Guest guest Posted June 2, 2006 Report Share Posted June 2, 2006 Buttermilk is an elixir! All vaidyas love food and to partake is the only way they can study all foods at first hand! Today this author shares with the group his weakness, his love of food! Summer is in full swing and global warming is making the mercury shoot up. With soft drinks as well as tea and coffee out, tender coconut milk and buttermilk are the only worthwhile options left to cool the body. Buttermilk is made from curd and the curd itself made from milk. Buttermilk is very beneficial for the health. Vaidyas believe that excessive use of anything is undesirable, but a limited use of any food is beneficial. India is a country where you get tea and buttermilk everywhere, at any time of the day. Our Railway minister even made it available during train journeys. To offer buttermilk after food and tea (at times away from food time) when a guest arrives is the general rule in any town in India. No guest or friend will leave the house without something other than water. Though summer is hot, digestive Agni is low in summer. The buttermilk aids the digestion of food. It causes deepana also, meaning that it works as appetizer too. If some portion of butter is left in the buttermilk, it may put on the weight as well. Body fat will increase unless the butter is completely removed. When milk turns into curd, the curd contains Lactobacillus culture. These bacteria create lactic acid, hence their name. Their benefit lies in their property to kill other bacteria which are dangerous for our health. There are an estimated several trillion friendly bacteria comprising over 400 species in the average human gastrointestinal tract weighing nearly two kilograms. When the intestines are healthy, there are more friendly bacteria (probiotics) than the unfriendly or pathogenic type; Lactobacillus Acidophilus is the most predominant of the friendly bacteria in the upper intestinal tract. It helps reduce the levels of harmful bacteria and yeasts in the small intestine and also produces lactase, an enzyme which is important in the digestion of milk. L. Acidophilus is also involved in the production of the B vitamins (niacin, folic acid, and pyridoxine) during the digestive process. Not only can Acidophilus and other probiotics tune up our intestinal function and counteract antibiotic damage they also stimulate the immune system to function more efficiently. When we are ill, they can also contribute significantly to relieve health problems ranging from indigestion and diarrhea to colon and liver cancers. While modern medicine does not take acidophilus very seriously, regarding it as a health food only, not bothering to mention it to their patients; but ayurveda has recognized the use of curd and buttermilk as a beneficial food in diarrhea, irritatable bowel syndrome (Grahani in ayurvedic language) and/or candida (thrush) in the digestive and genito-urinary tract. Destruction of pathogens by curd/buttermilk causes digestive fire to increase. Having known this, curd and buttermilk are very popular in the tropics. The author recommends both buttermilk and curd to be taken freely during seasonal detox protocols. To make good curd and buttermilk, take fresh milk and heat it to 40 deg centigrade. Add a little curd and let it cool. In four to five hours, curd will be ready. Now churn the curd to make buttermilk. If milk is fresh and unpasteurised, the curd will contain a greater density of bacteria; as the curd ferments more, the medical usefulness reduces. The buttermilk made from fresh curd has more health benefits. Buttermilk obtained from excessively fermented curd is detrimental to the health. Curd or buttermilk create lactic acid in the intestines which in turn causes destruction of pathogens. There are five different types of buttermilk made from curd. They have slightly different properties as far as their curative powers, and the way that they act in the gut are concerned. When curd is added to water and churning produces butter, the buttermilk produced this way pacifies pitta disorders but may add to kapha dosha. The effect on everyone will differ depending on his constitution. Here of course it is assumed that butter is ingested along with butter milk. This buttermilk is heavier to digest and may cause drowsiness. When butter is separated out, all three doshas are pacified. It causes taste buds to become more active and hunger to increase. When water is added to 50% of curd volume while making buttermilk, the buttermilk is a tonic and can remove fatigue. The buttermilk made by addding 200% water to curd is very easy on the digestion, being a cooling, pitta pacifier, satisfying the thirst and removing fatigue. Buttermilk can be made sweet (by adding sugar), salty (by adding salt), plain, thin or thick consistency, as the situation demands. Sweet buttermilk is good in Vatic and pittic disorders, but slightly heavier to digest. Slightly sour buttermilk is good for the digestion, but if sourness increases beyond a certain limit, it increases pitta dosha. Though the name is buttermilk, the