Hello my readers🙏🏻How are you? I am doing fine. So we all like south indian food. Right? Idly, Dosas, vadas and uttapams. We all know how they are prepared. They are prepared by fermentation. What is fermentation? Fermentation is a traditional process in which the edible food is kept overnight and by morning it is fermented. How? Lets understand.
Now- a - days we are including various food items in our diet to improve immunity. We order many different types of grains like quinoa, black rice and millets and eat them. But do you know the simplest dal and rice boosts are immunity. The grains or the ingredients which are present in our kitchen helps us with nutrition. The simplest method to increase our immunity is by eating fermented food. Fermentation is followed by our ancestors. Its a traditional method in which our grains or edible items are fermented. The food like sugar, flour are converted by bacteria and yeast in process of fermentation. Its converted to alchohol so our fermented food has slight sour taste. This alchohol act as a preservative and helps our food from becoming foul.Some examples are Idly, Dosa, Dhokla, Jalebi and Bhatura. They are grinded and fermented overnight and can be used for next 2 days or 3.
In this time of all the air-borne diseases,its very important to be healthy and increase our immunity. In fermentation the living organisms like bacteria, yeast and fungi converts organic compound to acid. If you want to ferment your food fast, we can use fruit salt or baking soda and yeast. The bacteria which are formed during fermentation are called probiotics. Probiotics are beneficial for our gut health.
Benefits:
1.Fermentation helps to increase our immunity.
2.Good for our pancreas. It aids digestion problems like constipation, Gas, Indigestion, acidity and IBS( Irritable Bowel Syndrome).
3.Helps in reducing weight and increases metabolism.
4.It contains Vitamin B12.It reduces inflammation.
Acidity can be reduced by earing fermented food. For example, the lactose present in milk are heavy for our stomach to digest. But during fermentation, the lactose is converted to glucose and fructose. Some people who have lactose intolerance find milk so hard for digestion but can easily eat curd and yogurt. And also some fermented food contains phytes and lactins which sometimes produces allergy. Some of the allergy producing food are peanuts and some grains.So it should be taken care of.
5.Improves mental health. Probiotics helps to reduce stress. Probiotics like lactobaccilus helveticus and Bifidobacterus Longum helps in Anxiety and Depression.
6.Helps to improve heart health. It reduces blood pressure and bad cholesterol.
There are some side- effects like many people are not able to digest probiotics and they end up having bloating and gas.
We should not buy fermented food from outside instead prepare at home.
Best fermented foods:
Curd:
The curd tops the list. We all love curd. Many recipes can be prepared with curd. Curd has multipurpose uses. It can be buttermilk, used as raita or any side-dish.
From north to south curd is used. In Punjab we have lassi and in south india we have curd rice. Both are good for our gut-health. Curd can bea eaten during stomach -upset. It contains calcium, Vitamin D, Protein, Vitamin B12.It contains 100 million probiotics in 1 gram.
Idly/ Dosas:
We all love idly and Dosas and if we find any south indian restaurant we just go and dine in. But why outside? It can be easily prepared at home but its time- taking. So we can use rawa as a substitute.
Dosas or idly can be prepared from many grains Like moong dal or all mix dals, black chana, white chana and even rajma. Millets can also be fermented along with Short - grain rice. Finger millet ( ragi) or pearl millet( bajra) can be used. These are good for our health.
Dosa and idly has required carbs, fiber, protein and vitamins which are increased after fermentation. These two things can be prepared oil- free. Best for breakfast options.
Paneer:
Made from milk by adding lemon/ vinegar. It has high amounts of vitamin B. Best source of protein for vegetarians. We all love paneer. Isn't it? 😜
Good for bone-joints, teeth. We can consume paneer daily but if you have cholesterol just have paneer weekly twice as it has fats.
Dhokla:
Gujrati cuisine. Made by fermenting gram dal, rice and can be made instantly also. The gram dal has protein and vitamins.Can be eaten as a evening snack and as a breakfast option.
We can eat many healthy recipes of fermented food.
Links:
Did you know?
There are about 1 trillion bacteria lining our intestinal tract working to protect our body from outside intruders.
Thats all for today. Hope you find the information interesting. Thank you and meet you in next blog.
Comments
Post a Comment