Maltodextrin - The worst sugar in your packed food

The worse form of sugar is a part of your daily diet without you knowing about it. Maltodextrin is used widely in packaged foods & health food products. The problem despite reading food labels is that maltodextrin doesn’t sound like something harmful & isn’t mentioned in the as a part of added sugar, rather its amount is added to the total carbohydrates making it difficult for the consumer to understand its actual quantity added in food.

But what is Maltodextrin & why is it so harmful?

Maltodextrin is a Carbohydrate (polysaccharide) used as a food additive and flavour enhancer. It is produced from starches like potato, tapioca, corn & wheat. Although the powder comes from these natural products, it then undergoes processing. In order to prepare maltodextrin, manufacturers put starch through a process called hydrolysis. Hydrolysis uses water, enzymes, and acids to break the starch into smaller pieces, resulting in a white powder consisting of sugar molecules.

Why is Maltodextrin added in packaged foods?

Maltodextrin is used in packed products to increase volume, improve solubility of product, extend shelf life, improve powdery appearance, increase sweetness, prevent melting, granulation and reduce nutrient losses. And all these benefits as a cheap price of Rs 35-40/kg.

What are the products that contain maltodextrins?

Maltodextrin can be found in some packaged foods & health food products like supplements & fat replacers to improve mouth feel & improve flavour. Hence it’s important to read food labels before purchasing packaged food products. Maltodextrin is present across various categories like sports drinks, bakery products, artificial sweeteners, candies, soft drinks, frozen & canned foods, salad dressings, sauces, dairy products, even infant premixes & health food products like supplements & fat replacers.

Nutritional Value of Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate so it provides 4 calories per gram which is that same number of calories as white sugar. Your body can digest & absorb maltodextrin quickly even faster than sugar. But the alarming fact is that Maltodextrin has a Glycemic Index of 110-185, higher than table sugar which is 65 which means that it can raise your blood sugar level very quickly.

Maltodextrins & its side effects on heath

Maltodextrin & Diabetes

Glucose from maltodextrin is rapidly reabsorbed by intestine and cause elevation of blood glucose rapidly. It may impair blood glucose level & cause a peak in blood glucose levels later and take longer time for blood glucose to return to baseline in diabetics. Hence people with diabetes should avoid consuming products with maltodextrins.

Maltodextrin & Gut health

Although maltodextrin is calimed to be safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a number of researchers found that maltodextrin alters gut bacteria,impairs mucus release & suppresses the growth of good bacteria in the gut. This may lead to Inflammatory Bowel Diseases like Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s disease & increase risk to infections like E.coli & Salmonella. 

Maltodextrin & weight gain

There has been a rise in global obesity in adults as well as children.If you are trying to maintain your weight or trying to lose weight,its best to avoid maltdextrins in your diet as maltodextrin is essentially a sweetener and a carbohydrate with no nutritional value, and because it causes an increase in blood sugar. The levels of sugar in maltodextrin can lead to weight gain.

So next time you go grocery shopping be aware & read food labels for their ingredients & nutritional information so that you can make an informed choice of the foods products you would like to purchase.