PICKLES!!

Pickles..Hmm..Quite a controversial food nowadays which is becoming an interesting debate among the Nutritionists, Doctors, Dieticians etc..

The salty, sweet, oily, and a kind of tickling sensation occurs in your mouth with a rush of adrenaline or dopamine when you taste the spicy pickle..Not sure friends!! But some sort of excitement occurs in our brain when we eat those pickles..Right!!

Pickles are one of the ancient foods and were actually prepared  to supplement foods during long journeys and to carry them to certain places where there was less availability of vegetables. And pickles are one the most natural methods of preservation of food particles when refrigeration and even artificial preservatives was not discovered.. That's the power of the common man;-)

Let's check how healthy these naturally preserved pickles are??

As the pickles are allowed to be fermented naturally, the fermentation process helps in production of the PROBIOTIC BACTERIA, which are nowadays lacking in many people due to the unhealthy eating habits of eating highly processed foods. These probiotic bacteria, are guides of your digestive system and protect your digestive system from all sorts of disturbances, be it infections or whatever.. But the commercially available pickles are not naturally fermented in most of the cases instead fermented using certain chemicals, which is quite harmful to your digestive system.

Pickles usually prepared from unripe, fresh, uncooked vegetables tend to retain the super antioxidants in the veggies and thus help in protection from inflammatory conditions.

Fresh and pure Vitamins and Mineral rich vegetables, green leafy veggies, herbs are not really palatable to all, mostly kids are fussy in eating the wonderful herbs like corianders, mint, curry leaves  etc.. But when you prepare a tasty pickle everyones tends to enjoy it lip smacking:-) This is an indirect way pushing few vitamins and minerals available naturally, instead of supplements.

Certain pickles like Amla(Gooseberry),  Ah! Gooseberry!! Just got to rewind my childhood memories that how fascinated I was with this word:-) Ok, back to our topic, Ha.. Alma pickle is known to act as an appetiser and also eases your digestion.. Even Amla pickle has a few protection against liver problems. Good..

Wondered why mostly pregnant women craves for these tangy chatpat pickles!! Guess why..Might be due to the increased demand of the minerals during the pregnancy which causes cravings, and guess what, these pickles are actually good for pregnant women at certain instances as the salt in pickles helps in maintaining the electrolyte balance, by balancing the extra needs of fluids during pregnancy.. Those suffering from PIH(pregnancy induced hypertension) should completely avoid pickles at any cost as the high salt in it is very dangerous.

Being quite common in mainly Asian countries, mainly India, I guess every household has a bottle of pickle in their homes if you ever happen do a sudden food audit;-) :-)

Our ancestors never thought us anything bad, it was due their circumstances in those days where lack of different types of fast transportation. Can we ever expect food outlets in middle of the sea..No ..Right!!(I'm not talking about the fancy, luxurious cruises).. Thats the reason pickles were prepared and due to their longevity without getting attacked by microbes and thus not getting spoiled for months, they were the perfect food (with vegetables ) for travellers..

Even the herbs and spices mixed in the pickles used to help in preventing from certain pains of the body and also used to prevent from infections. As the pickles act as appetiser, it was a habit of our older generation, mostly our grand mothers used mix the first spoon of rice or roti with a spoon of pickle and made us eat, before the main course meal..

Before you all start thinking that pickles are healthy , not exactly, but ok when consumed minimally..Not even moderately..With all the processed foods around us stuffed with lots of salt in them, again having more salty pickles may damage your health.. so only minimum..I-2TSP TWICE IN A WEEK OR EVEN LESSER WILL BE SAFER:-)

Bye, Friends..

Good night.. and do visit my blog for the next post on the exact harmful effects of pickle on your body..