Sabudana, or also known as tapioca, is a breakfast and evening snack that you would often encounter in Indian households. There are some types of sabudana such as sabudana pakoda or sabudana kheer, as well as sabudana khichdi, which would usually greet you at dinner in Indian households.
Sabudana is incredibly delicious and tasty. It has the best taste when turned into a porridge meal. Sabudana is made out of extracts of plant roots. Not only food, sabudana is actually used commonly to starch clothes too.
However, in this article we are going to focus on what are actually the benefits of sabudana that are good for the body. Before we go to the health benefits, let’s find out first about the nutritional value of sabudana.
Nutritional value of Sabudana
- Macronutrient content
A half cup of uncooked sabudana pearls contains only up to 67.4 grams of carbohydrates. The same half a cup of sabudana also contains 272 calories, and a very less amount of protein as well as fat. It also contains about 0.7 grams of dietary fiber in it.
- Good iron source
Half a cup of sabudana contains 1.2 milligrams of iron, which makes up to 15% or 6.7 of your daily iron needs. Iron is important to the body as it helps our body to produce red blood cells as well as produce proteins myoglobin and hemoglobin which supplies oxygen to many parts of the body.
- Gluten Free
Sabudana is made from cassava roots, which are definitely gluten free! This makes sabudana a perfect alternative you can go to if you’re gluten intolerant or have celiac disease, or if you just simply is undergoing a gluten free diet.
- Low in Sodium
Sabudana have a really low sodium level. It only contains 2 milligrams of sodium per single cup. This definitely make sabudana even better to be consumed since we already consumed too much sodium that we got from the processed foods.
Health Benefits of Sabudana
Here are the health benefits of Sabudana:
1. Enhance Muscle Growth
If you happen to be a person who don’t like vegetables, then you should consume sabudana as an alternative source of your protein. Sabudana contains a lot of protein in it that can support your muscle growth.
2. Good for Bones’ Health
Sabudana contains an abundance of calcium and vitamin K in it. These two contents make sabudana highly great for maintaining the bones’ health as well as improving its flexibility. Also, if consumed regularly, sabudana will help your body to prevent bone loss.
3. Treats Anemia
Sabudana also contains a lot of iron, which is an important mineral in order to prevent anemia. Iron will trigger the production of red blood cells, therefore it is highly recommended for you to consume this food in order to prevent or even take care of the anemia.
4. Control the High Blood Pressure
The consumption of sabudana will help increase the blood in your body to flow to all parts of the body smoothly. This then will make the blood vessels widen, resulting in the blood pressure to stay away. If you consume the food regularly, then it will be able to keep the blood pressure levels normal and under control.
The potassium contained in sabudana will also aids the healthy blood flow and decrease the pressure on cardiovascular system. Read this article for a full information on high blood pressure treatments that you might need!
5. Increase energy
One of the sabudana types, which is sabudana khichdi, is a very good option of food for your breakfast. The food is also often used by the Indians as a staple food. The reason that makes this food a great choice for breakfast is because it contains high nutrient that makes it able to give our body a boost of power and energy.
For a simpler way, you can also try to eat a bowl of soaked sabudana with a pinch of salt, chili powder, and crushed peanuts. This combination is good to fight fatigue, especially if you’re having a hectic day. The carbohydrates inside this food will guarantee you to feel energetic for the rest of the day! You can also try to drink mint water as one of the health benefits of mint water is that it’s a natural energy drink.
6. Prevent Birth Defects
It is highly recommended for pregnant women to consume the sabudana since it is rich in folic acid as well as vitamin B. These two contents will help to prevent fatal birth defects and improve the development of your unborn baby. However, it needs to be noted that pregnant women have to consume variety of food besides of the sabudana itself such as broccoli.
7. Digestion-Friendly
Sabudana will increase the production of fluid in your digestive system tract that later will make your colon healthy. Sabudana, or tapioca, will also be able to prevent indigestion, gas, and constipation problems. All which are very good for your digestive system and metabolism. One of the health benefits camote leaves is also good for the digestion system.
8. Help to Gain Weight
If you found yourself to be under-weight and is figuring out a way to tackle this problem, then sabudana might be the answer. Since it is filled with carbohydrates, the food then can help you to gain weight both quickly and healthily. People who suffers from eating disorder have long been using tapioca as a substitute. Here’s a list of weight gain foods that you may need.
9. Keeps the Body Cool
Sabudana can help to regulate your body’s temperature, making it an excellent food choice for the summer as well as Ayurveda.
10. Promotes Satiety
Sabudana digests slowly in your stomach and will remain for a pretty long time. Therefore, this food is ideal if you’re looking for a stomach-filling food or on your diet period that requires you to eat less. This makes sense as one of the benefits of cassava itself is that it promotes a longer satiety.
Now that you’ve learned about the benefits, here’s one of the easiest sabudana recipe that you can follow along at home.
Recipe of Sabudana
After knowing the health benefits of Sabudana, here’s the easy recipe:
Sabudana Khicadi
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 4 minutes
Total serving: 4
Ingredients
- 1 cup of sabudana (tapioca)
- 1/2 a cup of crushed roasted peanuts
- 2 medium-sized potatoes, slice into cubes
- 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin seeds
- 2 green chilis, slit into two
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- Salt to taste and season
Steps
- Wash clean the sabudana.
- Drain them and keep aside for up to 2 hours. You can sprinkle a little water over the sabudana to keep the moist if necessary.
- Combine oil, potatoes, cumin seeds, and green chilis in a glass bowl.
- Cover them with a lid and microwave on high for 2 minutes until the potatoes turned tender.
- Mix together the sabudana, salt, and peanuts.
- Cover them with a lid and microwave too for 2 minutes in high temperature.
- Serve both while they’re still hot and enjoy with green chutney or curds!
Sabudana is also a perfect choice of food for your baby as it is full of beneficial nutrient in it! Please note that for babies, you need to give only one new food at a time in a small quantity. For seven months old babies, it is highly recommended that you give them not more than one or two tablespoons of sabudana in the beginning.
This way, it will help you, parents, to understand whether the baby is able to digest this new food or not as well as help to detect if there is any allergic reaction that the baby might have towards sabudana.
Now this makes the end of the article about sabudana. There are a lot of health benefits that you can get from it, right? We hope this article have been helpful for you and don’t forget to try the recipe at home. Good luck!