Have you ever worked with someone whose actions made you hear your mom’s voice inside your head saying things like “Everyone gets a turn,” or even “Let’s be nice”? When my friend Dee’s kids complained about the seemingly unjust behavior of certain teachers or neighbors, she would suggest they consider them “negative role models.” Just as it’s important to have good examples in your life, it’s also valuable to have examples of behaviors you would rather avoid.
Year in and year out, I post recipes that have a lot going for them. I am always on the lookout for good examples of nourishing recipes made from whole foodstuffs, with plenty of produce, legumes, nourishing fats, and high-quality protein. Today I am trying a different approach: I am dissecting a recipe that has nothing going for it. This angel food cake mix is a negative role model. Its best use is as an example of what not to eat.
As usual, the packaging for this ultraprocessed product contains verbiage designed to influence purchasing patterns. “This homemade angel food cake has straight-from-the-oven taste and warmth.” So we have established that, yes, it tastes like cake, and it’s warm when you remove it from the oven. While it’s made at home, I’m not sure it qualifies as “homemade.” The package offers that “fresh raspberries top this wonderful cake and sticky raspberry sauce runs down the side.” An emphasis on even meager amounts of fruit is common in the marketing of ultraprocessed items; Big Food capitalizes on the fact that you know fruit is nourishing. Finally, the plays on the “angel” theme: “Your guests will think you’re an angel if you serve this cake,” and “Bake it tonight and make an ordinary dinner with the family heavenly.”
The recipe calls for 12 egg whites (one redeeming feature), one cup of cake flour, 1 1 /2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and salt. Cake flour is finer than all-purpose flour, so it is absorbed into the bloodstream faster. And 34 tablespoons of sugar? It disturbs me to consider how people have been led to believe that angel food cake is more nourishing than chocolate mousse or pumpkin pie. Finally, the raspberry-and-lemon-juice sauce includes four tablespoons of granulated artificial sweetener. As if it were not yet sweet enough.
There is only one reason to eat this cake, and that is if you absolutely adore angel food cake, in which case you should make it and enjoy it, though not very often. But you are not doing yourself any favors by serving this dessert. The amount of stripped carb in this recipe is sky high. Without fat to slow its digestion and blunt the rate of absorption, you can probably count on a significant blood sugar spike, followed by an inevitable crash.
If you’re thinking about dessert, consider a Portuguese orange cake or old-fashioned brownies with walnuts. Or a platter of fresh fruit and dark chocolate.
I found myself shaking my head – too sweet. That said, no surprise, angel food cake was never my go-to cake anyway. Sweets are not my demons, but I have other dietary pitfalls I work to avoid.
Yes, one thing you can definitely say about this angel food cake is that sweetness is the predominant impression it makes on your senses. Thanks for reading YHIOYP! RBS
I’m 79 years old. A former fit and healthy retired military reservist (Flight Nurse), alpine snow skiier, ocean kayaker, hiker, hunter, fisherman, and recreational dancer (pop music, country-western and ballroom). When I turned 63, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My health went downhill since then. Although I’m upright and still breathing, I’m always amazed that I’m still alive. I remember when I was a young lad, my father was considerably obese. He used to be a semi-professional baseball player and amateur boxer. He sustained a permanent knee injury in 1953, when he was playing baseball. He became sedentary after that. He was a Pipe Fitter-Welder by trade for 42 years with our local Mobil Oil Refinery. When he was approaching 45, he went on a self-made diet. He stopped drinking beer and other alcoholic beverages. He limited his intake of bread to two slices a day. At lunch, he often ate a hand held meal, that was sandwiched betweeb two pieces of iceberg lettuce. For breakfast, he ate eggs or oatmeal and black coffee and orange or grapefruit juice. After an evening meal of an average helpling of protein, green and yellow vegetables and potatoes. His drink of choice was Black Coffee. He hated water. Occasionally, he drank it with lots of ice and the juice of a fresh lemon wedge. On Sundays, and Sundays only, he ate whatever he liked. And, at night, before bedtime, to calm his growling stomach, my father ate a good slice of Angel Food Cake. My mother made it. She always cut the recipe’s sugar amount by half. Still…according to you, the stuff is loaded with sugar. Despite that, my Dad was focused and obessive about adhering to his “diet” for almost nine months. His weight dropped from 218 pounds to almost 145 pounds. He was only 5’8″ tall at his maximum height. He looked great and felt great. But, he missed his normal foods, that he had become accostomed to over the years. His Primary Care Physician at the time was alarmed and thought he was suffering from Cancer or some other horrible malady. When my Dad told him what he had been doing, his Doctor told him to stop losing so much weight. He did. However, no one told him how to do that, without regaining all of the weight he lost. Within the next two years, he resumed his old eating habits. Eventually, his weight rebounded to about 220 pounds. He only took two anti-hypertensive drugs. Nothing else. He never exercised after his knee injury. He cut the grass and used a snow blower in winter (we lived in South Jersey near Philadelphia). Puttered around the house, to maintain the heater, air conditioner, touch up painting, etc. Helped my mother in her vegetable garden in summer. But, he never did anymore heavy physical work, except at his job. He lived to be 97. Just shy of his 98th birthday by four months. He died of “natural causes.” No heart attack or stroke. He just gave up the ghost, because he missed my mother. She died five years earlier. Before she died in 2013, she suffered from circulatory caused dementia for nearly seven years. Genetics? Good Luck? It couldn’t be the climate and fresh air. We had an oil refinery in town and lived in the temperate region of the Middle Atlantic States. Go figure. Just thought you would like to hear about an “exception to the rule.”
Thank you for sharing this wonderful family story. I can see that your father’s weight loss came about as a result of reducing his intake of stripped carbs, and I’m so glad to know that both he and your mother were with you for such a long time. You are right that individual stories do not apply to populations, and in your family’s case, that was for the good. Thank you for reading YHIOYP. RBS