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   Sakthi Pharmacy >> Medicinal powers of foods

                                              Rice 
 

CEREALS/

MILLETS

BOTANICAL NAME-FAMILY

Tamil

Malayalam

Hindi

Telugu

Sanskrit

Marathi

fiber

Rice

Oryza sativa  - Graminae

             

Fermented Rice:  A neglected Vitamin store

 Pazhaya saadam - the word means "old rice". This is a Traditional wisdom of South India. A wonderful healthy eating life style now ignored in Modern India and ridiculed as a poor man's life-style food.

In Olden days, all farmers and all laborers who did lot of physical work ate this fermented rice food for breakfast. This gives sustained energy with all natural nutritional supplements which comes from the fermenting bacteria in it. It is so soothing for the intestines and does not irritate it because the rice is fermented and digested by bacteria.

Ignoring this energizer food recipe modern Indians are going after fad energy boosting foods and supplements like power bars, boosts, horlicks which cause more damage than good and also  causes increase in various diseases like diabetes.

Why fermented rice? Known as gut microbiota, the trillions of bacteria that populate the human gastrointestinal tract perform a variety of chores. These "friendly" microbes help extract calories from what we eat, help store these calories for later use, and provide energy and nutrients for the production of new bacteria to continue this work.

So eating fermented rice we actually  introduce always healthy bacteria into our body. The stomach pH kills most of the bacteria in the fermented rice , but remember some of them manages to sneak into the intestines and produce a healthy bacterial colony that even relieves constipation.

Misleading edcuation.

By numbers, the bacteria in our gut is more than the number of human cells. We can say even that we are just a human bag of bacteria.  Due to the discovery of penicillin we have been educated with a wrong notion that bacteria means bad. Lot of research now shows that "too clean" leads to many allergy diseases. We would like to alter and state that decreasing the healthy bacteria in our gut causes increased allergy problems.

Modern research is now slowly understanding that the bacteria flora in the body is very very important that when it is disrupted can lead to many diseases and surprisingly obesity. This  Study shows that changing The Bacteria In Your Digestive System Be An Obesity Treatment.

This  article tells us the makeup of each person's gut microflora influences their health, and abnormalities in gut microbes have been linked to diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

A specific population of bacteria present in our gut is crucial to our health. However, some treatments for cancer, particularly those that deplete the body's immune cells, have high potential to disrupt the natural balance between our bodies and these commensal microorganisms, causing disease. This  Study shows that the result of total body irradiation in cancer treatment depends on the type of healthy intestinal bacteria. When mice had good healthy bacteria, the radiation was effective.   Conversely, a reduction in the number of host microorganisms by the use of antibiotics reduced the beneficial effects of TBI on tumor regression in these animals.

Beware: This is a caution to everyone not to use antibiotics unless really needed. Most of the children and medications contain chemicals and anti-biotics that distrupts the gut bacteria and also make them vulnerable to more infections. We might use them for temporary relief of cold and fevers, but in the long run we are increasing the chances of other diseases because of disrupting the bacterial flora.

Use only organic milk , because non-organic milk are from cows given  lots of antibiotics which gets into our human body through the milk. Lazy and ignorant modern mothers give their children these unhealthy milk to children even without boiling the milk. These antibiotics destroy the gut bacteria making the children grow and spread  unhealthy bacteria to everyone. It is common to hear from parents about their children bringing unhealthy infections after going to school. Little they do realize it all comes from unhealthy eating and life style of the children which everyone are responsible.

This preparation is called Pazhaya saddam pazhankanji / kulutha choru and  Paaniwala chawal in hindi.

Cook rice and soak in plain water over-night preferably in a clay vessel or porcelain container.  Keep in a warm place like making home made yogurt, so that you allow healthy bacteria to grow in it. Next  day morning mix with a small quantity of buttermilk (optional) , chopped shallots (pearl onions)  and salt.

Eat (or drink as gruel) this highly nutritious vitamin B rich fermented food that will quench the acidity of the body.   The best part of it is that it supplies lots and lots of nutrients especially Vitamin B12, for vegetarians. This is the richest source of Vitamin B12 for vegetarians. It also restores healthy intestinal flora (bacteria) and relieves all diseases related to stomach and intestines, like dueodenal ulcers, infectious colitis, Ischemic colitis, Radiation colitis, Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, Diverticular disease, Hemorrhoids, Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), celiac disease , candida infections etc.