one with all butter removed is lighter to digest and contains all the desirable properties of buttermilk. It can give supporting treatment to cure several diseases such as Pandu (anemia), Grahani (IBS), Arsha (piles), Bhagandar (fistula), Prameha (diabetes), Atisar (diaorrhea), shoola( stomach ache) and all diseases of the stomach, anorexia, indigestion, leucoderma and swellings. Let us examine usage of curd in ayurveda. Generally curd made from buffalo milk is heavier to digest while that from Indian cows' milk is lighter to digest. Curd which has turned sour should be discarded as it can cause various diseases. It can only be used for fermentation of items required for specific recipes. Diarrhea, watery loose motions, IBS etc are the conditions where curd can carry out 50% of cure along with other medicines. Author recollects a special curd made in earthen pots for IBS patients, which he will cover in special post related to IBS. Though curd gives good nutrition to body and causes increase of strength, ayurveda does not recommend eating it after sunset when it becomes heavier to digest and promotes Kapha dosha. Curd should be fresh and slightly sweet rather than sour. If it is not adequately set or is excessively fermented it causes loose motions. Curd can promote Kapha and obesity. It can also cause increase of Pitta and digestive agni. But if you add honey, sugar, salt or amalki powder while eating curd, its undesirable properties get balanced. Curd is further processed to make Shreekhand, a traditional sweet. But as sugar is added here, it has all the undesirable properties of sugar consumption. The Saurashtrians from Gujarat state of India have Khitchri with curd as their default menu during dinner. Curd, when added to khitchri, aids digestion of green gram proteins, which are already easy to digest. To reduce Kapha causing property of the curd, add a little pickle or papad (apalam). This adds to the digestive fire too. Returning to buttermilk, it is termed elixir of Bhuloka (earth) in old texts. Ayurveda has gone quite deeply into the properties of buttermilk. It is termed Roghara (the eliminator of diseases). It has a unique property that dilution by water makes more powerful Deepak meaning promoting digestive fire. While sour buttermilk can aggravate pitta, the sweet one pacifies pitta. Piles, IBS, low digestion are some of the disorders where it becomes a very useful remedy. Despite being a milk product, its taste pacifies Kapha too. It pacifies Vata also due to the sweet and slight sour taste. It builds Haemoglobin. Buttermilk is used as a starter for fermenting the raw dough when making dhokla. Buttermilk can be consumed during winter too without any fear of Kapha. To make it more tasty, you can add cumin seeds, ginger powder or fresh root pieces, Hingashtak churna, Saindhav salt, sea salt, sugar, mint, coriander leaves, chopped onion, etc Lassi is another drink which is also very popular in India. Highly nourishing but attracts dosha as ice and sugar are added here. In summer however, body demands such drinks to quench the heat and thirst. When curd or buttermilk turns sour, do we throw it out? No, Gujarati women have found several ways to use it in a healthy way. It is added to rice and black gram flour mixture to ferment and Dhokla is made similar to Idli by steaming process. Otherwise adding a little Bengal gram flour and green curry leaves, a little ginger, and souting (Baghar) a Kadhi is made, in which sometimes more ingredients can be added. Fermentation of flour uses an excess lactic acid and makes proteins easily digestible. To enjoy the taste of this Kadhi, westerners should visit India, or an Indian restaurant in their country. It contains all six flavours and is therefore a complete food, as per ayurvedic definition. Now Indian airlines too has adopted in its dinner menu. Butter coming out of the buttermilk process is very useful in maintaining the health. Many ayurvedic medicines are taken along with butter and sugar to enhance the medicine's properties and to keep the warming tendency of the medicine in check. While salted butter is better in taste, it increases digestive fire, promotes taste in food and what many may not know that it is a cardiac tonic which strengthens the cardiac muscle. Butter has no competitor when central nervous system disorders are concerned. Whenever you see a picture of Lord Krishna in his infant days, invariably he will be seen eating butter stolen from the earthen pots in storeroom. To enjoy the purest milk products in India, one should visit Gokul, Brindavan, Mathura, where Lord Krishna was raised. Even allopaths recommend eating butter for patients suffering from T. B. and other consumptive diseases. In Indian villages, rice or oat bread along with butter and a little chutney of black sesame seeds is all that is used by farmers living a simple lifestyle. Ghee is for those, whose weak agni can not digest butter, but buttermilk is for all, from 2 year old to 120 year old! Yum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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