Pickles benefits: If they are homemade, with all natural ingredients, added in proportions as per your family's heritage, they can be deemed to be healthy for you. Here's everything you need to know.
Health benefits of pickles: Eating pickles with your food can provide healthy bacteria to your gut
HIGHLIGHTS
- Make pickles at home with natural ingredients
- Use kala namak or sendha namak instead of regular salt
- Eating pickles with food can give you Vitamin B12
Do you love pickles? Well, who doesn't? Pickles or preserved food made with fruits or vegetables, salt and spices. Here in India, a small portion of pickle is eaten along with meals. Mango, lemon, red chilli, green chilli, garlic, ginger, etc are all commonly consumed pickles. They are prepared with some oil, salt, spices like turmeric, red chilli powder, and seeds like cumin, kalonji and fennel seeds. Nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar has for long been vouching for adding pickles in diet for a healthy gut and meet deficiency of Vitamin B12.
In one of her recent posts on Instagram, Diwekar shares a few myths and facts about pickles that are known commonly.
Also read: The Goodness Of Pickles: Why You Need To Have Your Meals Pickles On The Side
Myths and facts about pickles you must know
From the oil that goes in the making of pickles to the amount of salt and spices that are added to it, there are many apprehensions about pickles which makes people refrain from eating them. Here are the fears and facts about pickles shared by Diwekar:
1. Myth: Pickle is full of salt and oil
Salt and oil are practically the essence of pickles. However, as long as you prepare them at home, this shouldn't worry as you it is what provides gut-friendly bacteria. A healthy gut can give you better digestion, stronger immunity and better overall health.
2. Myth: Salt in pickles will cause high blood pressure
High sodium foods and food that are high in salt like processed and packaged food are genuinely not good for people with high blood pressure. For people with high blood pressure, it can be considered safe to consume homemade salt which is made sendha namak or kala namak. When combined with regular exercise and good sleep hygiene, it is less likely to cause high blood pressure. Make sure you minimise consumption of processed and packaged food as well.
Add sendha namak or kala namak to pickles to make them healthier
Photo Credit: iStock
Also read: Understanding Hypertension; Know Ways To Control High Blood Pressure
3. Myth: Oil is not good for heart health
Diwekar recommends preparing pickle at home with kachi ghani groundnut, mustard, sesame or gingley oil. You can choose the option as per your food heritage. When consumed in the right portion size, oil in pickle is very less likely to affect your heart health.
4. Myth: Pickle is unhealthy
You will be surprised to know that pickle is a store house of minerals, vitamins and gut-friendly bacteria. If you have one to two tsp of pickles every day, it can reduce bloating, Vitamin D and B12 deficiencies, bloating, anaemia and can even be helpful for IBS.
Thus, as far as the pickle is homemade, with all natural ingredients, added in proportions as per your family's heritage, it can be deemed to be healthy for you. You can check with a health expert if you want!
Also read: 4 Health Risks Associated With Eating Too Much Salt
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