If Onam has an unpleasant side to it, then it has to be ‘dietary plan faux pas’. Cutting down the flab while gorging on sadyas (the lip-smacking payasams in particular) is apparently a no-good combo and the tug-of-war between your diet and sweet tooth preferences intensifies weakening your resolve.
Well, not any more. At least that is what Santhosh Narayanan, a wellness expert, thinks. His idea to make taste and health go hand-in-hand has resulted in JhivRas payasams, healthy and tasty desserts.
The payasams from JhivRas are made with healthy ingredients like millets, tomatoes, dates, beetroots, carrots, fat-free milk, palm sugar and do not carry any artificial flavours, thickening agents, taste enhancer and preservatives.
Says Santhosh: “My 15 years of experience with the wellness industry helped me understand that the reason for lifestyle disease to an extend is our food habits. And, for many the concept of healthy food is not appealing one to its lack of taste. This is when I decided to work on the combo of taste and health. The result is JhivRas, a healthy food outlet, that will soon open in Kochi. The JhivRas payasam is our first offering for people here,” says Santhosh.
Rare Treat
JhivRas payasam come in seven variety, Tomato Payasam, 3G Payasam (gooseberry, green tea and ginger), Beta Payasam (carrot and beetroot), Dates Payasam, Berries Delight (strawberry, blueberry and blackberry), Multimillet Ada Payasam and Traditional Palpayasam.
“The ingredients, be it millets, tomato, berries or dates, are all rich in nutrients. Millets are easy digestible and so are carrots and beetroots. I consulted with many experts and nutritionists to decide on the ingredients,” says Santhosh.
Strawberry payasam has strawberry as its main ingredient while blue and black berries are added to the final mix.
The ingredients are processed in a unique manner so as to make it sweet. “Though we use palm sugar and jaggery instead of sugar, we mix in a particular ratio to give it a pleasing taste. The milk used is slim milk (low-fat variety). The only content that is rich in calorie is cow’s ghee which has been proved as a very healthy ingredient,” says Santhosh. The processing also gets rid of the astringent taste of gooseberries and bitterness of ginger. “In fact, no one can really distinguish our healthy payasams from the ordinary ones in taste,” says Santhosh.
App to Order Payasams
In their initial venture, JhivRas payasams will launch an application that enables people to order their favourite healthy payasams. The link of the app can be availed by the customer by dialing the no 9645106666. The link will reach the inbox of the dialler. The service will be launched on Monday.