Chennai: Deepavali, no doubt, is all about sweets and crackers that make our lives to sparkle. But South India has its own recipe to digest the regal dishes savoured during the Festival of Lights — the Deepavali legiyam.
Those celebrating the important festival in the year, cook a range of items mostly using oil and ghee and excess intake may cause indigestion. Our elders, have prescribed this Deepavali legiyam to overcome this problem. This legiyam also addresses the problem of nausea due to excessive accumulation of bile (pitha) and helps to reduce heaviness of stomach.
This concoction made of dry ginger, athimathuram, valmulaku, omam, patta, sombu, elaichi and jaggery, is religiously swallowed to prevent and cure indigestion in many South Indian homes.
A little dollop of black legiyam or chooran is given to the family members immediately after the ritual oil bath. And sweets and savouries are given to start the celebrations. The legiyam is rich in anti-oxidants and neutralises the heavy oxidative sugary components of the sweets and the fried oil toxic compounds.
The legiyam continues to remain an effective remedy to a gargantuan session of eating sweets, fried food, junk food and crunchy tit-bits offered by neighbors, family, friends and business associates.
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