own - Uncle Wallys Smart Portion muffins is great, and there is also VitaTops (muffin tops not muffins). Krusteaz makes a to die for low-fat muffin mix too.

Iateapie.net Healthy 'Diet'Food Reviews

Healthy Muffins: Reality or Ruse?

Alanna Kellogg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:03:49 -0500

Once upon a time, a smart working gal started her days at the corner coffee shop, fixated on a pumpkin muffin (pumpkin? it's a vegetable!) and a latte (with skim milk! women need their calcium!). Turns out, the smart working girl (who, me?) wasn't so smart, spending $6 a day ($1600 a year!) and consuming nearly 700 calories (the equivalent of a double cheeseburger and a small fries!).

Starbucks' New Breakfast Muffin
Starbucks is looking to increase our average ticket with the addition of healthful breakfast options. "Start your day right!" they say when presenting the new breakfast foods. So what about their Apple Bran Muffin? How healthful is it, really? Hmm. It's impossible to say since -- what's up with this? -- no nutrition data is supplied by Starbucks. All we get is:

"Apple Bran Muffin -- A good source of fiber, with hearty grains, dried cherries and baked apple."
~ nutrition information ~

Right. Like this is enough, Starbucks? Even if you're not required to provide the information, isn't it the right thing to do, given that you're promoting good health?

Panera Muffins
Panera quick-serve restaurants are a favorite hangout for American bloggers hungry for caffeine and free WiFi. (We appreciate the free WiFi, really we do, thank you, Panera!) But the muffins -- my favorite pumpkin muffin, say -- are dangerous ground for eaters.

First, there's the calorie issue. A pumpkin muffin has 530 calories, 20 grams of fat and a full 47 grams of sugar. YIKES, that's 11 Weight Watchers points, more than half a day's calories for the avereage-sized woman who follows the eating plan. In part, this is due to the muffin's size, it's huge. (For the record, Panera does offer options, the Low-Fat Blueberry Muffin say. It's an improvement, with 360 calories, 10 grams of fat and 35 grams of sugar -- and 7 Weight Watchers points, still 1/3 of a day's calories.) And then there's the ingredient issue, just look at what's in the muffin -- take note, especially, of the first ingredient, sugar. (Did you know? Ingredients are listed in order of their contribution.)

Panera's Pumpkin Muffin Ingredients:

Ingredients: Sugar, enriched wheat flour (flour, malted barley flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), pumpkin, soybean oil, palm oil, whole eggs, leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate), water, salt, natural and artificial flavor, spice, honey, corn starch, mono & diglycerides, polysorbate 60, wheat starch, glycerin, caramel color, citric acid, red 40, yellow 5 & 6.

~ By the way, Panera, is there some reason why your nutrition information doesn't load? Is it just Firefox on a Mac or all browsers and Windows too? OH WAIT -- it does open, but in another window, making it easy-easy to miss. What's up with that, Panera?

See what I mean? No wonder that smart girl got into trouble, spending and consuming too much.

What's the Solution?
Regular followers know that my bias is always -- always -- to cook and bake at home, whether we're looking to save money on groceries or to control our diets for calories and whole foods. Trouble is, many home-style muffin recipes are disasters in their own right, really just cake baked in a muffin tin, sweet and gooey -- which is fine, really, so long as we know we're eating dessert for breakfast.

But what makes a muffin healthy?

Photo by Dani Spies

How to Know a "Healthy" Muffin Recipe When You See One

Muffin Size - If a recipe calls for 'giant' muffin tins, the portion sizes are going to be big-big-big. Instead, look for (or instead, use) recipes that call for either regular-size or mini-size muffins: instant portion control.

Fat - Healthy muffin recipes will usually call for fewer than four ounces of total fat, for example, that would be less than a half cup of fat, less than a stick of butter, say. (This assumes the recipe is making a dozen muffins.) Recipes that call for an unsaturated fat (a plant-based fat such as vegetable oil or olive oil or canola oil) are preferred over recipes that call for saturated fats (usually butter). Any recipe that calls for a hydrogenated fat (such as Crisco) should be avoided or the fat substituted with a more healthful fat. Some recipes go so far as to replace the fat, partially or entirely, with applesauce or smashed prunes. I've used small jars of baby food -- sweet potatoes, say -- to substitute for fat, too.

