One of the main household items you will find in every Indian kitchen is wheat flour mainly used for making chapati, naan, paratha and puri. The two types of wheat flour available in Indian market are whole wheat flour and maida or all-purpose flour.
There is no debate on whole wheat flour being nutritionally enriched than that of maida which attributes mostly to their milling process.
The traditional milling process achieves 90-95% extraction through several steps
- The first step in the milling process involves cleaning to remove all the impurities from the wheat either by washing or dry scouring.
- The second step involves conditioning the wheat which improves the physical state of the wheat by the adjusting the moisture content which should be within 15-17%.
- Finally, the cleaned and conditioned wheat is subjected to milling, which separated the endosperm from bran and reduce it to flour.
Hence, the quality of Atta is determined by the quality of wheat and the stages of grinding it goes through. The more the coarse the higher is its bran and fibre content of the wheat flour.
There are different brands of wheat flour available in every corner of India.
Let’s take a look on some major brands such as Aashirvaad atta, Patanjali and 24 mantra organic wheat flour so as to understand which is better for you to choose:
Summary
Selection of wheat flour should be based on its processing, type of wheat the company or brand is using to determine the quality of the wheat, if its available, and the nutritional content especially Fibre.
The best way to make sure that you are getting the nutritious whole wheat flour would be when you grind your own flour where nothing has been removed or added to extend its shelf life.
If you have any questions regarding healthy nutrition or weight management, please schedule an online appointment with Dt. Silky Mahajan.
Send us an email at info@foodsandnutrition.in or call on 7829999400 between 10:00 AM IST – 7:00 PM IST (Mon – Sat).