Unlock idli's health benefits: Eat it the right way

Discover the healthiest way to enjoy the South Indian breakfast staple, idli. Learn about portion sizes, accompaniments, and potential health benefits.

Idli

Idli is one of the common breakfast in most of the homes in South India as it is an easy food to cook. Idli is steamed in fermented batter made by grinding rice and urad dal, and served with delicious sambar and chutney. If you don't have time to make chutney and sambar, you can even eat it with powdered spices. Apart from that, idli is easily digestible as it is steam cooked.

Idli is taken as breakfast and dinner. Although idli has many benefits, it is good only if eaten according to a specific method. Otherwise it will cause some ill effects as we should follow a certain method for any food. 

There are many types of chutneys like peanut chutney, spicy chutney, tomato chutney, onion chutney. There are many types of idli powders like urad dal powder, coconut powder, chilli powder. When you eat idli with any one of these, it does not cause any harm to the body. But when you eat everything together, it will have its consequences. 

That is, if you take four types of powders and three types of chutneys for four idlis, it causes some side effects when it enters the body. This can lead to heartburn and stomach related problems. Sesame oil or ghee added to idli powder can lead to high calories. It is not good to eat vada with morning idli. The high calories in it will not benefit the body. 

Benefits of Idli:

Idli is steamed so it is fat free and easy to digest. Since sambar is also eaten while eating idli, carbohydrates are obtained from rice and protein from lentils. 

How to eat? 

If you are eating 2 or 3 idlis, you can have a cup of sambar with it, which is healthy. You can add chutney if you like. But coconut chutney increases body weight. It is good to eat in moderation. If you want, you can eat mint, onion, tomato with any one of these chutneys. It provides essential vitamins to the body.