Healthy drinks to chill you, these summers

KANPUR: A combo of yoghurt and strawberry resulting into a mouth watering smoothy is enough to entice any food buff thirsting for a summer delight. But how about quenching the thirst with the indigenous drinks that are delicious to drink and easy to digest.
While nothing evokes much temptations than the pizzas dripping with cheese and mouth watering nectarines, however, none can match the sweetness of 'sugarcane juice' or all time favourite `lassi'.With summers kicking in and mercury soaring high, the city foodies are going for nutritious and fluid diet.
"Kiwi juices, dry fruit shakes and even ice-tea's, at times, are a no-no, when you have a home made substitutes viz 'Mango Panna' and 'Shikanji'," says a fitness conscious Neha Rajpal, a housewife. And she continues: "Shikanji being one of the traditional north Indian drinks, prevents overheating with the change in seasons."
Even the health sector agrees upon the natural effects of the home-made drinks. Instantly, the so-called 'desi drink' like 'jal jeera' and 'panna' and other liquids flushes out all the toxins from the body and helps in easy digestion, opine the experts.
Preeti Bhasin, wife of a city based doctor too feels that the home-made drinks surely have an upper hand over the aerated drinks as they being prepared at home are hygienic. "More so, the addition of natural herbs like 'pudina' (mint) and 'ambiya' (raw mango) make them acts as coolers. As oily, hot and spicy food can wreck havoc with the digestive system, these drinks are no less than smoothies."
'Dahi' (yoghurt), the kesar-pista milkshakes and a flavoured version of 'lassi', are the summer delights, to name a few. No wonder, with the onset of summers, 'cold-milk shakes', yoghurt, fruit shakes and kanji come into their own, the tempting cold soups are some other summer beverages gaining demand. "One has a variety of drinks that can be prepared at home and that too without much effort," points Shilpi Agarwal, who keeps experimenting with the nature's veggies than going for oxygenated drinks. "The quick fix strawberry grape smoothie, the yoghurt fruit shakes, the tomato-cumin powder combo are a must have to quench your thirst while the sun shrivels the body," she added.