It is the bacteria cells that also contribute to the bulk of feces that when reduced is one of the factor for constipation.

What rice to use?

Use brown rice for fermentation instead of white rice. click here to read about   processing of rice. Converted or parboiled rice has been treated with steam to force nutrients into the kernel before polishing takes place; it lies between brown and white rice in nutritional value. Refined rice is one of the cause of soaring diabetes in rice eating population.

   Brown rice, which has undergone only enough milling to remove the indigestible outer hull, is the most nutritious form.  Further processing results in white rice, which has lost the bran and germ.  It cooks more quickly and is easier to store than whole grain brown) rice, but is much lower in protein and minerals.

But soaking makes brown rice to eat. After cooking rice, then do fermented rice.

Medicinal rice

The medicinal and neutraceutical potential of the ancient rice strain, which is called Sastika (shashtika) in Sanskrit and Njavara (navara) in Malayalam was known since the period of Susruta and Charaka, the great progenitors of Ayurveda”. (According to an article on rice written by Dr. Y.L. Nene, Managing Editor of Asian Agri-History, quarterly, in the Souvenir issued on this occasion, “Shastika means a rice that is harvested within sixty days of sowing. He places Charaka, the ancient medicine man as living in 700 B.C. and Susruta, the surgeon, in 400 B.C).

The researchers added: “Ayurvedic scholars of Kerala have developed a variety of health conducive practices in the past using Njavara grains. Njavara cultivation is geographically restricted to Kerala and no other medicinal rice is used in the world as widely as Njavara is used in Ayurveda. Njavarakizhi— a rejuvenating and restoring therapy and an acclaimed remedy for rheumatism, and neural disorders and Shashtika anna lepa—pasting of Njavara grains cooked in milk on the whole body are the two important health care system using Njavara grains. In addition, Njavara grains have been traditionally recommended to the emaciated and debilitated and Keralans consume Njavara grains as Karkidakakanji or Marunnukanji—a porridge prepared out of the Njavara grains and certain other herbals—as a replenishing health drink during the month of Karkkidakun (July-August).”

“Njavara-based practices have attracted people world over and are the main centre of attraction in Ayurvedic tourism. Consequently, Njavara grains have good demand and market value.”

However, another group of researchers from Kerala, this time from the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Pattambi, in their paper on “Potential and prospects of medicinal rice with special references to Navara” has recorded several rice varieties grown in Chhattisgarh too as having medicinal properties. The researchers are P. V. Balachandran, S. Leena Kumary, Rose Mary Francies and Jiji Joseph.

They say: “In Chhattisgarh, many of the traditional varieties are reported to have medicinal properties. Collection surveys made during the (nineteen) seventies by Richaria (a well-known rice breeder of Madhya Pradesh, U.P. and later Chhattisgarh),and in the late (nineteen) nineties by Das &Oudhia have led to the identification of more than 50 medicinal rice varieties. It is reported that the variety Aalcha is used for treatment of pimples while Baissor is used for chronic headache and epilepsy and Gathuhan, Karhani and Kalimooch respectively for treatment of rheumatism, paralysis and skin diseases.

“In the Jeypore tract of Orissa, the rice varieties Meher, Saraiphul and Danwar” are reported to be used by the local tribal people against various ailments. The Uttara Kanada district of Karnataka (there are) presence of two medicinal rice varieties, Atikaya and Kari Bhatta. While Atikaya is used as a health tonic, Kari Bhatta is used as a cure against skin infections.”

“These researchers too mention about the medicinal properties of not only the Navara variety but also Cbhmennelu and Rakhtashali saying that “it is believed that the Njavara variety, which matures in sixty days, has the medicinal property of redressing tridosha (the Ayurvedic term for imbalance in body humors) the root cause of body ailments. This rice has the unique capability to enrich body elements, to exclude toxic metabolites, to strengthen, regenerate and energise body, to regulate blood pressure and to prevent skin diseases and premature ageing…”

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