If you live in New Orleans/Louisiana you know that right now the Web-O-Sphere (Facebook and Twitter) are buzzing with talks of King Cakes!  Mardi Gras officially began today, theTwelfth Night (January 6) and will last until Ash Wednesday, and King Cake is the traditional dessert served at this time. French settlers brought this custom to New Orleans around 1870 to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany- the arrival of the three wise men bearing gifts twelve days after Christmas. The round shape of the cake represents the circular route taken by the Three Kings to confuse King Herod, who was following them to find the Christ child. A small figurine symbolizing the baby Jesus, small coin or bean is baked into the King Cake.

King Cakes are making appearances in office break rooms all around town and based on the tradition that whoever finds the baby hidden in the King Cake is responsible for bringing in the next King Cake – well, we’ll just say that you’ll find King Cakes in break rooms all through Carnival. People in these parks don’t break traditions.

You will be exposed to King Cakes for the next 5 weeks…you will be tempted and pressured into having a piece so lets have a look at how badly a piece of King Cake might set your diet back.

The majority of the King Cakes/ the boxes they come in DO NOT have a nutritional label attached to it. Whether it’s Rouses, Walmart or the bakery down the street. You also have Mama Papaul’s King Cake mix with praline filling sold at the Cajun Supermarket which apparently has no saturated fat!!  Amazing. But just because there’s no label, doesn’t mean the King Cakes are calorie and fat free.

I did more digging and found a handful that included the nutritional value.  Here is one recipe from AllRecipes.com that had nutritional info: Servings Per Recipe: 16 Amount Per Serving Calories: 387 Total Fat: 10.1g Cholesterol: 51mg Sodium: 300mg Total Carbs: 68.1g Dietary Fiber: 1.9g  Protein: 6.7g

This is the nutritional value of a Whole Foods King Cake

Per serving (1 slice/108g-wt.): 340 calories (80 from fat), 9g total fat, 5g saturated fat, 100mg cholesterol, 320mg sodium, 58g total carbohydrate (1g dietary fiber, 31g sugar), 6g protein

This is probably not shocking news that King Cakes have no positive nutritional value.  High calorie count, a little too much fat and entirely too many empty carbs – mostly all from sugar, notice the very low fiber.

Definitely don’t make a habit of eating a piece every day and when you do have some – I’d limit it to a one bite slice…you’ll save yourself the empty calories plus this way there’s no chance of you getting the baby!!