Turmeric, ghee, ashwagandha, jack fruit, amla, moringa and makhana are some of the must have desi super foods in your shopping cart.

In today’s health conscious world, everybody is quite a diet freak and super health conscious. This generation believes in “eat healthy”, “sleep healthy” and sometimes “talk healthy”! So it’s better to label them as a health freaks generation.

What are superfoods?

Superfoods are those foods which are enriched with huge amount of nutritional value, and extremely beneficial for health and well-being of a person. They are the hero and protector of the food kingdom. So which foods are termed as superfood?

If you started googling for superfoods, you will get option like kale, broccoli, south Mexican chia seeds, hemp, etc. but why would we forgot about our own home grown food? Don’t these foods have nutritional value? Or don’t these prove beneficial? Being healthy and conscious about your health is a excellent habits but let’s not forget about our own tradition.

Our desi foods are equally beneficial and enriched with nutrients essential for the body. Wouldn’t it be wise to have them in your shopping cart?

Desi Superfoods List: Top 7 Healthy Foods to Put in Your Shopping Cart 

Turmeric

Turmeric or Haldi is the detoxifier or the natural antiseptic as It is popularly termed. Turmeric belongs to the ginger family, which comes from the curcuma long plants. Turmeric is used as a natural ingredient in Indian cuisine; Indian cuisine is incomplete without the touch of Haldi or turmeric. It is found predominantly in south Asia. The taste of turmeric is slightly bitter. Apart from food ingredient turmeric is also used as a dye agent.

The benefits of turmeric are humongous, who can forget our grandmother’s typical “haldi wala doodh (milk with turmeric in it) before bedtime especially on cold winter night or whenever we fell sick!

The numerous benefits of turmeric are:

• Turmeric is considered as a natural liver detoxifier. It helps to enhance the liver function.
• It is considered to be useful in certain type of cancers and proved beneficial for cardiovascular treatment.
• It helps to boost metabolism, if you wanted to lose weight it is one of the best thing to help to lose weight.
• It is enriched with antibacterial and antiseptic agent that is why it is extremely beneficial to apply on cuts and wounds.
• It helps to keep your body warm, on cold winter night if you feels shiver on your body or if you feels like being sick with fever or cold and cough adds some turmeric in warm milk , drink it, it is considered as a grandmother’s recipe the most traditional one for colds and cough.
• It is helpful for skin too; some skin related diseases like psoriasis can be treated with applying turmeric on the respective area.
• Turmeric is also used as a natural beauty product, it helps to bring back glows on your skin, and any Indian wedding is literally incomplete without applying turmeric on respective bride and groom’s face and body parts.

Amla

Amla or Indian gooseberry is considered as the original super food among others. It is enriched with huge amount of vitamin C more than oranges and pomegranates. It is the epitome to antioxidant food.

The benefits of Amla are as follows:

• It helps to fight the common cold.
• It helps to burn fat; having an Amla every day will help you to lose your nasty weight.
• Amla increase the immunity level of a person’s body.
• Amla is useful for skin too, to fight offs acne or any skins related issue it can help.

Jack fruit

Jack fruit is loaded with Vitamin A, C and riboflavin.It is rich in energy and free from saturated fats. It is a natural fertility booster and promotes digestion. . Jack fruit is considered as a poor man’s fruit but it has huge benefits

• It is helpful for reproductive health.
• In case of PMS and acne it is highly beneficial.
• It is useful for improving insulin sensitivity.
• Boosts Energy Level and protects in eyes

Ghee

The food ingredient which is considered to be adding on fatty agent in our body is actually a fat burner. Too much ghee in food is considered as too much fat in your body. But this concept is absolutely worthless.

The beneficial qualities of our own desi ghee are as follows:

• Ghee reduces the cholesterol level in intestine as well as serum
• It is useful for nerves and brains.
• It helps to control eye pressure.
• Ghee considered helping in digestion process where butter and oil would slow down the process.
• It helps to strengthen the immune system.

Makhana

Makhana is the popped seeds of lotus plant. It is the most used snack item in Indian cuisine. The benefits of Makhana are:

• It is source of protein, carbohydrates, fibre and magnesium, potassium and phosphorous, iron and zinc!
• These are low in fats and a healthy snack item.
• People suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity are advised to have Makhana in their diet.

Moringa

Moringa or leaves of the drumstick tree is another homegrown superfood. This is one of the key ingredients in south Indian cuisine. The benefits of moringa are:

• It is rich source of minerals like potassium, calcium, phosphorous iron, magnesium and vitamins like A, C, and D and essential amino acid.
• It helps to reduce blood cholesterol.
• For a diabetic patient the tree is considered as a “miraculous tree” as it is highly effective in reducing blood sugar level.
• It fights inflammation.
• It helps in brain health and equally beneficial to protect the liver system.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha has several health benefits such as treat diseases like hypertension, diabetes, joint pain, anxiety, and also tumor formation. To use ashwagandha properly, knowing its benefits is extremely important. Listed below are some surprising benefits of Ashwagandha which you would never have known.

 The benefits of this green herb are:

• It helps to boost the sperm level in male body.
• It has anti-cancer properties.
• It helps to reduce blood sugar level.
• It is useful to reduce stress and anxiety

Last but not the least our home grown superfoods are equally beneficial when compared to the foreign counterparts. These food ingredients have tremendous nutritional value and are very effective. Next time, before jumping on to the  Videshi superfood wagon, please consider our rich desi superfood and  make them part of your daily diet.

Reference

Indian superfoods by Rujuta Diwekar.

Guide to Indian herbs by Raymond Stark

Rujuta Diwekar busts myths about Indian superfoods