Pickles

 Homemade pickles improve digestion & gut health. Pickles are an excellent resource of essential vitamins and minerals. Homemade Indian pickles have antioxidant properties. They are made of raw and unripe ingredients, which are a rich source of antioxidants.  Indian gooseberry has plentiful health benefits. It is having richest source of Vitamin C. Amla is an appetizer that helps digestion. Bitter melon offers incredible health benefits. Tomatoes too are filled with many vitamins and minerals. Ginger is unavoidable in our daily food as it aids digestion. Ginger has multi-faceted benefits mentioned in Ayurveda. Garlic may lower bad cholesterol. Garlic contains antioxidants. It aids digestion and reduce gastric troubles. When you are following a calorie-controlled diet consuming homemade pickles surely helps you because pickles are low in calories. 

So, Are Fermented Foods & Pickles Good For Our Health?

Absolutely! They are good for keeping our organs and their functions healthy. They provide us with a variety of vital nutrients.

Do you adore pickles but keep away because of their high salt or oil content? It would be better for you to pamper eating pickles that has been part of Indian cuisine for a very long time is actually good for health. The art of fermenting and pickling food is a century-old tradition. It’s a way of preserving food and increases their health benefits as well as their flavour. Pickles and Fermented Foods are riding the trend these days; these food items have countless benefits like high in nutritional value and are good for your health.  

But the irony is that we won’t eat stuff like Pickles, but we are okay to eat Biscuits, Pizzas, Burgers, Noodles, Ketchups & other Junk Foods, because we are okay with the salt in these foods. We are all right with the salt that the food business wants to sell us. But the salt that we put in homemade pickles that we make, we are not okay with that! Is it not ridiculous? 

Pickles have a role to take part in good health. “Pickle Really Is Our Wine” However, to make the most of pickle and its benefits, they should be homemade using the traditional recipe. But you need to eat pickle like a pickle, which should be a small part of your meal, not the main thing.

Rujuta Diwekar is India’s leading nutrition expert and amongst the world’s most followed Nutritionist recommends Indian homemade pickles for tummy wellness. She further says “One must remember that the pickles will get spoiled if it doesn’t get the right amount of salt and oil. With oil and salt, the first thing that comes in mind is blood pressure. She cleared the confusion and said that if you are worried about BP – please avoid biscuits & cookies, junk foods, pizzas, burgers, noodles, chips, ketchup & eating outside but not homemade Pickles. She says eating small quantities of pickle is not responsible for the excessive salt intake. That increased intake is thanks to packaged foods be it the biscuits or the bottle of ketchup. Unfortunately, only our dearly loved pickles unduly get the bad publicity! Tried and tested recipes contain the precise mix of ingredients that craft the perfect flavor and provide a fair nutrition. 

A little pickle with dal rice or curd rice provides your body with the right combo of pre and probiotic and ensures that the live bacteria are not dead when they reach your gut. So what are you waiting for? Use it daily at least once in your meals to spice up your life. Hence flavor up your food with some wonderful home-made pickles!