Falafel is one of the popular dishes in the Middle East, and it is made from chickpeas or beans. What are its main health benefits? How do we bring it in a healthy way?

Falafel is known by this name in the Levant, and in Tamia in Egypt, and its mixture varies, but it is generally prepared from chickpeas or ground beans, or a mixture of them, with spices and herbs such as parsley, and then fried in hot oil in the form of tablets.

Falafel tablets are eaten directly, or placed in sandwiches with tahini sauce or chickpeas with tahini and green salad, as some are skilled in adding fries of potatoes and eggplant to sandwich, pickles and hot pepper.

Falafel is served as a side dish, or many eat it as a main meal, especially with fava beans and chickpeas with tahini.

what does it contain?

Here we present the nutritional ingredients contained in 100 grams of fried falafel, which is equivalent to 6 small grains of traditional small falafel, or 3 of the larger falafel, depending on the size of the falafel tablets.

  • Calories: 333 calories.
  • Carbohydrates: 32 grams.
  • Protein: 13 grams.
  • Fat: 18 grams.
  • Dietary fiber: 5 grams.
  • Vitamin B6: 94% of the body’s recommended daily value, based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
  • Manganese: 30% of the RDA for the body.
  •  Copper: 29% of the body’s recommended daily value.
  •  Folate: 26% of the body's recommended daily value.
  • Magnesium: 20% of the body's recommended daily value.
  • Iron: 19% of the body's recommended daily value.
  • Phosphorus: 15% of the body's recommended daily value.
  • Zinc: 14% of the body's recommended daily value.
  • Vitamin B2 riboflavin: 13% of the body's recommended daily value.
  • Potassium: 12% of the RDA for the body.
  •  Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 12% of the body's recommended daily value.

What are the benefits of falafel?

- Falafel is a good source of dietary fiber, which helps in feeling full, as it occupies a lot of space in the stomach when consumed, but in the intestine it stimulates its movement and helps prevent constipation.

Falafel - as mentioned above - contains a variety of important nutrients, including manganese, copper, folate, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, potassium, vitamins B1, B2 and B6.

- Falafel is an excellent source of vegetable protein, and proteins are important for building muscles in the body, and eating protein helps reduce hunger, and thus better appetite control.

Studies have shown that dietary fiber in chickpeas (a component of falafel) may help control blood sugar levels by slowing up the absorption of carbohydrates, and dietary fiber in chickpeas has been linked to improving bowel health and reducing the risk of heart disease and colon cancer.

What damages?

- Falafel is fried with oil, and therefore it contains a large amount of fat and calories freedom as a result of drinking falafel tablets for oil, and the result is that falafel may make it difficult for you to control your weight, or increase the risk of obesity if you overdo it so that the total daily calories you eat exceed what your body burns .

- According to studies, eating fried foods regularly increases the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and this applies to falafel.

Doctors and experts warn that some restaurants may use the oil for long periods of time and do not change it, so frying falafel may be in oil that has been used dozens of times, and this makes it contain harmful substances.

How to prepare falafel in a healthy way to avoid possible damages?

The answer is through the falafel bread, and thus you get the crunchy crust of the falafel bean from the outside as in frying, without the falafel absorbing a large amount of oil.

One way is to heat the oven to 200 degrees, then put baking paper in a tray and grease it with a little oil, and then form the falafel tablets, put them in a tray and put them in the oven.

Bake until the falafel is golden, and stir. And the use of baking paper ensures that the falafel will absorb the least amount of oil.

The second option is to reduce falafel at home, thus ensuring the use of new oil, and use healthy vegetable oils such as canola and corn oil.