Nira of palm is used a lot to make palm sugar. The palm tree or Arenga pinnata is used not only to make palm sugar. When it is on its first blooming phase or about 15 years old, there are three things that can be used for benefits from the tree, which are:
- Take the nira
- Take the fruits for kolang kaling
- Cut down to take the essence or turn it into sago
Palm’s nira is tapped a lot to be turned into wine. Meanwhile if it produces fruit, the fruit will be named kolang kaling and used a lot for fruit ice or other types of drink. Besides that, palm’s stem can also be used to turn into flour or can be called sago. Since it is made from palm’s stem, it goes through a lot of process before turning into sago and can be consumed.
Process to Make Sago
If other flours such as rice flour, glutinous rice flour, or wheat flour can be made just by grounding their core ingredient, sago goes through a long list of process. Some of the process that needs to be done are:
- Cut stems that are at least 15 years old or have bloomed once
- Separate the stem from its hard skin
- Cut the inside of palm stem into smaller pieces to make it easier to put into grounding machine
- Put the chopped palm stem into the grounding machine that will then come out like a sawdust
- Sift the stem dust with water over and over again to separate the starch and its fibers
- Drain the sludge starch inside the water using plastic
- Do the sludge 2-3 times to make sure the starch is clean and soft
- Dry out the sludge to turn it into powder
The powder of sago is used a lot for many kinds of food such as meatballs, cendol, and many other foods that have chewy texture.
Nutrition Content of Sago
Although it comes from a grounded palm stem, it has a lot of nutrition in it. Sago contains many things such as protein, carbohydrate, calcium, phosphor, iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C. The fat content inside sago is relatively small, thus will not get you clogged fat that can make you gain weight.
Benefits of Sago for the Health
You must be familiar that not only rice flour, wheat flour, and other types of fours are used a lot in the households, including the sago that is famous in the culinary world. The making process of cendol, meatballs and other chewy foods uses sago in it. Not only it makes them tastes chewy, it also makes the stomach full and give great health benefits of sago for the body such as:
- Overcome Diarrhea
Diarrhea is caused by too many negative bacteria inside your digestion system. This can make the food decaying process disturbed. One of diarrhea solution is by consuming diarrhea medicine. However, this can also be taken care of through natural way that is through the sago.
The measure for adult is 2 table spoon of sago that is mixed in a glass of hot water. Meanwhile for kids, mix half the measure of the adults. The contents in sago can help to decrease the negative bacteria in the digestion system. Here are some of the info you need on how to prevent diarrhea.
- Relieve Ulcer
The stomach would usually feel painful when ulcer is relapsing. Sago in this case can be used to minimize the pain in the stomach. Its soft texture can be accepted in the stomach, thus minimizing the painful feeling.
- Boost Energy
Sago is very rich of protein and carbohydrate. Both are good to boost energy inside the body. Sago can be used as a replacement of rice since it is high of protein and carbohydrate, just like rice. You can also boost your energy through the health benefits of coconut water. Â
- Prevent Obesity
There are more health benefits of sago, consuming sago will not make someone fat. Sago contains low level of fat, thus it is safe to be consumed mostly by people who may have problems with their weight. Sago will rather make your weight balance.
- Maintain Heart’s Health
The heart’s health will be maintained if you consume foods made out of sago. The protein in sago can help to stabilize your cholesterol level and it have a low level of fat. The stable level of cholesterol and low fat inside your body can help to maintain your heart to stay healthy.
- Neutralize Blood Sugar
Overly blood sugar can cause diabetes. Therefore the balance of blood sugar inside the body needs to be maintained. Consuming food with carbohydrate such as sago can help to maintain the blood sugar inside the body and prevent diabetes.
- Prevent Anemia
Sago also contain iron in it that is capable to increase the production of red blood cells or hemoglobin. The increasing production of hemoglobin can help to prevent anemia or lack of red blood cells. Here are some anemia treatments that you can try at home as well as the symptoms of anemia that you must know.
- Prevent Osteoporosis
Milk is not the only one who contains calcium and phosphor, sago also contains both compound in it as well. Consuming sago can help to maintain the density and strength of the bones, thus helping to avoid the danger of osteoporosis.Â
- Maintain Teeth’s Health
Calcium not only maintain the health of the heart and bones, it also maintains the health of the teeth. Teeth that have enough calcium will be able to avoid teeth problems such as toothache, cavities, etc.
- Increase Immunity
Just like fruits, the vitamins contained in sago also works just the way they usually are. Sago contains vitamin A and C which both are good to help maintain body’s immunity by increasing the immunity. Did you know that one of the health benefits of thieves oil is also good for immunity?
Besides the health benefits of sago above, there are some other benefits of sago for the health such as:
- Maintain Baby’s Health
- Prevent Depression
- Smooth Body’s Metabolism
- Fix Broken Muscle System
- Maintain Brain Function
- As Antioxidant
- Maintain Skin’s Health
- Maintain Hair’s Health
- Good for the Eyes
- Help Growing Process
There are a lot of benefits that you can get from consuming sago for the health. Not only it can make your stomach full, it can also give lots of benefits that can help you maintain your body healthy. We hope this article have been helpful to you.