Puff puff is a popular snack in West Africa. It is common food among small chops served in events and merry occasions. It is called Bofrot (togbei) in Ghana, botokoin in Togo, gato in Guinea and Mali, bofloto in the Ivory Coast, while Nigerians call it puff-puff or just puff snack.
The snack is made with cassava flour, water, and sugar. The dough is deep-fried until it puffs up like a ball and becomes crispy outside. The texture of puff puff is similar to doughnuts but less dense and chewy.
The main ingredients in puff puff are cassava flour, water, sugar, and oil for frying. It also contains eggs which help make the doughnut dough rise when it’s fried.
Puff can be unhealthy when eaten in large quantities due to its high-calorie content, increasing weight gain.
However, there are also some health benefits of puff puff when eaten in moderation.
Hence we will look at the health benefits of puff puff and how to make puff puff healthier.
5 Health Benefits of Puff Puff
Below are some other likely nutritional benefits of puff puff snack, based on it’s nutritional value and ingredients.
1. Good source of fiber
The key ingredient of puff puff is flour.
Flour is rich in dietary fiber, which helps to keep your digestive system healthy by helping to prevent constipation and hemorrhoids caused by straining on the toilet.
It also promotes regular bowel movements and lowers blood cholesterol levels.
2. Source of energy
Puff puff is a good source of carbohydrates, which your body uses for energy.
Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose molecules during digestion.
They are then absorbed into cells, metabolized into energy, or stored as glycogen in the liver or muscle tissue.
3. Good source of vitamins and minerals
When puff puff is made with the right ingredients, including veggies, It becomes a good source of vitamins and minerals.
When making puff puff, you can add fruits or vegetable puree to make it healthier.
For example, rather than making your puff puff batter solely out of flour, you can add fruit or vegetable purees, such as banana, plantain, and carrots.
A healthy puff puff pastry contains decent amounts of micronutrients such as iron, copper, vitamin K, vitamin B, manganese, selenium, thiamine, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, and choline.
4. It contains eggs – a great source of protein
The egg is an essential ingredient in the making of puff puff. Puff puff is incomplete without eggs.
These eggs serve as a good source of protein. However, the protein you tend to get from puff is small due to the small number of eggs used to make puff puff.
5. Perfect light snack
Puff puff can serve as the perfect light snack when you don’t want to consume heavy foods.
How to Make Puff Puff Healthier
There’s no doubt puff puff is delicious, but it can only be healthy if you make it right.
To make your puff puff healthier and more nutritious, follow these simple tips:
- Use coconut oil or virgin olive oil instead of vegetable or palm oil: Vegetables and palm oil have high calories and many fats and account for about 50% of the fat and calories content of the puff puff.
- Add more vegetables: Adding vegetables will add nutrients and flavor without adding too much extra calories. You can add grated carrots, spinach, banana, or plantains. You can also add other foods like legumes or grains if you want to increase the nutritional value of your puff puff.
- Add less sugar: You can make puff puff healthier by reducing the sugar you use. You can replace white sugar with brown sugar or honey for a healthier option.
- Substitute the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour or oat bran flour, which are lower in calories than regular flour because they contain more fiber than white flour. Use two tablespoons instead of 3 tablespoons for each cup of wheat flour or oat bran flour.
- Avoid using ingredients that contain trans fatty acids.
- Add fruit pulp to your puff puff.
Conclusion
Puff puff is one of the most popular snacks, which can be unhealthy to the body when stuffed with the wrong ingredients and eaten in excess. Preparing puff puff using the above healthy tips makes it more nutritious and beneficial to the body when eaten in moderation.
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Collins Nwokolo is a human physiologist, writer and health enthusiast. He loves writing helpful articles on health and fitness, which he enjoys sharing with everyone.
