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Talking about winters feels exactly like talking about good food. It’s the same happiness, it’s the same kind of love. The temperature scales are dropping and the blankets slowly crawling out of their hiding places, and with these, our tummies also feel the need to be much more pampered, says Alisha, in the weekly column, exclusively in Different Truths.
It’s the season that we love! It’s baking winters!
Talking about winters feels exactly like talking about good food, doesn’t it? It’s the same happiness, it’s the same kind of love. The temperature scales are dropping and the blankets slowly crawling out of their hiding places, and with these, our tummies also feel the need to be much more pampered, than they usually do during the rest of the year. We cannot blame them. It is quite understandable. The cold temperature outside, i.e. the cold weather, requires us to keep our bodies warm, not just with blankets and warm clothes, but also from inside the system. Eating things that can keep us warm due to the properties of the food, becomes important. It helps the body in generating enough heat and therefore assists us in survival.
It also makes our tummies spoilt little brats.
“More Cream!
More Fat!
More Ghee!
More of everything!
That is my winter naara (slogan).”
Indian mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and the whole brigade knows numerous recipes that can help us with this mission of weather tackling. Have you ever been brutally fed with til (sesame seeds) in all its forms during this weather? Of course, you have! The health benefits of the til are many, along with its gentle treatment on the pockets of the people. It also helps with the winter beauty issues as applying it to the hair helps in clearing out the winter loads of dandruff. The methods of consuming til are multiple and it can be made into delicious, and light snacks.
Besides this, some basic ingredients that are usually found in an average Indian kitchen can be used to keep our stomachs happy and our bodies warm. One of these, a personal favorite of mine, is Black Pepper.
It tastes great!
A little bit of ground pepper in most dishes brightens up the taste buds, along with offering to our bodies multiple good things for the upkeep of it, as it is also an antioxidant and works almost like an anti-aging consumable. This means that even during winters when the skin takes a toll, pepper can help in keeping a young and bright skin. It also helps in the breaking down of fat cells, so you can easily hog up on all that fatty food that you crave during this season. Besides these general health benefits, pepper has the direct effect of keeping the body warm and also helping someone who may have come down with cold a
nd fever! What is it that black peppercorns cannot do? Also used in aromatherapy, it helps in the reduction of muscle pain, and inflammatory arthritis.
This winters, I plan to experiment with these two amazing gifts from nature and wish that you would too. The above-mentioned qualities are merely a few, there are extensive advantages that these two ingredients have to offer.
Cook something delicious, stuff it with lots of pepper or til, curl up in your blanket and simply enjoy the moment. That is what winters are for, isn’t it?
©Alisha Phillips
Photos from the Internet
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