Know These ILL Effects of Eating Maida Daily
Maida is used widely across the Indian subcontinent to make many traditional dishes and festivity recipes. All of us have gorged on naans, pooris, biscuits, samosas, cakes and bread made from Maida at some time or the other. Termed as ‘White poison’, white flour is a common household ingredient, but it affects our health drastically.
It is essential to know why it is bad and the extent to which it can harm you so that you can correct your eating habits. Here we shed some light on the ill-effects of taking Maida daily and its adverse consequences on your wellness.
What Is Omitted From Maida (White Flour)
During processing of Maida from wheat, the wheat’s endosperm is removed from the germ (wheat germ) and the bran (wheat bran), which is very vital for digestion. As all essential nutrients are removed during Maida processing, foods prepared from it uses nutrients from the body for absorption. Consequently, your body becomes depleted of minerals and vitamins. Some manufacturers draw customers by labelling their product as ‘enriched flour’, which is simply adding 3-4 vitamins at the expense of 10 removed vitamins while processing.
What Happens If You Consume Maida Daily
Consuming Maida also increases your bad cholesterol (LDL), clogs arteries, makes you fat, elevates blood pressure, keeps you hungry, disrupts blood sugar, makes you long for sweets, leads to mood swings and ruins your health, appearance and relationships. People consume it as they are probably unaware of its effects.
Why Is Maida Harmful
The wheat whole grain has 3 parts – the bran that includes fibres and anti-oxidants, the germ that carries proteins and minerals and finally, the endosperm containing carbohydrates. As wheat is processed to create white flour, the germ and bran are extracted. Maida is really simply the endosperm. Therefore, the nutritional value of Maida flour is quite practically zero. Moreover, the human digestive system cannot easily digest Maida as it does not include any fibres that help in digestion.
You should know how Maida can damage your health in more ways and prove to be detrimental.
1. Raises Blood Sugar Level
Maida has an extremely high glycemic index. When you eat something prepared from it, plenty of sugar is discharged straight into your bloodstream and your blood sugar level goes up. To combat this, your pancreas has to work overtime to manufacture an adequate amount of insulin. Your pancreas can manage the load sufficiently if you consume Maida sometimes but if you eat it frequently, you insulin secretion falls and ultimately, you become diabetic. Moreover, excess glucose in the body results in glycation. It implies the sugar molecules bind themselves to our cell proteins. This can cause heart problems, arthritis, joint inflammation, cataracts and fast skin ageing.
2. Offsets Cholesterol Balance
HDL or good cholesterol aids to flush out the bad cholesterol or LDL. Maida elevates the LDL level in your blood so much that HDL cannot fight it. This makes you vulnerable to high blood pressure, heart diseases and kidney problems.
3. Impacts Metabolism
Maida retards your metabolism rate. That implies that your body, rather than burning up fats as fuel, begins storing them. This causes weight gain and ultimately obesity.
4. Weakens Bones And Affects Bone Density
Maida is extremely acidic. When you eat too much of it, your body has to extract calcium to counter the additional acid. This is primarily alkali from your bones and thus causes decrease in bone density. The existence of extra acid in the body is another reason of arthritis and inflammation.
5. Harms The Gut
Maida does not include fibres. Fibres aid to clean your gut of food debris which cannot be done by Carbohydrates alone. Once Maida reaches the intestines, it converts to glue and clogs the system. Further, Maida does not induce the sustenance and growth of good bacteria that help in digestion.
6. Disrupts Digestion
Among the adverse effects of Maida is that it can choke the digestive system. Maida has negligible nutritional value as it does not contain fibre. Absence of fibre makes it hard to digest it. It can disturb the rate of metabolism thereby stopping the regular bowel movements leading to constipation and other digestive problems. Further, it is insufficient in moisture which disorganizes the digestive system.
7. Raises The Danger Of Chronic Diseases
Excess consumption of Maida can strain the adrenals, disabling them which may weaken the body’s immunity. Additionally, Maida is acidic with reduced mineral content which can produce acidity in the body activating chronic inflammation and health issues such as headaches.
8. Elevates The Risk Of Obesity
You must know by now that most of your preferred junk foods like pizza, pasta, samosas, and cakes are prepared using Maida. Health experts and nutritionists ask you to stay away from junk food for the same reason. Maida impacts the metabolic rate, retards the metabolism that makes digestion hard, and maintains you hungry for a long duration. This causes weight gain, and ultimately, with time, this could also cause obesity.
Toxic Chemicals In Maida Flour
The refining process together with the bleaching produces different toxic chemicals in Maida flour. Several chemicals are added to conserve the Maida-rich foods, which can be harmful for the body. A few of the chemicals are:
Benzoyl Peroxide And Alloxan
Maida flour is formed from wheat during which the entire dietary fibre starches and roughage gets lost. Moreover, benzoyl peroxide, a bleaching agent is employed which gives the flour its white colour. Benzoyl peroxide is a dangerous chemical which is used in hair dyes and tooth whitening products. It can be quite explosive in its concentrated form.
Apart from this, another chemical, alloxan is also included to give the flour a smooth texture. Animal testing has displayed indications that alloxan can kill pancreas’s beta cells, causing Type 2 diabetes. The use of these two chemicals can adversely impact the health leading to different health ailments like chronic inflammation, obesity, and constipation.
Ajinomoto And Mineral Oil
Mineral oil is a by-product of petroleum, kerosene and diesel. It is employed as a preservative in Maida-rich foods. Food fried employing mineral oil can endure for many days without becoming spoilt since bacteria cannot live in it. However, the potential dangers of the toxic product render it an unsafe option.
Ajinomoto or MSG (monosodium glutamate) has been prohibited from use by numerous governments due to the likely threat of kidney damage and failure it bears. Ajinomoto is added to several Maida-processed foods as it can enhance the taste.
Other Harmful Chemicals In Maida
Numerous Maida-rich foodstuffs also include probably dangerous chemicals such as benzoic acid and Sodium Meta Bi-sulphate (SMBS) which can induce multiple health complications especially in pregnant women and kids.
Healthy Alternatives To Maida
After knowing the disadvantages of eating Maida or refined flour, you should totally avoid consuming it. There are several healthy substitutes to Maida. Among the best alternative is whole grains. Brown rice, wheat, bajra, jowar, maize, and ragi are good substitutes for all-purpose flour in your kitchen. Even gram flour, rice flour, semolina, urad flour, and soy flour are nice options.
From making your breads to noodles, you can employ other grains for making your regular food. These taste superb and are healthy also.
Bottom Line
Food products prepared from Maida are extensively available and consumed and have become an increasing part of our daily diet which is frightening. Such foods are not just fattening for the body but also extremely harmful as it can result in multiple diseases. So, it is extremely important to comprehend its harmful effects upon health, restrict its consumption and shift to healthier alternatives. Why go for flour with nil nutrients, when there are endless healthsome options available.
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Sujata Sanyal
Sujata Sanyal has been in the writing circuit for the past 7 years and has touched upon various genres like travel, health, lifestyle, a wee bit of technology, cuisine, product descriptions and a bevy of others. 1 part of her is interested in animated political discussions, 2nd part interested in studying biographies and the remainder part in love with music and socially relevant work. Too many parts?
