Why Maida Is Really Not At All Good For Health In Long Term?

When it comes down to food especially Indian recipes the word ‘maida’ which means white flour is a very common term.

1 out of every 5 recipes that is prepared in your home is surely containing maida as one of the prime ingredients. Flatbreads such as Naan, Tandoori rooti, bhatoora, Kulcha and many more such dishes are made with maida. It is also in cake recipes and and in so many other food products.

We unknowingly consume a very huge amount of maida and it’s products in our day to day life which can surely have a negative long time impact in our health.

Irrespective of how much delicious and mouth watering the dishes made from maida are, we at any cost need to convince ourselves that it is very harmful for our system.

It’s such an irony that an edible flour whose consumption is using drastically is known as ‘white poison’ and nutritionists or dietitians are trying to create awareness among people to stop using it.

Now, let us know why it is having such a horrendous effect in our body and having minimal nutritional value.

Maida is made from the endosperm of the wheat, that is, while processing the endosperm is removed along with the bran. It is then refined and bleached.

We need to understand that the bran plays a very important role in digestion and along with that has a lot of nutritional values.

Since it is lost during the process of manufacturing and so is the ability to digest it.

Hence, when we consume maida the digestive system utilizes the nutrients from our own body for it’s absorption which results in the depletion of vital elements from our system.

To eat something that is not adding but substracting from you is not a good idea at all.

This results in the deficiency of some vitamins and minerals which might have some severe health consequences.

But these days apart from the foods made in our home we are completely addicted to the fast foods like Pizza, Burger, Donuts, Noodles, Breads and many more which are also made from maida.

And you must be thinking that there’s no way you can stop eating them, right?

Well, then let us know some more facts about white flour(maida).

After you consume foods made from maida they have a property of releasing sugar into the blood very quickly which in turn spikes the sugar level. Now to neutralize it pancreas needs to produce sufficient quantity of insulin and hence the more you consume maida the more you put pressure on your pancreas.

This leads to the damage of pancreatic cells and ultimately making you diabetic as the production of insulin reduces.

Maida also increases bad cholesterol(low density lipoprotein) in our blood which leads to high blood pressure, obesity, mood swings and many more health issues.

It is also a root cause of diseases like arthritis, heart diseases and cataract due to inflammation in our body by the process of glycation.

It occurs when glucose level is high in our blood and gets attached to proteins.

Still not convinced?

Since I already mentioned earlier that most of the nutritional values are removed while processing of white flour it becomes acidic in nature.

And when we consume excess amount of acidic foods such as Pasta, Burger and other such products our body tries best to maintain a neutrality.

Momo- It is proper uncooked maida.

And in order to maintain this neutrality the body squeezes out calcium from the bones and maintains a neutral environment. But this in turn reduces the bone density leading to osteoporosis which increases the probability of breaking a bone as compared to a person having normal bone density.

So, just imagine that consumption of a product that is extensively used today can turn out to be so deadly.

And this is not the end it has other side-effects too.

Since I said it starts taking up the vital elements from our body for absorption process it congests the system and hence slows down the process of digestion.

And due to the increase of low density lipoprotein in our blood there are so many more people today suffering from heart diseases.

They basically narrows the path of arteries by settling down there and hence leads to a condition when insufficient amount of blood reaches our heart.

This is very deadly as this might takes a person’s life.

So, let us now discuss about ways we can replace maida and the products made from it.

Well, first of all it’s very important to reduce the consumption of fast food and they won’t be replacing the white flour with anything more nutritional as for them it’s just business.

But in home you can use wheat flour instead of maida and also Millet flour like jowar and Bajra.

You can eat maida products once in a while as it won’t create pressure on your pancreatic cells but avoid too much maida products.

Other alternatives are ragi flour which is very suitable for diabetics, quinoa flour which is gluten free and nutritionally dense and soy flour which is packed with vitamin D and essential micronutrients.

So, just maintain your food chart a little bit and stay healthy.

See in anyway I don’t wanna scare you..

But that’s the reality.

I think by taking small steps towards changing our diet.

We can get rid of maida.

I am not saying, don’t even eat it.

Just reduce the quantity and frequency.

I hope you will get some inspiration after reading this.

– Written by Annasha (Intern at BoldBlush)

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