As new year’s eve draws to a close, social gatherings are bound to be planned. While social gatherings such as house parties may or may not include alcohol, but snacks such as bhujia sev are pretty common. So is this popular snack unhealthy? And if so, then what makes them unhealthy?
As always in our Know Your Calories series, we delve into the details, analyze the ingredients and the macronutrients, breaking them down for you.
The ingredients:
Besan Flour, Edible Vegetable Oil, Chana Besan, Salt, Chilli Powder, Pepper Powder, Ginger Powder, Mace Powder, Nutmeg & Cardamom Powder.
The primary ingredient here is gram flour, which is pretty healthy in itself, but what follows is a list of ingredients that makes this popular snack an absolute nightmare for fitness enthusiasts. What follows next is a combination of various oils that are used to increase the shelf life of this snack. This concoction of gram flour and oil is then deep-fried as if it needed more oil. The end result is an absolute caloric bomb and is one of the unhealthiest snacks that we have covered in our Know Your Calories series. Don’t believe us? Then take a look at the nutritional information below.
Carbohydrates:
A 100 gram serving of bhujia sev consists of 40 grams of carbohydrates, and while we keep emphasizing the fact that carbohydrates per se aren’t bad, it does not mean that you go overboard and consume 40 grams per serving. What also stands out is the fact that for every 100 grams of this snack, you get a mere 3 grams of dietary fiber, which isn’t the best snack option out there.
Fats:
What makes this snack an absolute deal-breaker is the fact that a staggering 40 grams or 360 calories comes from fats alone, and this is the unhealthy one, as not only does the batter that is fried contain a mixture of oils, but that is then fried at high temperature in oils that may be reused multiple times. Per serving, the caloric count comes to 580, and more often than not, at least when socializing, we may end up eating 2-3 servings, which makes this one of the unhealthiest snacks that we have covered here.
Protein:
As usual with every unhealthy snack, the most important macronutrient ie the building blocks of our body comes in at a mere 14 grams. But what also needs to be noted is that all of the 14 grams of protein that you get are an incomplete source, which means that none of the 14 grams of protein that you consume from this snack can be utilized by your body to build lean muscle.
So should you avoid bhujia sev altogether? According to us, if you have an option to pick between grams (chana) or dry roasted peanuts, then you should definitely pick the latter two and pass on the deep-fried caloric bomb.
Questions?