Duncan Hines Vs Betty Crocker: Who Makes The Healthier Classic Chocolate Cake Mix?
Sometimes life calls for a quick and easy chocolate cake. Maybe you're celebrating an achievement, soothing your stress, or just pushing through another Thursday — for all three, a boxed cake mix can be a happy solution. If you don't already have a favorite cake mix, you might have a hard time choosing, given all the options in your supermarket. Which one you buy may come down to differences in nutrition facts.
Two brands of cake mix, Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker, have subtle differences in nutrition that may make one a better fit for your diet and lifestyle than the other. Betty Crocker narrowly wins for its lower calorie count and sugar content, but the Duncan Hines mix contains more vitamins and minerals, which can be worth paying attention to for certain consumers.
We compared the Betty Crocker Super Moist Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix and the Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix to help you decide which is healthier for you. The nutrition facts are very similar between the two brands, but there are some advantages to consider.
Betty Crocker has less sugar and salt, but Duncan Hines has advantages, too
If you're looking for a lower calorie count, the Betty Crocker (160 calories) edges out the Duncan Hines (170 calories) per serving — which is only a tenth of the cake. Betty Crocker also holds a slight advantage in sugar content, with 17 grams compared to Duncan Hines with 18. That difference of 1 gram accounts for an extra 2% of the recommended daily value for sugar according to the nutrition labeling. The biggest difference in favor of Betty Crocker is in sodium, with 370 milligrams to 490 for Duncan Hines.
The Duncan Hines cake mix contains ½ gram less saturated fat and 2 grams more fiber than the Betty Crocker. But the main advantage of Duncan Hines is the wider array of vitamins and minerals it contains: Vitamin D, folate, iron, potassium and more, all in quantities greater than the Betty Crocker mix.
Of course, these numbers may also change depending on what you add to your boxed cake mix. Frosting, jams, fruit, nuts, and other toppings bring their own nutritional factors to the table. So while there is no single answer to which cake mix is healthier, you have options to pick the one that feels best for you.