Do it yourself: Curd in the Kitchen from Kirsten Anderson on Vimeo.
Yogurt: A Public Health Service Announcement
Service work at grassroots level NGOs in India requires fit and able bodies. It can often entail spending long hours on buses without bathroom breaks, walking in the sun from village to village, eating potentially hazardous street food or unknown foods offered by a generous host, and using bathrooms without soap to wash your hands (or anyone else’s for that matter). If you are sick in bed with a fever, puking your guts out or running to the toilet every five minutes, clearly you will not be able to serve your NGO or the community you are working with. Therefore, maintaining a healthy body during the fellowship is of serious importance. The two most important ways to stay healthy, according to yours truly, a 12-year India travel veteran, are to:
1) Stay hydrated. Drink lots of clean water. It’s always good for you but is absolutely essential in the summer heat and it helps your system flush out the bad stuff. Always carry a water bottle with you.
2) Eat plenty of yogurt! Make it at home and consume a little everyday.
While water has an obvious link to maintaining general health, the need for a daily dose of yogurt probably requires a bit more explanation. Please read below for more information on the benefits of including yogurt in your diet and watch the video to find out how easy it to make at home; it simply requires a little help from a nearby aunty and spoon(ful) of starter.
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yo-gurt [yoh-gert]-noun: a custard like food made from milk curdled by the cultures of probiotic bacteria.
Top 10 benefits of making your own yogurt:
10) Probiotics, the GOOD bacteria: It helps to maintain a healthy balance of micro-organisms in your digestive system. There are hundreds of micro-organisms in your intestinal track and its important to keep them all healthy. The largest group of probiotic bacteria in the body’s intestines is lactic acid bacteria, or Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is in probiotic yogurt. It’s the lactic acid that gives curd the tart/sour taste.
9) The anti-antibiotic: If you get Delhi-belly and it lasts for more than 2-3 days, you may need antibiotics to kill the infection. Unfortunately, many antibiotics actually kill the good bacteria along with the illness, causing bad bacteria in the body to multiply and resulting in even more diarrhea. If you need to take antibiotics keep your system healthy by eating an extra helping of yogurt. It’ll help replace good healthy bacteria back into the body, giving relief to the diarrhea.
8) Increase your body’s immunity: Eating probiotic natural yogurt can boost your body’s overall immunity. Not only will your intestines be healthier and more capable of fighting future infections, aids in digestion and can reduce yeast infections in women.
7) Fresh and natural: When you make your own yogurt, the milk needs to be bought fresh, there are no chemical additives or preservatives and you’ll need to make more once it goes sour. Not all store bought yogurt contains the healthy probiotics you need. If you make it at home, you know it has all the good stuff.
6) Even lactarts can enjoy: Many people have difficulty digesting milk or are lactose intolerant. However, the yogurt fermentation process actually produces an enzyme that makes digestion easier.
5) Cheap: You just need to buy the milk.
4) You’ll be the talk of the town: It’s a true sign you have adapted to your local environment, your neighbors and co-workers will be very impressed.
3) Cooling in the heat: You can keep your yogurt in the fridge for up to a week and it tastes great on those hot summer days.
2) So many uses: You can add it to your favorite fruit, put it in the mixie and you have a delicious smoothie, or if you prefer, lassi. Eat it with dahl and rice. Put it on pancakes. Eat it at the end of your South Indian thali. Make raita to eat with biriyani.
(Ladies only: don’t get disgusted, but in the case of a yeast infection, you can apply yogurt directly. It is cool and soothing, and it gets all the GOOD bacteria just where it needs to be. Google search the various ways of application.)
1) Easy. All you need is an aunty and a spoon. Watch the Do It Yourself video above to find out how you too can make yogurt at home in just a few simple steps.
Enjoy your homemade yogurt!
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Kirsten Anderson has extended her AIF fellowship at Aid India’s Eureka Child, a Tamil Nadu based education initiative working to improve the quality of education for all children across the state. Kirsten has been developing the content and printed materials for the primary English reading curriculum, Ready to Read, as well as working on the production of an educational English DVD series. She has also been making her own yogurt for 2 years and is now experimenting with kombucha.
