Have you ever heard of the name Vada Pav? If you have recently visit India, or you came from a family with some Indian Culture, you might notice that these words represent one of the common and loved food in India, especially from its city of origin, Mumbai. Mumbai is the largest city in India, and Vada Pav is one of its staple food that almost could be seen around its cities’ corners.
Vada Pav came from the word batata vada, which means “potato fritter”, and the word “pão”, which means bread. From these words we can conclude in a simple way that Vada Pav is actually a potato fritter stuffed in a bread, like a burger.
And surely, Vada Pav has become one of the most Favorited vegetarian fast food dish. Also, if you do love Vada Pav, then you would also love this Indian snack, go check it out on our article about Health Benefits of Arancini Balls!
Without further ado, here are the nutritional value and health benefits of Vada Pav:
Nutritional Value of Vada Pav
- Calorie 300
- Carbs 55 g
- Dietary Fibre 5 g
- Sugar 6 g
- Fat 9 g
- Saturated Fat 5 g
- Protein 3 g
- Sodium 250 mg
- Potassium 100 mg
- Cholesterol l70 mg
Based on the data provided by My Fitness Pal, one serving of Vada Pav contains 300 calories, which is not surprising because Vada Pav literal ingredients are potato and bread, which as we know are foods that are great for carbs and calorie supplies.
Benefits of Vada Pav
Similar to Health Benefits of Aloo Tikki, one of the benefits of consuming Vada Pav is that this food provides a boost of calorie for your daily job, so it is recommended to consume Vada Pav before you take energy-consuming or heavy jobs, like physical training, martial art classes, mining, and other jobs that are related to the uses of high energy. Construction laborers also could benefit from Vada Pav’s boost of energy if they consume it at breakfast or before work.
Another benefit of consuming Vada Pav is that it is a nice replacement for junk food like burgers. Vada Pav represents a fast food burger, but in a healthy way.
Since it only contains potatoes and other vegetable ingredients as added toppings, Vada Pav could easily rival a burger, since its crispiness and taste doesn’t go down if compared to conventional fast food burgers.
Other than that, the health benefits of Vada Pav is significantly better that burgers, because they did not consist any processed food.
The recommended intake for Vada Pav is 1-2 servings per day before you start your activities. This depends on the person’s body weight and height.
Cautions for Consuming Vada Pav
Since Vada Pav give a rather big amount of calorie, it is not recommended for people who takes few physical activities to balance it. This means that elderly people and children should not consume Vada Pav regularly because they usually don’t have many physical activities to burn the calories.
Specifically for older people with Diabetes, it is not recommended to take this food often. If you have a family member that have Diabetes, be sure to check our article on how Turmeric could benefit people with diabetes.
Another caution that we need to know about consuming Vada Pav is that because of its major ingredients are only high carb foods, Vada Pav should not be consumed daily, especially as staple food. Because Vada Pav lacks all the necessary vitamins that are needed in our bodies, like Vitamin A, C, D, and other importan vitamins and minerals.
If you really loves Indian food and would like to look for another alternative than Vada Pav, then you should check our article about Bhel Puri, Indian’s favorite cuisine.
And that is the benefits of Vada Pav and its explanation on how should we consume it to maximize its health benefits! Be sure to check our other article on one of India’s most powerful spice and the Indian snack Pakora if you’re interested. See you in our next article!