Biscuits - Super energy food - Reality check

“OH MY GOD you don’t give biscuits to your son HAWWWWW, how is he going to get energy” This is the line which I hear so frequently that sometimes I question myself ,oh by mistake did I give birth to a puppy in place of a boy, who cannot survive without biscuits? Then I look at Abhi and say oh thank god it’s a boy who definitely can get energy with normal food.

But this biscuit obsession makes me think is it me who is depriving my son of some high energy nutritious food by keeping him away from this healthy food and making myself fool or this biscuit industry is fooling us. Okey so its time for little research to find out the truth.

First thing which I looked is the ingredients which are required to make a tasty biscuits in general. Lets look at them one by one and see how good are they for my son and what all he is not going to have without eating them.

•  All purpose flour AKA Maida: It is the waste product of wheat where in it is refined to an extend it is polished off all the nutrients and goodness. Maida takes a longer time to digest giving a lot of work to our intestines, so imagine the little intestines which has to put in a lot of work to digest the unwanted Maida.
• High Sugar Content: Which is obviously bad for the tiny teeth and this is the thing which makes everyone addicted to biscuits.
• Fats(Saturated or unsaturated) : All biscuits and processed foods have good amounts of  which helps to retain the shape, taste and texture in them.
• Hydrogenated edible vegetable oil: In general terms it equates to transfat. Process of hydrogenation adds hydrogen atoms to oil, it will reduce the number of unsaturated fatty acids and increase the number of saturated fatty acids in the oil. Consumption of a high level of saturated fatty acids is associated with increasing the level of cholesterol in the blood and this may lead to coronary heart disease. Therefore, as part of a healthy diet, consumers are advised to try to lower their intake of saturated fatty acid.
• Emuslifiers: We can find this in almost all brand ingredients list with different names. Just to give you a quick chemistry refresher, an emulsifier is any substance that encourages the suspension of one liquid in another, like with oil and water. In general terms it’s a artificial food preservative. And a recent study shows direct correlation between emulsifiers and inflammatory conditions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and colitis.
• Artificial preservatives: How do you think any packed food can survive in shelf for years when they claim no preservative added. That means our home cooked food should also survive for years as we also don’t add any preservative in that. But that doesn’t happen, why? Simple it’s a lie, in general an eatable cannot survive without preservative for a longer duration.

Hmmm but we only give those biscuits which does not contain above items, really so it time to look at the brands which claims to have healthy ingredients and very suitable for kids

Two claps of each one of you to guess the brand name right:

• Brand one - Most popular brand since ages with a very cute baby on the pack and has a huge market presence since I was a kid myself. I remind you this one is considered as the most super energy food for the kids. Lets have a look at back side of the pack:

          Wheat flour, sugar, partially hydrogenated edible vegetable oil/ edible vegetable oils, invert  syrup, leavening agents, baking powder, salt, milk solids, emuslifiers, dough conditioners, improvers (amylases and other enzymes) and artificial flavours 
            Now I wonder how this biscuit can be sold as a biscuit for children when it contains more hydrogenated oil than edible oil. 

• Brand Two - Here comes the top seller brand for kids with a roaring animal on the pack and promises you to give the energy same as him. And the commercial shows one of our superhero eating the same. Now this really needs to be healthy as after eating this our super hero can kick all terrorists out of country. This one definitely needs a look:

           Wheat Flour(66%), Sugar, Edible Vegetable Oil, Invert Syrup, Liquid Glucose(4.9%), Raising agent(E500(ii), E503(ii)), Salt, Milk solids(0.15%), Emulsifier(E322(i), E471, E481(i)), Calcium salt, Ferrous Salt, Dough Conditioner(E223), Vitamins, Natural flavoring substance, Artificial flavouring substances(Vanilla, Milk)

          Oops it is loaded with artificial preservatives. That is why I think our super hero got the energy  for hunting be it animals or humans. No offense intended please.

• Brand Three -  Now is turn of a very healthy whole wheat digestive biscuit where the very sexy heroine who has a very good aerobics line as well. Now this should prove my thinking wrong as this lady eats this health biscuit and maintains such sexy figure, so this one got to be really healthy and they also says “NO Suger added” WOW. Lets look at it:

          Wheat Flour(40.61%), Whole Wheat flour(18.2%), Edible Vegetable Oil, Sweetener(E965(i), E955), Oligofructose(6.5%), Raising agent(E500(ii), E503(ii)), E170(i)(1.6%), Edible Common Salt, Oatmeal, Emulsifier(E471), Acidity regulator(E296, E450(i)), Antioxidant(E319), Nature- Identical Flavouring Substances(Cereal, Milk, Vanillin)

        Oh Oh why on the earth a product which claims to have whole wheat has two types of flours  “Wheat and Whole Wheat”. This doesn’t seem right. That directly mean we have 40% of maida and  only 18% of whole wheat. That’s ok but it does not have added sugar so what if it has lot of artificial sweeteners added (Sweetener(E965(i), E955).May be that is the reason our heroine can work with so many ghosts without getting scared. No offence intended againFurther research tells me the more number of ingredients which starts from “E” indicates the highest amount of processing. An you can look at the ingredients yourself.



Oh man this list is getting endless with hundred number of brands available in market, but I can guarantee none of them is so healthy as they pretend to be. A general advice “Don’t come in false claims, use your mind”. There are lot of really healthy options available which are easy to cook and tasty too ;) And in the last decision is yours "Puppy or a Baby"