While you are at the store thinking about what healthy biscuits to purchase, we bet that Digestives came to your mind. Are they healthy?
Should you avoid them when you're on a restrictive diet plan or you should eat them guilt-free?
Here's the analysis...
To begin with, here's one fun fact about Digestive biscuits.
Did you know?
The biscuits already proved themselves in a large number of different environments as they were used by many expedition crews, thus they represented the perfect food for the soldiers serving in the trenches. In order to meet the high demand for biscuits, McVitie’s had to open up a new factory in Manchester.
As the majority of the male population was serving on the frontlines, the biscuit production jobs were taken up by women, which helped them further emancipate themselves and eventually gain the right to vote.
What are digestive biscuits?
The term "digestive" in digestive biscuits might make you think that these are cookies that aid digestion. Digestive biscuits are basically baked and made up of wholemeal wheat flour and other leavening agents like ammonium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate, tartaric acid, vegetable oil, powdered swim milk, baking soda, and sugar.
Digestive biscuits are often considered to be healthy. Generally, 2 digestive biscuits will have somewhere around 150 calories, 6 grams of fat, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein, 1 gram of fiber, and 0.1 gram of sodium.
According to Ritika, digestive biscuits are high on fiber and are quite high in terms of fat as well. "So as a consumer, while buying such biscuits, you must read the label and ingredients. You must check the quantity of added sugar, refined flour, and the amount of added fat in these biscuits. Consumers must read about the source of the flour used, whether it is refined or plain flour and then pick one," she explains.
Listed below are the ingredients and their quantities present in a regular digestive biscuit.
1. Sugar
One digestive biscuit might contains 2 to 3 grams of sugar. It is not as high as regular biscuits, but it is not healthy either. So if you wish to keep your heart safe and healthy, avoid consuming so much sugar.
2. Refined flour
The flour used for making digestive biscuits is semi-refined. So irrespective of whether the biscuit is made from whole wheat or bran flour, it is not healthy if it is refined.
3. Fat
Digestive biscuits contain saturated fats. 1 digestive biscuit might contain somewhere around 3 to 5 grams of fat.
4. Preservatives
Anything which has an artificially created long shelf life must be avoided. Packaged food which has a shelf life longer than a week contains high levels of preservatives in it. These preservatives are synthetic in nature.
5. Sodium content
Digestive biscuits are high in sodium. The content is quite similar to a pack of potato chips. So, digestive biscuits can be just as unhealthy as a pack of potato chips.
Bottom line: Buy digestive biscuits only after going through their ingredients