Thursday, May 1, 2008

“healthy”

May 1

I got a blurb from a publicist today about a new soda.

“It's an organic, healthy, energy drink made with Açaí and other Rainforest fruits and botanicals — absolutely nothing artificial! [This drink, whose name I have deleted out of the goodness of my heart] tastes and makes you feel great, and it’s perfect for all those energy drink lovers out there that are looking for something that actually tastes good and is good for you.”

Healthy? Good for me?
So I asked for the nutritional information.

Here are its ingredients: Carbonated water, organic evaporated cane juice, organic clarified açaí juice, organic acerola juice (water, organic acerola concentrate), natural flavors, citirc acid, organic guarana extract, yerba mate extract, green tea extract, and fruit and vegetable juice for color.

Its first ingredient is carbonated water, it’s second is sugar. I know it says it’s organic evaporated cane juice, but chemically that’s the same thing as sugar.

Here are the ingredients of a popular cola: carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, caffeine.

The cola (per 12 ounces): 140 calories, 39 grams of sugar.
The “healthy organic energy drink”: 120 calories, 30 grams of sugar (or possibly 28.5 grams — a serving size is listed as 8 fluid ounces, which has 19 grams, but did they round up or down?).
So it’s a little better for you than soda. But does that make it healthy? It's still sweetened water, and don’t let the “organic evaporated cane juice” line fool you. Fructose does break down a teeny, tiny bit faster than sucrose, which is the sugar in sugar cane, so it might have a slightly different effect on your metabolism if you happen to be diabetic (although probably not enough for even a diabetic to notice) but nutritionists have pointed out to me that the difference between the monosaccharide fructose and the disaccharide sucrose is precisely one molecular bond, and chances are pretty good that, after being in liquid suspension (a can of soda, for example) that bond is likely broken anyway.

But what really burns me up is the gall, the unmitigated gall, of a soda company pretending that its product is good for you, and obfuscating the details of what’s actually in its product. “Organic evaporated cane juice” is accurate, but what kind of cane do you suppose it is, rattan? Bamboo? Of course not, it’s sugar cane. Why not just call it that?

The new product also has 750 percent of the U.S. recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, which is useless. Excess Vitamin C is merely flushed out of our system, thrown away, a waste of our precious rainforest resources.

I also got a press release about a premium ice cream from down under being launched in the United States. Everything in it is “natural,” a word that doesn’t mean what most people think it does. In fact, it doesn’t really mean anything concrete — just “of or pertaining to nature,” and what, exactly, is nature?
Still, it’s a good marketing buzz-word and I’d let it go. But then there’s this line in the release: “Customers are able to enjoy a healthy, premium ice cream without having to compromise on the exceptional taste and texture that are as natural and clean as the pristine land they come from.”

Healthy? Really?

Ice cream by definition is made from cream, which is loaded with saturated fat, and sugar. Is it evil to eat ice cream? Of course not. Do I recommend that people eat it? Sure, if they like it. Is it good for you? Perhaps in a spiritual sense — it makes you feel good, it makes you happy. But healthy? It's full of artery-clogging saturated fat and the tooth-rotting, empty energy of sugar. Eat it, enjoy it, but don’t believe for a second that it’s healthful.

RASAM



Ingredients:
Boiled tur dal: 1/2 cup (makes from 1/4 cup lentils)
Tamarind paste : 2 tbsp
Black pepper: 1 tsp
Rasam powder: 4 tsp (See recipe in spice powders)
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Tomatoes : 2 finely chopped
Coriander leaves

Tempering:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Curry Leaves - 5-6
Asafoetida - a pinch
Garlic - 3 pods (optional)

Method:

1. Mash the boiled tur dal into a fine paste and add 3-4 cups of water.
2. Keep to boil in a pan. Add turmeric, red chilly powder, black pepper, salt to taste, coriander leaves and tamarind paste.
3. Allow to boil for 5 minutes. (This is supposed to be a watery dish and is considered a good digestive)

For tempering:

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add cumin & mustard seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves, dry red chillies and hing. Also add crushed garlic. When garlic turns brown, finally, add the Rasam powder, stir promptly and shift the tempering onto the rasam immediately.

Alternately, you may add the garlic into the rasam while boiling itself.

ANDHRA PAPPU


Ingredients:
Toor Dal (Medium-sized Split Yellow Lentils) : 1 cup
Masoor Dal ( Split red lentils smaller than tur dal) : 1/2 cup
Tomatoes : 4 large
Onion: 1 small
Turmeric: 1 tsp
Any green leafy vegetable : 2 cups
(Green leafy veggies one can use in dal : Spinach, Amaranth called thota koora, Fenugreek Leaves called Methi... In fact, any edible green leaves go well with this dal)
Fresh green chillies: about 6-7 chopped
Coriander leaves : about a handful

Tempering:
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Dry Red Chillies - 4
Curry Leaves : about 10-15 leaves
Asafoetida (Hing) : a large pinch
Garlic : 3 pods (optional)

Method:
1. Soak the dals together in a bowl for about an hour.
2. Heat 3 cups water in a pan and add the washed dals.
3. When the first boil brings up a froth, remove the froth away.
4. Add chopped tomatoes, onions, green chillies, turmeric, half the qty of curry leaves and cover and keep a weight on the lid.
5. After about 20-25 minutes, the dal becomes tender. Remove the lid and add about 3 tsp of salt. (You may add more according to taste) Do not add more water as this dal is supposed to be very thick.
6. Mix with a ladle briskly so that the dal becomes semi-mashed. Don't mash it into a fine paste.
7. Cook opened for another 5 minutes, stirring in between.

For tempering:
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a kadhai. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When they splutter, add remaining curry leaves, dry red chillies, asafoetida (hing) and crushed garlic. As soon as the garlic turns brown, transfer the tempering onto the dal.
Garnish with coriander leaves & serve with plain hot steamed rice, Indian Mango pickle and pure ghee.

NOTE:
If you add spinach, its called palak dal, if you add methi, its called methi dal, if you double the quantity of green chillies, it is called Green Chilli Dal or Mirapakaya Pappu in Telugu.
The basic recipe remains the same, the ingredients vary, giving the recipe a new taste, and a new flavor.
Some dals may require the addition of tamarind paste if the sourness of tomatoes is not enough.
If you are making plain dal, without adding any green leaf vegetables, then, adding 2-3 tsp tamarind paste is a must.

SAI DAL (Sindhi)


Ingredients:
Split moong dal ..... 1 cup
Tomatoes .............. 2 small
Green chillies..........1-2
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

For tempering:
Garlic .....................3-4 pcs. (crushed)
Red chilli powder...1/4th tsp
Cumin powder .... 1/4th tsp
Oil or ghee ..............1tbsp.

Method:
1.Wash and soak dal for 2-3 hours.
2. Boil it adding tomatoes, green chillies, salt and turmeric powder till done and mash it.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the crushed garlic.Saute till golden brown.Remove from the gas and add the cumin and chilli powder.Mix it immediately with the prepared dal.
4. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.