Today let me introduce you to one of the health dragons, Maida ! This is the baby of modern lifestyle. Our ancient wheat grains, converted into Aata is limited now to homemade food. Then what is that which is mentioned on almost all packages as wheat flour as the first ingredient ?
Mind you, friends, it is Maida! When it is written as ‘Whole Wheat Flour’, then it is our whole wheat Aatta which we use at home. Again Multigrain is a marketing gimmick. The majority of times the major ingredient in it is Wheat flour or Maida , while other grains used are not even 25 %.Alas ! what a pity way of fooling customers!Lack of awareness even in educated and health-conscious customers is the reason to fall prey of marketing by big stakeholders.
Now there are two questions in your mind, one is, why Maida is so popular and the other is why am I calling it as Dragon? Let us first understand that how Maida is made? The milling process of wheat grains strips off its nutrients,then refining and making it white again reduces the nutrient load, literally leaving behind only carbohydrates without proteins, iron, folate, fiber and many other micronutrients.
But this maida atta is popular for bakery products because the dough is soft, elastic, and does not break while baking. So easy for processing. Maida is cheaper too. You may argue that ‘ Fortified’ or’ Added vitamins’, should resolve the issue, but sorry to say that it is another gimmick as the body is not able to utilize these added vitamins, hence of no use to us.
The whole problem starts with the modern lifestyle, where sometimes food has become everyday food . The worst part of it is, Maida is tasteless and the products made up of it are tasty only because you add oil/butter/sugar making the scenario even worst .
All bakery products like bread, toasts, cakes, pastries, biscuits, cookies, and other products like burgers, pizza, pasta, noodles are included in this bandwagon. Samosa, sandwich, pav bhaji, roti from restaurants are some more examples.
Now, this Maida without fiber is hard to digest, hence more consumption leads to acidity and constipation. The worst thing is Maida raises blood sugar fast, causing strain over the pancreas to produce insulin at a faster pace. The excess of carbs are stored as fat..leading to obesity and related health hazards. Also, one fine day pancreas gives up and Diabetes catches you and it is the permanent companion whether you accept it or not! I am sure now you too will call it a Dragon.
