Lotus Biscoff biscuits are a popular snack commonly offered by certain airlines on flights. They are meant to be eaten with coffee as their name suggests but they are delicious on their own as well.
Although they may taste good, we wanted to know if they were healthy or not. What are they made of? Do they contain lots of sugar? In this article, we scrutinize their ingredients and nutritional values to see just how healthy or unhealthy they are. So let’s find out if Lotus Biscoff biscuits are good or bad for us.
Lotus Biscoff Biscuits Ingredients
Lotus Biscoff is described as a cookie on their website. These cookies contain wheat flour, sugar and various vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower, canola and palm oil. They don’t contain all of these oils though. The brand states on their website that they contain at least one oil from the list or possibly more. That’s not very helpful if you want to avoid, for example, palm oil or soy.
If you are allergic to soy or wheat, you should not eat them. They include soy flour, too.
The other ingredients in Biscoff biscuits are brown sugar syrup, salt, cinnamon and sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda) which is used as a raising agent to give biscuits a lighter texture.
The Tesco packets of Lotus Biscoff biscuits use sodium hydrogen carbonate as the raising agent, which is another type of bicarbonate of soda. They use candy sugar syrup instead of brown sugar syrup. The vegetable oils used in the Tesco packs of Biscoff include rapeseed oil and palm oil from sustainable plantations.
The good thing about the ingredients in Biscoffs is that they are all non-GMO ingredients. They also contain no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Since these cookies contain no animal-derived ingredients, they are suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
Lotus Biscoff Biscuits Nutritional Information
To find out whether Lotus Biscoff biscuits are healthy or unhealthy, we also need to look at their nutritional values.
Carbohydrates
There are 23g of carbohydrates per 31g serving (4 biscuits). This represents almost 18% of the total recommended daily allowance of carbohydrates. You should aim to eat 130g of carbohydrates per day.
The Tesco packs of Lotus Biscoff biscuits have 5.7g of carbohydrates per biscuit. They have slightly less than a teaspoon of sugar at 3 g per biscuit.
Sugars
In one serving of Lotus biscuits (4 biscuits/31g) you will find 11g of added sugars.
One teaspoon of sugar is about 4g, which means that Lotus Biscoff biscuits of the standard packet size contain almost 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving.
Adults should have no more than 30g of added sugars a day which means that consuming a portion of Lotus cookies will quickly eat into your allowance as it represents 37% of your daily allowance of sugar.
Fat
Each Lotus biscuit contains 1.5g of fat. There is 6 g of fat per serving of 4 biscuits.
Your total recommended daily amount of fat is 44-77g per day, depending on your size and activity level. Saturated fat intake should not be more than around 22g per day as this is the type of fat that raises cholesterol.
Lotus cookies contain 2.5g of saturated fat (per 4 biscuit serving) which is not a big proportion of your daily recommended saturated fat intake.
There are no trans fats in these biscuits which is another positive thing.
Salt
The standard packet of Lotus Biscoffs contains 115mg of sodium (0.287 g of salt) per 31g portion. That’s 4.7% of the recommended daily amount (6 g of salt or 2.4g sodium).
If you stick to the portion size you will not get too much salt from these biscuits.
Fibre
Lotus biscuits are low in fibre containing only 0.1g of fibre per biscuit. We should all eat at least 30g of fibre per day so these biscuits will not contribute much towards the recommended daily fibre intake.
Protein
There is 0.4g of protein in one Lotus biscuit. The larger packet biscuits have 2g of protein per four biscuits. The recommended amount of protein is 45g a day for women and 55g a day for men. This is low in protein compared to custard creams, which have about 0.6g per biscuit, and digestives, which have 1.0g.
Lotus Biscoff Biscuits Calories
Lotus biscuits have 150 calories per 31g portion in the larger packet. The Tesco Lotus biscuits have 38 calories per biscuit or 152kcal per 31g portion.
How many calories is this by comparison to other biscuits? Digestives have 71 calories per biscuit while custard creams have around 60 calories per biscuit. Lotus biscuits are lower in calories per biscuit by comparison to these other brands (but they are also smaller in size).
FAQs about Lotus Biscuits
In this section, we have tried to answer some frequently asked questions about Lotus Biscoff biscuits.
Do Lotus Biscuits Contain Nuts?
There are no nuts in Lotus Biscoff biscuits.
Are Lotus Biscuits Fattening?
Lotus biscuits don’t contain trans fats, but they do have 6g of fat per 31g / 4 biscuit portion. This is 150 calories. If you eat them in moderation they will not contribute to weight gain but they can certainly be fattening if you eat them mindlessly.
Are Lotus Biscuits Keto Friendly?
The Keto diet focuses on being low carb and Lotus biscuits are not low carb. They also contain processed sugars which are not keto-friendly.
Are Lotus Biscuits Low Fodmap?
No, you should not eat biscuits on a low FODMAP diet. There are a few biscuits that you can eat, but these have low sugar content. You must also eat small amounts of these, or they may turn into high FODMAP food.
Are Lotus Biscoff Biscuits Good for Diabetics?
Lotus Biscoff biscuits contain 72.6g of carbs per 100g, out of which 38.1g is sugar. This doesn’t make them suitable for diabetics but still, they seem to be a favourite treat among diabetics although they do impact blood sugar levels. They are best enjoyed in limited amounts as part of a low-carb diet for diabetes.
Conclusion – Are Lotus Biscuits Good or Bad for You?
Lotus biscuits are biscuits and as such, they are high in carbs and sugars. They contain some saturated fat and have almost no fibre. They are made of processed white flour, contain salt and have no added vitamins or minerals. For this reason, they are not really good for you. Eat them only in moderation as part of a healthy and balanced diet and they will not have a negative impact on your body.
