|
|
|
| Sunday, 29 January 2006 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Earthen (clay) utensils good for health by Asoka Malimage It was a compulsory thing in olden days that a housewife should go to the village fair during the Sinhala New Year time to fetch earthen pots or clay pots for the new meal. But with the modernisation this holy ritual is getting faded away. Nowadays it seems that earthen pots or clay pots are not available in town areas. (Only earthen vases are available) There weren't houses without earthen pots or clay pots those days. It was a compulsory feature to have a place to rest the washed clay utensils. Now with the modernisation things like enamel, non-stick, pyrex, stainless utensils have taken the place in the kitchen. Well I presume there should be in fact, side effects on those utensils too. But the worst are aluminium utensils. Mostly the rural folks opt to use aluminium utensils rather than other utensils which are cheaper and of low quality. I am asking this question from the older folks who live in the town. Can you get back to the tip of your tongue the marvellous taste of a Polos pehi (Tender jack curry) cooked in an earthen pot or a clay pot? It has been revealed by a survey conducted by Dr. K. A. Nandasena of the Soil Science section of the Agriculture Faculty of the Peradeniya University, that cooking in earthen pots is more appropriate to live a healthy life. This could give a longer life too. Our society is especially bound with soil from older days. We built our houses, cooked in clay utensils and what more. A home remedy for the stomach aches of children was to give water immersed in new clay particles. Buddha the enlightened one prescribed a medicine with clay for serpent bites. "In the clay what we use for preparation of utensils contain iron minerals. That is why the raw clay pots turn red after burning" says Dr. Nandasena. Iron is essential to our body for production of blood. There is porosity in the clay utensils. If there are poisonous elements or poisonous gases in the food you cook definitely those would get evaporated through the clay walls. The air diffusion is also available in clay utensils. Proper air gets into the foods cooked in clay utensils. In the preparation of curd it is why the best curd is in clay pots. Also water is diffused through the clay utensils and gives a good texture in the curd. An eminent Indian authority and a nutritionist H. K. Bakru in his book 'Foods that heal' while mentioning the importance of vegetable goes further to say: "Vegetables should not be cooked in aluminium utensils. Aluminium is a soft metal and is acted upon by both food acids and alkalis. The writer is the Secretary of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
