Indian food is incomplete without pickles. The little pieces of lime and mango marinated with oil, salt and other spices are served at all meals. Pickles have always been a favourite for Indians and are even mentioned in our Vedic Texts! The sweet & sour taste of pickles makes them a favourite. Being so popular, pickles are used in India’s staple diet but the tangy lime pickles can be quite harmful to the body. Surprised? Read more to know why pickles are not healthy for us:
Pickles have low nutritional value
Pickles have low nutritional value because of the pickling process. During the process of pickling, fruits or vegetables are diced or chopped and then dried out. During the drying out process they are coated in salt and left out to dry in the sunlight. This is to ensure that no water content is left in the fruit or vegetables. But the negative point of this process is that drying in sunlight leads to further loss of nutrients.Read to know why fruits and vegetables are not fattening?
Indian pickles have high sodium content
In Indian pickles, a high amount of salt is added for seasoning and preparation. Excessive use of salt in pickles increases the sodium content in our diet which leads to ill health effects like water retention, abdominal bloating, high blood pressure and an increase in the work load for our kidneys. A high salt diet also reduces the calcium absorption which leads to low bone density.Get to know more about how to reduce water weight.
Indian pickles contain lot of oil
Oil is used in pickles to preserve them. Basically oil acts as a barrier to prevent the contact of moisture with pickles which prevents pickles from being invaded by fungus, mold and bacteria. The oils used in pickles have trans fats. Trans fats gets added to the oil during hydrogenation (passage of hydrogen gas to the oil). Trans fats increases the shelf life of the pickle. Trans fats even increases the LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and reduce the HDL cholesterol(good cholesterol).Read to know more about 7 cholesterol lowering foods to stay healthy. They also increase the level of triglycerides. So, it is always advisable to moderate your consumption of Indian pickles.