Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
Try grandma’s prescription
|
Fill your shopping bag with fresh grocery. It’s the best way to build muscle and fight disease
|
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES They help you avoid those visits to the doctor
Does someone in the family collect orange peel for an aromatic pachadi? Does a friend caramalise it for home-made tootie-fruitie? Do you have recipes for orange-peel based dishes? Grab them all. Researchers at the Leicester School of Pharmacy say tha
t tangerine (blood orange, Kodai orange, Nagpur orange) skin helps fight some cancers. It seems human cancer cells, which contain the enzyme P450 CYP1B1, are destroyed by Salvestrol Q40, a compound in the orange rind and the “depletion of salvestrols in the modern diet is because people no longer eat the skin of fruits, a major factor to the increasing incidence of some cancers.” Other researchers have announced that two nutrients (lutein and zeaxanthin, both carotenoids) found in greens, peas and eggs offer protection against macular degeneration – the most common cause of blindness among the elderly.
It’s so easy to help your body along and stay out of doctors’ chambers. Just make your karikhai (vegetable/fruits) list a longer one. Bring back what grandma routinely picked for her menus. Include super foods to upgrade your health without a prescription. Are these on your list?
Pomegranate:
Splitting them open to pluck the juicy beads looks like work. Not so, when you hear Israeli scientists have found 2 ounces of pomegranate juice daily for a year decreases blood pressure by 21 per cent and significantly improves blood flow to the heart. And 4 ounces provide 50 per cent of your daily vitamin C needs. So cut the rind and pop in the juice-filled sacs. Do it while watching TV. Need the blood flow, right?
Papaya: The only miscarriage in the TV serial episodes on pregnant woman + papaya is the faulty information. It has no scientific evidence. The lowly papaya has more carotene (helps fight cancer and blindness in children) than most fruits, helps digestion and healing. It’s an ideal food for patients recovering from surgery or fever. Strong smell? Chennai has papayas that are aroma-neutral and taste like mangoes. Go for a skin that’s smooth with reddish streaks, a shape that is longish. Ask for the seedless variety, and have it with breakfast.
Guava: Thank push-cart vendors for popularising it with their appetising display. Bite into a semi-ripe one knowing that guava has a higher concentration of lycopene, an anti-oxidant that fights prostate cancer. This humble, all-festival fruit has 63 per cent more potassium than a medium banana. And ha! Guava has nearly 9 grams of fibre in every cup, making it the ultimate high-fibre food. Chew up the entire buy, seeds included. The fruit is a ball of nutrition.
Beetroot: The colour, yech, runs. But every bit inside that dirty-looking skin packs in health. The folate and betaine in this magenta root help reduce damage to your arteries. And the natural pigment is a powerful cancer fighter.
Cooking tips: Don’t cook! Take it as a salad. Grate it with carrots and add a dash of lemon and no salt. If you must boil it, cut it into cubes, cook it with minimum water to make a poriyal with coconut. Did you buy it with the leaves? Great. Wash and cut the leaves into tiny pieces. Add salt, cook it on a low fire and serve it with scraped coconut. The leaves and stems bristle with vitamins and minerals.
Pumpkin: Pumpkin is orange. You know what that means. Vitamin A, beta-carotene — good for the eyes, prevents cancer. Pumpkin is versatile and can be made into a variety of dishes from poori, sambar, chutney, pachadi and koottu to paayasam, every one of them tasting heavenly. But the most nutritious part is the one that you throw away: the seeds. They have magnesium, something that lowers the risk of early death. Save and roast the seeds and eat them whole. Add it to the “mixture”. Remember, you need 420 mg of magnesium and that’s no lie!
Cabbage, tomato and nuts: Most of us can’t take cabbage in salads, but, even when cooked, this common head is a source of health. Tomatoes add colour to your salad, anti-oxidants to your diet and help treat BP. Make walnuts and almonds an occasional habit. They enrich the skin and keep you glowing all day.
For the final flavour, let’s give cinnamon its due. Old civilisations used cinnamon bark for meat preservation. We know lavanga pattai helps control blood glucose and cholesterol. In one study, people with type-2 diabetes who took one gram of cinnamon (quarter teaspoon) a day for 6 weeks had blood sugar, triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol significantly reduced. So sprinkle it on coffee, cakes and kheer!
Fill your shopping bag with fresh grocery. It’s the best way to build muscle, fight disease and get your body to co-operate with your lifestyle. Ancient knowledge, says Hemavathi Ramanathan, 83. As she served chutneys and koottus the kids protested was “cattle food” (“Mom, we can’t eat peel and pumpkin leaves!”), she kept repeating, “What you give the doctor, give the grocer.”
GEETA PADMANABHAN
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
|
