Are Jams available in matherket healthy?
Having Jam Bread in tiffin is so nostalgic! Almost all of us would have carried it in tiffin at some point of time in our lives. Fruit jam is prepared from a single or combination of ripe, fresh, dehydrated, frozen or previously packed fruits including fruit juices, fruit pulp, and fruit juice concentrate. It is also prepared by boiling dry fruits or their pulp with some sweeteners. Do these questions come to your mind while buying your favorite jam for your family? –
- What is the actual fruit content?
- How much preservatives do they add?
- Do they have artificial flavors and colors?
If yes, then let us read the fact check of the regular jams we get in retail markets in packaged condition.
- According to the website of NCBI, for a jam to be considered of good quality it must generally provide bright color, distinctive flavor of the original fruit, intermediate consistency, and texture that is not too runny nor too hard.
- Jams that are available in the market are being made by using excessive sweeteners like artificial sugar, dextrose, invert sugar and liquid glucose. This ingredient gives a natural taste and uniform texture to the product and thick density. It also acts as a preservative. Most often the quantity of sugar is very high and fruit content very low.
- The preparation of mixed-fruit preserves traditionally involves the use of pectin as a gelling agent. It is not necessary that high pectin content be used in jams as pectin only substitutes fruit content and gives no other nutritional value.
- Though the jams contain good fruit content, many of the jams available in the market have low fruit content and use fruit concentrate in very low percentages.
- In order to make the jam taste sour, one hidden additive is added to the jam, which is Tartaric acid.
- High addition of sugar is not healthy and it only gives an unnatural taste.
- In order to make the jam more appealing and enhanced taste, artificial colors and flavors are added.
We look for natural products with particular nutritive value, which are also tasty. Therefore, jams enriched with health-promoting ingredients of natural origin should be appreciated in the daily diet. So next time select your jam wisely and don’t forget to check the amount of fruit content in it!!
