Table of contents:
- What is tapioca flour?
- What are the health benefits of tapioca flour?
- People on a gluten free diet
- Helps digestion
- Good for people with hypertension, heart disease and stroke
- Has a neutral taste
- Who shouldn't eat too much tapioca flour?
- Diabetics
- Allergic people
There are many types of flour from various ingredients that can be used by us to make a dish. One type of flour that can be used for cooking is tapioca flour. This flour can be created to make a variety of dishes, including cakes, breads and soups. Apart from cooking, there are many other benefits of tapioca flour for health, but there are also drawbacks.
What is tapioca flour?
Tapioca flour is flour made from cassava, therefore sometimes people know it better as cassava flour or starch. This flour contains lots of carbohydrates and very little protein, fiber, or other nutrients.
Tapioca flour can be an alternative for those of you who are on a gluten-free diet. This flour can be a substitute for flour or wheat for those of you who cannot eat foods that contain gluten. Using tapioca flour, you can make gluten-free bread, pudding or other dessert, as a thickener for soups and sauces, as a binding agent in making burgers, nuggets, and other dough. This binding agent works by increasing the texture and moisture content, so that moisture is trapped to form like a gel.
What are the health benefits of tapioca flour?
This tapioca flour can be used for:
People on a gluten free diet
Some people may experience intolerance to gluten, such as people with celiac disease. This makes them unable to tolerate the slightest bit of foods that contain gluten. Because tapioca flour is made from cassava which is naturally gluten-free, tapioca flour is perfect for people on a gluten-free diet.
This tapioca flour can be a substitute for flour for people with gluten intolerance. For people on a gluten-free diet, tapioca flour can be used to make bread and cakes, or it can also be used as a thickener in soups or sauces.
However, when you buy tapioca flour, you should choose products that are labeled gluten-free. Not all tapioca flour sold in the market is definitely free from gluten content. This can happen because flour is usually processed in the same equipment, which puts it at risk of cross-contamination with other flour products that contain gluten.
Helps digestion
Tapioca flour contains resistant starch. Resistant starch is starch that cannot be digested by the body, so this starch can help digestion, its function is the same as fiber in the digestive system.
This is why tapioca flour can be used to prevent constipation or constipation. In addition, resistant starch found in tapioca flour also supports the growth of good bacteria in the intestines, thereby reducing inflammation and reducing the number of bad bacteria in the intestines.
Just like fiber, resistant starch can also lower blood sugar levels after meals, increase glucose and insulin metabolism in the body, and can keep you full longer. All these things are very useful for improving the health of the metabolism in your body.
However, because tapioca flour has a very low nutritional content, you also need to get the benefits of resistant starch from other sources, such as potatoes, rice, or beans (if you don't have to eat gluten-free foods).
Good for people with hypertension, heart disease and stroke
Naturally, tapioca flour contains low sodium. This is beneficial for people who have high blood pressure, suffer from heart disease, or have a stroke. Your daily limit for sodium is 2300 mg for adults. To get the benefits of this tapioca flour, you should not add too much salt or baking soda on your cooking.
Has a neutral taste
Yes, tapioca flour has a neutral taste, it tends to be bland. This will benefit you when cooking because using tapioca flour will not affect the taste of your dishes, unlike other flours. Because it has a bland taste, you can use tapioca flour to cook all kinds of dishes, both sweet and salty.
Who shouldn't eat too much tapioca flour?
Apart from the advantages as above, tapioca flour also has several drawbacks, so it's best to reduce consumption if you:
Diabetics
The very high carbohydrate content in tapioca flour, and the poor content of other nutrients, make diabetics have to limit their consumption of this flour. Indeed, the resistant starch content in tapioca flour can lower blood sugar levels as explained above. However, consumption in large quantities is also not good for diabetics, it is feared that this can increase your blood sugar levels.
Allergic people
Relax, this doesn't apply to everyone. Allergic reactions can occur in people who are allergic to latex due to cross-reactivity. This is known as latex-fruit syndrome. This incident is very rare.
