Food for Health! BEVERAGES

Indians had very healthy eating and drinking habits - much more so than today. They drank fruit juices, flower juices, leaf juices and juices from grains! Since India was the first to invent sugar, we also had the first sugary fruit drinks, like "Aam Panna" or mango juice. Aam Panna is an Indian drink renowned for its heat-resistant properties. It is made from green mangoes and is light green in color. It is consumed as a tasty and healthy beverage to fight against the extreme Indian summer heat.

Juice drinks include the freshly squeezed juice of sugar cane, lotus root, fruits, leaves and flowers. Ancient Tamils were known to incorporate medicinal herbs in their dishes. One such rare special herb is Kandanthipili which has immense preventive medicinal values. The rasam (soup-like drink) made out of this herb was once a very common drink but went out of form. Bajra porridge was another such healthy drink that was very popular.

In Tamil Nadu, the traditional drink has always been 'Paanakam - jaggery dissolved in water and flavoured with cardamom powder and few drops of fresh lime. It is a wholesome drink when compared to present day cola drinks that are high in calories with zero nutrition value. Turmeric tea or "golden milk" is an ancient immune-boosting remedy that contains turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper. Hibiscus tea was the favourite tea of Cleopatra as it protected her skin from aging.

However, of all the drinks, water plays an important role. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other life forms even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Today, in the name of technology we are treating water in ways that de-energize it like adding chemicals, supplying through metal pipelines, storing in plastic containers etc... Water is no more energetic or life-giving.

In order to make water fit enough to drink, we use UV filters and RO purifiers. How about ancien times when water was stored in copper or silver pots? The storage process is known to kill all the micro organisms including virus and bacteria, thus making it perfectly fit for drinking. Storing water in coppe and silver pots for purification is mentioned in ancient texts of Ayurveda. Drinking water from pot tastes completely different from the water stored in any other forms of containers.

- Mangai Jaikumar