Fruit pies are a favorite dessert among people with a sweet tooth. Blueberries are one such ingredient used to make a pie, but regular blueberry pies are notoriously high in caloric content, a fact that leads bakers to create their own lighter versions from scratch. These versions still contain several vitamins and minerals.
Total Calories
To make one standard size nine-inch version of a lower calorie blueberry pie, you’ll need 4 cups of blueberries. According to the authors of “Nutrition: Concepts & Controversies,” a cup of blueberries contains 81 calories. Since 4 cups of berries are used to make one pie, 324 calories total are in the filling. This accounts for nearly all of the calories in the filling. These calories are further subdivided into macronutrients, such as protein and carbohydrates – most of which are sugar – and some beneficial amounts of vitamins and minerals courtesy of the berry’s high anti-oxidative properties. All in all, the filling only contains 20 grams of fat, about half of what regular pie filling contains.
Protein and Carbohydrates
Protein’s primary job is to build and repair muscle tissue structures in the human body; carbohydrates are the body’s prime source of energy. Carbohydrate-wise, the filling contains 15 grams of sugar but because of the recipe’s inclusion of Splenda instead of refined white sugar, the sugar content is derived from the naturally sweet blueberries. The sugar content accounts for about 112 of the filling’s calories; Splenda – a manufactured artificial sweetener – contains no calories. There’s only one single gram of naturally occurring protein in the filling; it’s responsible for only four of the calories.
Sodium and Potassium
Potassium aids your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems to perform properly, according to experts from the National Institutes of Health. The light blueberry filling may be lighter in calories but its potassium content isn’t affected: 163 milligrams are contained in one whole pie. That means if you divide the pie into eight equal servings, you’d be consuming a little more than 20 milligrams of potassium per slice. Sodium aids in maintaining appropriate blood pressure levels; those on diets that restrict sodium should note that there’re only 58 milligrams of sodium contained in one pie, equal to a little more than 7 milligrams per slice.
Vitamins and Minerals
Thanks to the blueberries, it comes as no surprise that the pie is high in vitamin C, a vitamin whose primary job is to bolster immune system function. One slice gives you about 5 percent of your Recommended Daily Allowance, or RDA, of the nutrient. The filling also contains 20 percent of one’s daily value of manganese and trace amounts of copper and vitamin B.
References
- "Nutrition: Concepts & Controversies," 7th ed.; Frances Sizer Webb and Ellie Whitney; 2006
- Bake Space: Light Blueberry Pie Filling
- National Institutes of Health: Potassium Overview
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