Flour - Healthy muffin recipes will call for a good portion of a whole-grain flour. (Few use 100% whole-grain flour because the results are tough and dry.) You can increase the healthfulness of any muffin recipe by using unbleached all-purpose flour (avoid enriched flour which has been stripped of all virtually all nutrition and then had some but not nearly all added back in) or better yet, white whole wheat flour, which is 100% whole wheat flour specially ground to be substituted -- nearly always with good results -- 1:1 for all-purpose flour. If you want to modify an existing muffin recipe to whole grain, replace one-third to one-half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.

Sugar - Nearly always, you can cut a muffin recipe's sugar by one-third to one-half, especially if the recipe is from the States, since our recipes are nearly always sweet-sweet-sweet, less so if the recipe comes from Europe or Australia, say, where sugar is less emphasized. In addition, watch for recipes that call for demerera sugar, an unrefined sugar, and especially for (or simply substitute) agave nectar, the plant-based, low-glycemic sweetener suitable for diabetics and all who limit their sugar intake. Maple syrup, molasses and honey are also good sweeteners. In my opinion, Splenda and other sucralose sweetener products (that is, it's a product, not a food) should be avoided.

Added Healthful Ingredients - Look for additions like wheat germ, oat bran, flax seed, ground rolled oats, all of which contribute protein, fiber and healthful nutrients.

Liquid - Watch for recipes that call for low-fat buttermilk or skim milk. Avoid recipes that call for sour cream, especially if it calls for butter and sour cream although low-fat or non-fat yogurt can be substituted.

Nuts & Fruit - Nuts and fruit meet the 'natural' and 'whole ingredient' qualifications although do add calories along with protein and nutrients. To improve the healthfulness of muffins, try to use 'less' of these ingredients, just enough so that the muffins are satisfying, versus loaded. Other tips:

Toast the nuts before adding them to the muffin batter. Toasting draws out nutty flavor: this means you can use less but taste more. Chop the nuts small enough that they can be distributed throughout the muffin batter but not so small that they disappear.

Pick fresh fruit over dried fruit, since the drying concentrates the sugars and creates dense calories. But -- dried fruit is so convenient! So chop dried fruit first, the smaller pieces will be easier to distribute throughout the batter. Often you can use less but the distribution makes it 'seem' like more. If your recipe calls for raisins, substitute dried currants which are slightly less sweet and are already small in size so don't need chopping.

Spices - Since healthy muffins are lower in fat, watch for a good measure of spices to bump up the flavor.

Icing - Reserve the icing for cupcakes! That said, if you want a little burst of sweetness on the top, dust cooled muffin tops with just a sprinkle of powder sugar. (If you dust them while the muffins are still warm, the sugar will melt into the muffin top, eliminating the aesthetic appeal.)

Photo courtesy of Cookbook Catchall

Healthy Muffin Recipes

Cookbook Catchall ~ Very Berry Health Muffins
Farmgirl Fare ~ Fruity Bran Muffins (three variations)
Food Blogga ~ Healthy Muffins
Dani Spies ~ Quinoa Raisin Muffins
Apples & Oranges
Deb's Key West Wine & Gardening ~ Whole Wheat-Oat Muffins
Eat Me Delicious ~ Applesauce Oat Bran Muffins
Dil Se ~ Carrot Muffins
Apples & Oranges ~ Morning Glory Muffins

The Healthy Muffin Challenge
What can we do?

> Get the facts - If you eat a muffin from a restaurant or morning stop often, check the nutrition information. Is there room for this muffin in your diet?

> Favorite muffin recipes - If you make a favorite muffin, ask yourself, is it a healthy muffin? Could it be made just a little bit more healthful, say, with ingredient changes? Small steps make a difference, one step at a time. Make the muffin some time soon, report back.

> More healthy muffin recipes - Does your recipe box or recipe blog include a recipe for healthy muffins? Share your link in the comments!

BlogHer food editor Alanna Kellogg's favorite healthy muffin is a Hearty Heart-Loving Muffin.