Once, biscuits were my go to snack!
Article written by: Gousiya Sulthana
Hello readers!
From my childhood, tea and biscuits were my favourite snack. My mom would give us only 2 or 3 biscuits, so I would try hard to persuade my mom to give me extra one. I would even save my pocket money to buy biscuits so that I can eat more biscuits with all my will😁. It was like sort of my energy booster. I remember telling my mom “Mom, chai and biscuits”, my memories about those days are fresh till now. Tea and biscuits would fill my stomach even if I skipped my meal. If it got late to cook or if I didn’t like the food cooked, I would rely on tea and biscuits, especially butter biscuits. I loved the combination of tea and butter biscuits. Moreover, I would devour any biscuit of any brand whenever I am hungry. I did not mind what’s in it, or what goes in to make it, or how its made. Nothing was important to me at that time, all I wanted was, tasty biscuits to fill my stomach. This was my routine until lately that I started reading about biscuits. I actually wanted to know why biscuits were tasty and why it was so filling. But only when I read about it, I discovered many things that wasn’t pleasing to me. So I thought why not? Why not share what I have discovered and let you know why it isn’t a good snack and why it isn’t healthy for you or for your kids.
In this post, I would start from basics (like from what it is made up of) and then try to justify why you should probably switch to healthier alternatives. Alright, now lets jump into it.
– What biscuits are made up of?
– What are these ingredients doing in it?
– Why is it not good for us?
– What are the healthier alternatives?
– Should you quit biscuits?
– What biscuits are made up of?
Have you ever really thought what biscuits are made up of? Can you answer? I think everyone will atleast answer flour and sugar. You are correct! But, they are not the only constituents present. When you see the base ingredients it goes this way— refined wheat flour (Maida), sugar, palm oil, raising agents, emulsifiers, artificial flavours and preservatives. These ingredients are same for most of the biscuits out in the market. Depending on the brand they add extra ingredients such as milk powder or wheat bran or chocolates chip and sell in the market. So this is therefore the ingredient list present in most of the biscuits we eat. Now lets see the function of the ingredients.
What are these ingredients doing in it?
The base of every biscuit is flour, therefore, the flour attains the body and shape of the biscuit we see. The next important ingredient is sugar, we love things that are sweet and moreover, it makes us crave to eat more. Then, the third ingredient is oil. It is added to bind sugar and flour together, raising agents are added to make biscuits raise when baking, emulsifiers are added to blend flour well with sugar and oil, Artificial flavours are added to enhance the palatability of the biscuits and preservatives are added to extend the shelf life of the biscuits by inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. In a simple way, these are the functions of each ingredient. Therefore, this leads to third question as to why these above are considered to be harmful for us.
Why it is not good for us?
Okay! lets break it. Most of the commercially available biscuits use refined wheat flour (Maida). Wheat flour is chemically treated to make it refined and they are void of nutrients. During the process of chemical treatment various bleaching agents (benzoyl peroxide, calcium peroxide, potassium bromate) are used. Though large amount of these agents are removed during the process, it is believed that some part of residual agents would always be present. Research shows that these chemicals can potentially destroy vitamins, interfere with cell metabolisms, induce allergies and asthma, retard physical growth, affect renal function and some are even carcinogenic. Moreover, to whiten the treated flour, chemical called alloxan is used. Alloxan is used to induce diabetes in lab rats, this chemical works by destroying insulin producing cells in the pancreas. This could even be the potential reason why too many people are getting diabetic nowadays. With all these side effects you may ask why is still refined wheat flour used? Because it is a lot cheaper as it has extended shelf life compared to wheat flour.
Following flour, sugar is the next ingredient that is used in large amount. By majority of the scientists sugar is classified as harmful ingredient. If you ask why “SUGAR” is considered harmful then please keep on reading! Sugar is also refined, therefore it means it would have been chemically treated. Refined sugar is void of potassium, this causes our body to store less sugar and produce more fat and cholesterol leading to obesity. Studies also show that it causes high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, its addicting and can make you depressed.
Did you know?
The order of ingredient list on packed foods is written according to the amount of individual ingredients used. For example, if you see ingredients in order of flour, sugar, edible vegetable oil on a packed food. It means flour is present in high amount, sugar is less than flour and oil is lesser than sugar and so on.
Edible vegetable oil is usually palm oil in most of the biscuits. Palm oil is high in saturated fats, these saturated fats are linked to increased heart disease and other chronic diseases.
The raising agents can be ammonium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate these are usually added in low amounts and there effects are negligible on health. On the other hand, artificial flavours are considered to be harmful in few studies. (I remember my grade 8 science teacher telling us artificial flavours are bad children! I wondered why, but now I know the answer.) Artificial flavours are either butter or vanilla in biscuits. They are usually lab synthesised using chemicals, sometimes even petrolatum and coal tar is used to synthesise these flavours.
The most common emulsifier is lecithin that is derived from genetically modified soybean. Genetically modified products are believed to contain high levels of plant toxicants that can affect our gut health.
Preservatives are better to be avoided in general. Research shows that preservatives affects and kills the gut microbiome thereby affecting the gut health.
Should you quit biscuits?
May be yes or may be no! Its up to you. But considering the impact it has on our health in long term, I think its better to quit if you are already planning to or switch to healthier snacks or atleast try to minimize its intake. I usually avoid any kind of product that has refined flour, sugar or preservatives in it. It works for me. You can think about it and follow what works for you.😊
What are the healthier alternatives?
If you are a person who cannot give up on biscuits there are dozens of option in Amazon to try. I recently bought Early Assorted millet biscuits in Amazon. The taste was good and they were free of any harmful ingredients. But, were little bit pricey.(I honestly don’t mind paying for good products)
You can even try these biscuits Chai point , tots and moms , and Weelet. You may find these these biscuits to be little bit pricey but I think it will be worth in long term in regard to your health.
If you think I have justified why biscuits are unhealthy and convinced you atleast a bit. Then please like the post and share it to your friends and family so that they can also benefit from this post. If you have any suggestions or questions regarding this post or healthy snack alternatives please leave a comment.
Thank you for reading!
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. The above products are my own suggestions.
Check out the article in Substack
https://gousiyasulthana16.substack.com/p/why-you-should-probably-avoid-biscuits
