All You Need to Know about Polished and Unpolished Dal

Rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential macronutrients like fat, carbs, and protein, dal holds a great significance in Indian meals. In Indian, subcontinent, it is mostly consumed in soup form. It is a great companion for chapatis (flatbreads) and rice.

Owing to its great nutritional value, dal has been a part of every kind of diet, be it for weight loss, muscle gain, or maintaining healthy body weight. However, considering its widespread popularity in Indian kitchens, this staple is not left untouched when it comes to adulteration. What profiteers do is they polish dal to increase their shine to make it more likeable for consumers. It may increase the shelf life but as compared to unpolished dal, it loses a lot of natural nutrients.

Let us take a glance at the difference between polished and unpolished dal so that you can make a logical decision.

Polished vs. Unpolished Dal

When natural dal is processed to provide it with a shiner texture, it is called polished dal. During the process, dal is polished through oil, leather, water, nylon, marble powder, and other such things. This provides dal with uniformity in appearance and shine. While most people may not find any difference of taste between polished and unpolished dal, the only way to differentiate is their texture and appearance.

The shine that polished dal gets may make it appealing to consumers, but they need to understand that not all that glitters are gold. Not only does it lose most nutrients due to multi-step processing, but also pose several health risks to the individuals consuming it. While polished dal may offer longer-shelf life and is pesticide-free, it would not provide the benefits that you would have gotten by consuming unpolished dal.

On the other hand, talking about unpolished dal, its grain size is usually bigger than polished dal and the appearance are not shiny and uniform. Unpolished dal has all nutrients intact and offers a natural and authentic taste.

As a consumer, most people have a tendency to buy things that look good, but in reality, not all the times, fanciful things may prove beneficial, especially when it is about your health. Therefore, you should choose wisely when you are out for grocery shopping. It does not matter whether you buy Tata Unpolished Pulses or pulses of any other brand, make sure you make a logical choice to get the benefits.