Indian cuisine has started to become more and more popular in Los Angeles and beyond. With all the flavorful and exciting unique dishes such as butter chicken, saag paneer, chicken tikka, it is no longer a surprise that many people are now embracing and falling in love with the distinct flavors of this Asian cuisine.
But what many people don’t know is that Indian food can also provide a lot of health benefits. After all, with such a great taste, who would have thought that it is healthy, too. The truth is that Indian food is made up of some of the most aromatic and flavorful dishes, partly due to the variety of combinations and spices used. The flavors of Indian dishes actually come from the spices instead of the excess salt, sugar, or fat.
To give you a good idea, here are several of the most common spices added to Indian food for flavors as well as their respective health benefits.
Bay Leaves
The history of bay leaves dates as far back as the ancient times, originally used by the Romans and Greeks to create crowns for celebrated people. But it also offers modern-day people with plenty of health benefits. Bay leaves are rich in essential oils and eucalyptol, a type of compound. Aside from its pain killing and anti-inflammatory properties, bay leaves also have the ability of fighting colds and coughs and are also known to function as a sleep aid.
Garlic
Garlic is extremely popular for its anti-fungal, anti-viral, and immune boosting properties. But it has also been shown to increase good cholesterol while lowering bad cholesterol, making it a potent preventative to fight off heart disease.
Ginger
Your mom might have told you to drink some stale ginger ale when you were a little kid to help cure the flu. This is because ginger can improve the digestive tract’s health and ease nausea. However, not a lot of people are aware of its anti-inflammatory and natural pain killing properties that are believed to help lessen the possibility of Alzheimer’s disease.
Green Chilies
The high antioxidant content of green chilies helps fight off free radicals. As a result, it helps slow down the process of aging and lessen the risk against some types of cancers. It has also been shown that green chilies have antibacterial and immune boosting properties.
These can also help balance out the blood sugar levels that aid weight loss. Similar to other types of spicy foods, the release of endorphins helps ward off depression. Rich in iron and vitamin E, these promote health hair and skin as well.
Turmeric
Used more than 2,500 years ago for the first time, turmeric is popular for its anti-inflammatory abilities. It has also been shown that this spice works almost as well as anti-inflammatory drugs available over the counter. Curcumin is turmeric’s active ingredient that is responsible for making the spice a natural painkiller, metabolism booster, and antiseptic.
Check out https://getbakkal.com/indian-market-los-angeles/ to shop for these ingredients that you can use to prepare your own Indian dishes.
