Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela

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Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela

Wednesday,9 July 2008 17:35 hrs IST
Prefer paranthas over bread for breakfast
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Ludhiana: Paranthas are more nutritious than bread and consumption of a nutritious breakfast is associated with better physical and mental performance as it quickens reactive time, decreases muscular fatigue, increases pulse rate, influences mood and improves cognitive performance.

''Breakfast is the foundation of healthful diet as it provides an individual with energy and other nutrients for the day'', research study conducted by Dr J S Sidhu and Dr S Verma, nutritional scientists of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has observed.

As per the study a dietary survey was carried out on 80 families to find out their pattern of breakfast. Commonly consumed breakfast preparations were selected for analysis.

Eleven preparations like stuffed paranthas, plain paranthas/chapati with seasonable vegetable and sandwiches were prepared in the laboratory, based on the recipes followed commonly in the Punjabi families. The whole wheat flour used for each parantha was 40 grams and the amount of stuffing varied with the stuffing material.

Seasonal vegetables like potato, cauliflower, raddish and fenugreek leaves were used. In 'missa' parantha, 10 g of wheat flour was replaced with gram flour. Refined groundnut oil was used for shallow frying of the paranthas and for vegetable preparation.

Boiled, mashed potatoes with addition to spices were used for potato sandwich, whereas tomato and cucumber slices with a pinch of salt and black pepper powder were used for vegetable sandwich. The developed products were analysed for their proximate composition.

According to the study the results revealed that the parantha had 4.2 to 5.0 g of protein and 209 to 258 kcal of energy per 100 g.

The protein content of both the combinations of chapati and vegetable and parantha and vegetable preparation was same (5.3 g per 100 g) but the energy value of the latter was higher because of the fat content which goes into the preparation of paranthas.

Plain bread had lowest values for both protein (2.28 per 100 g) as well as energy (69 kcal per 100 g) on fresh basis.