Short Answer: Zucchini bread can be a healthy addition to your diet if you are careful about the ingredients you put in it.
When it comes to any homemade dish, it is up to you on how “healthy” you want to make it.
There will be people who will always think zucchini bread is healthy because it has zucchinis… Duh. This isn’t always the case.
Overall, zucchini is a very nutritious vegetable. A half cup of raw zucchini contains roughly 10 calories and 15% of daily recommended vitamin C.
So is it healthy or not? Let’s dive deeper below.
Zucchini Bread Nutrition Facts
When looking at all the different recipes for zucchini bread, you quickly see how much each nutrition facts label and ingredients differ.
Below we will list out two zucchini breads made with different ingredients.
Zucchini Bread From Eating Bird Food
This recipe from Eating Bird Food has roughly 158 calories per slice. This isn’t too bad from a calorie standpoint. They can achieve a lower calorie count because they don’t use refined, or brown sugar.
Instead of sugar they use maple syrup, applesauce and vanilla.
| Serving Size | 1 Slice |
|---|---|
| Calories | 158 |
| Fat | 7g |
| Saturated Fat | 1g |
| Cholesterol | 23mg |
| Sodium | 142g |
| Carbohydrates | 22g |
| Fiber | 1g |
| Sugar | 9g |
| Protein | 3g |
Zucchini Bread From Two Peas and Their Pod
The Two Peas and Their Pod recipe is roughly double that of Eating Bird Food’s at 301 calories per slice.
Why is it so much higher in calories? This recipe is more calorically dense because it uses brown sugar, unsalted butter, chocolate chips and turbinado sugar.
As with any recipe, a few slight changes, or additions can vastly change your overall calorie count.
| Serving Size | 1 Slice |
|---|---|
| Calories | 301 |
| Fat | 13g |
| Saturated Fat | 8g |
| Cholesterol | 50mg |
| Sodium | 241mg |
| Carbohydrates | 42g |
| Fiber | 2g |
| Sugar | 26g |
| Protein | 4g |
So, Is Zucchini Bread Good For You?
The answer is it depends. Many foods out there get a label of “good” or “bad”. You can eat anything you want and be healthy, but you need to watch what you eat and how often you eat it.
Some of the most fit people on the planet eat some of the most calorically dense cheat meals and live extremely healthy lives.
You can eat what you want if you balance out everything you eat. At the end of the day, are some foods more healthy and nutritious than others? Yes.
What we put in our body matters, but what we put in and how much matters most.
Understanding Different Foods
Oftentimes, people try categorize food into a “healthy” or “unhealthy” category. This can work to a certain degree, but thinking of foods as “better” or “worse” can help when you’re making eating decisions.
If a food adds health, makes you feel better when you eat it, is unprocessed, has few ingredients and can be eaten slowly, it can be seen as a food that is “better” food for you.
If a food subtracts health, makes you feel bad when you eat it, is processed, has no nutritional value, full of artificial ingredients and is hard to stop when eating, it can be seen as a “worse” food for you.
So, eating a raw zucchini and some eggs is healthy right? Both are ingredients in zucchini bread, nutritious, unprocessed and hard to overeat.
Now add some batter with that zucchini and eggs and you get 3 ingredient zucchini pancakes. This is roughly the same as what you were eating before, but now it is slightly processed and easier to overeat as opposed to just eggs and zucchini.
Now add all the ingredients from the Two Peas and Their Pod recipe and you get a food that is even more processed. Each ingredient is easy to pronounce and a whole food, but mixed together it is much easier to overeat.
Do you see what we’re getting at here? Defining zucchini bread as healthy, or unhealthy is dependent on what you compare it to.
This also applies to all the other foods you eat. What are you comparing those foods to and how are you defining healthy?
Changes You Can Make to Your Zucchini Bread Recipe
- If you use white flour, try using whole wheat flour.
- If you use oil, you can try using applesauce instead
- Try using egg whites, or liquid egg whites instead of whole eggs.
- Substitute other sweeteners instead of refined sugar. You can also try using smaller amounts of sugar.
Final Thoughts
You can eat what you want and still be healthy. Just be sure to have some form of balance in your food choices.
Can you eat zucchini bread with loads of chocolate chips if you want? Heck yeah! Just don’t pretend it is a substitute for eating a raw zucchini.
If you are still feeling some confusion, any food can fit into healthy diets. You can even do this when you’re trying to lose weight.
Everyday, you get to choose what foods you eat, how much you eat of them, how often you eat them and if it’s worth it to you.
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