With Corona Virus Covid 19 started showing its impact in India, life in so many cities/town have come to halt. The big cities include National Capital region and Mumbai Metropolitan region, the biggest metropolitan regions of India. The number of cases have gone up and now it stands at 400+, with 8 casualties. I am really puzzled by some educated people’s behaviour, with govt declaring lockdown of the city the people still venture to come out on roads, whereas govt has clearly stated that only people working for essential services should go to their work. Before I started writing this, I happened to see on TV news a scene of a Delhi road where hundreds of car were there and police official had put blockade and telling people to go back . These type of people are responsible for spreading the virus, as they ignore official instructions, and put theirs and others life in danger.
As other than corona virus, there is hardly any news from across the world, so I am turning to some other topic, which is health related. So today I am writing about a food item, which we consume on day to day basis in some form or other, and the same is considered not good for person’s health. It is called in general use term as MAIDA ( which is also known as refined flour).
In western world Maida is used in cakes, buns, breads, burgers , pizzas and noodles etc, in India too, the usage is extensive. It is being used in many savouries, either fully or partially. So we have Samosas, Kachories, Bhatures, cakes , bread, chaklis and sweets like halwa, gulab jamun, malpua, jalebi, gujia etc.
Now why Maida is not good for us, to understand this we first must know how it is made. it is made from wheat, which is not unhealthy . However while refining the flour, something happens, which makes it not so good for our health. Wheat has wheat germ and wheat bran, and the endosperm of this is removed while refining. This endosperm of wheat is what makes wheat healthy and this also help in digestion.
So when we use maida, it uses our body nutrients to help the digestion, thus depleting our body of vital nutrients. So sometimes maida is enriched or fortified with outside nutrients to food items are made from this enriched flour, and this action makes this flour little better than maida.
People who are having diabetese should restrict maida in their diet, as consumption of maida, it immediately raise blood sugar level as it having high Glycemic Index (GI). This put pressure on Pancreas to regulate blood sugar by producing insulin. For non diabetic eating maida may work for short time, however in the long run pancreas may fail, and that will lead to person becoming diabetic. Maida also increases the level of your bad cholesterol, which is not good for blood pressure and heart. Consuming too much maida ends in person becoming obese.
Additionally the consumption of maida is not good as it turns into a kind of glue form in our intestines, making it difficult to digest. It has no fibre and slows down the metabolism and can make a person sluggish.
Maida also affect person’s bones, which in turns increases the chance of arthritis. Since after refining all nutrients are removed, so it becomes acidic. Hence, to balance the acidity, the body uses calcium from bones, thus reducing the bone density. Consuming maida often can lead to issues like headache, stomach ache, migraines, mood swings etc. It appears that maida has invaded our life from breakfast cereals to almost every sphere. So, is it possible for us to switch from maida and eat healthy?
Public is slowly realising, the importance of reducing the intake of refined flour, and it is now being replaced by Ragi(Millets), Atta (whole wheat flour) Bajra flour, Jowar flour etc. If not fully mix of these flours can be used to reduce the quantity of maida. You may have noticed that foods like noodles are now available, which are made from wheat instead of maida.
So friends, please switch over from refined flour and go for healthy options.
Waiting for your comments/feed backs/views.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
23rd Mar 2020.
Neeta Bali
So true. Great job with clear valid points in educating people to stop consuming Maida as it really is harmful on so many levels. Thank you for the post.