Biscuits: The best and worst revealed

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Best and worst biscuits, custard cream

It's no secret that us Brits love biscuits, but our love of the sweet treats could spell disaster for our waistlines with some of them containing an alarming amount of calories and sugar. Here's our guide to the best and worst biscuits for your diet.

According to research, we Brits work our way through a massive 141 million packs of biscuits a year. Whether we buy them for midday snacks, filling the kids’ lunch boxes or serving with our afternoon cuppas, the biscuit industry is worth a staggering £2.2billion – and we’ll be the first to admit we might have contributed to that more than a little!

Biscuits are our go-to treat, and we all have our favourites: HobNobs, Jaffa Cakes, Jammy Dodgers, we don’t know where we’d be without a biscuit or two on the treat menu from time to time. But is our craving for a sweet treat causing harm to our waistlines? And are we putting our health in danger? We decided to investigate…

It’s so hard to keep track of our daily calories when we’re on a diet, but if you’re reaching for a biscuit and think they’re all the same – think again! Your intentions might be good, but you could be accidentally mistaking a calorific culprit for a low-cal snack, and wouldn’t it be nice to know which biscuits you can tuck into guilt-free?

We think you’ll be alarmed when you find out which is the worst biscuit you could eat when you’re trying to watch your weight (with a gasp-worthy 2.9g of saturated fat in each one!) and which is the best, with a diet-friendly 30 calories. We won’t spoil the surprise, but let’s just say that you don’t have to give up chocolate…

Here’s our round up of the best and worst biscuits on the supermarket shelves, so you can make a healthier choice next time you find yourself in the biscuit aisle. Now you just have to remember to stick to one, rather than tucking into half of the packet (oh come on now, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?)

Best and worst biscuits Click or tap to zoom into this image
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Tesco All Butter Shortbread Fingers: 1/10

Cals: 91
Fat: 4.8g Highest fat content in a biscuit
Saturates: 2.9g Worst for saturated fats
Sugar: 2.6g

Verdict: The high levels of butter in these shortbreads makes them the most calorific biscuits in our round up – plus each one contains almost a sixth of your daily recommended intake of saturated fats.