Why eat lotus seeds and fox nuts?

Desai says: “When we started making our snacks, I always knew them as makhana – the term we used growing up. We spoke to numerous farmers and manufacturers, who referred to them as fox nuts or lotus seeds. The reason we’ve used the term lotus seeds is to stick to the tradition of what it’s called in India, where our snacks come from.”

A host of other fox nut snack makers do the same, sparking some confusion. While fox nuts and lotus seeds differ, both are superfoods used in Ayurveda – traditional Indian medicine – and in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In TCM, both are consdered to be herbs that stabilise and bind, with a neutral nature and a sour-sweet taste. Both target the kidney and spleen, and the lotus seed also targets the heart.

Fox nuts come from the floating water lily plant native to East and South Asia – whose scientific name is Euryale ferox – and are widely used in India, China and Japan. As the lily’s seed is harvested in stagnant wetlands, no fertilisers or pesticides are needed, making them naturally organic. Known also as gorgon nuts, in TCM they are called qian shi, or cock’s head.

Apart from fox nuts’ use as a snack, they are found in Indian desserts like kheer – a milk pudding – and also ground into flour, to be used in Indian flatbreads or rotis. An episode of the new Netflix series Indian Matchmaking even features a nitrogen-injected version of fox nuts..

Ruchi Shrivastava, food historian and owner of Mumbai-based food media company Greed Goddess, says the confusion of fox nuts, or makhana, with lotus seeds “comes from the fact that we don’t differentiate the water lily from the lotus in our native languages”.

Used in the right way, makhana can offer many benefits, particularly in the fight against lifestyle diseases.

“It can have a calming effect on the body, which helps reduce stress and anxiety, resulting in sound sleep. It’s also gluten-free. It’s such a flexible product, and can be a boon to anyone following a plant-based diet.” A low-carb food, it is also suitable for the keto diet.

Shrivastava calls makhana “poor man’s cashews” because they are affordable and beneficial to health. “They are low in sodium and high in potassium, so they reduce blood pressure and are good for diabetics, too. So, instead of adding almond or cashew paste in curries to make them rich, we always use a mix of fox nuts and poppy seeds.

“As a kid, when I was unwell, my mother used to give me roasted makhana with a dash of ghee and a pinch of salt and black pepper – it would help restore the taste in my palate,” she says.

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Makhana flour is mixed with whole wheat flour to make bread, for the benefit of the diabetics in her family, Shrivastava says. “We made desserts using makhana flour, too, or we just popped makhana and mixed it into our puddings.”

The other superfood, lotus seeds, come from the lotus plant –scientific name Nelumbo nucifera – another aquatic flowering plant and native to India, China, Egypt and Russia. It has been cultivated in China for more than 3,000 years for its edible seeds. They are packed with fibre, calcium and host of other nutrients, and used in baking, in puddings and candies, or mixed into dishes such as the Chinese sticky rice dumpling known as bajang, and in desserts, like the custardy Thai dish khanom mo kaeng.

In the book Ten Lectures on the Use of Medicinals from the Personal Experience of Jiao Shu-de, a TCM practitioner describes lotus seeds, or lian zhi, as “sweet and astringent in flavour and neutral in nature” and says they nourish the heart, fortify the spleen, supplement the kidney, and work as an astringent.

In TCM, an astringent is a substance that is seen as able to prevent the leakage of needed fluids and prevent the loss of vital energy. Astringents also work as a diuretic, to promote secretion of unwanted or excess fluids.

China’s Ministry of Health approved lotus seeds’ use as both food and medicine. A 2016 study by Zhu et al, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, highlights the benefits to be derived from lotus seeds. Previous studies have shown that lotus seeds are rich in flavonoids and alkaloids.

Flavonoids are lauded for their potential in preventing chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and various types of cancers. Lotus seed alkaloids have been found to have properties that relieve depression, help manage irregular heartbeat and relieve excess fluid in the lungs.

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Lotus seeds have also been described in many Ayurvedic texts, including the ancient Charaka Samhita, as being known to improve vigour and immunity.According to Ayurvedic practitioner Meera Praveen Rao in Bangalore, India, lotus seeds have anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing properties.

“Lotus seeds pacify the bio energies in the body: Pitta, or what we call the fire element, and Kapha (the water element). Lotus seeds are used to treat symptoms caused by excessive heat, like bleeding disorders, increased thirst, burning sensation in the body, boils, dizziness, and to improve blood cell count.”

Rao advises taking lotus seed tea for stomach disorders, such as acidity and heartburn.

While fox nuts, as makhana, are more popular to use in cooking, you can also use lotus seeds – known as kamal gatta seeds in parts of India — to make tea.

Three ways to use fox nuts and lotus seeds

1. Roasted fox nuts

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 cups fox nuts

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Method:

1. Heat the coconut oil in a wide pan.

2. Add the fox nuts and fry on a low flame for four to five minutes.

3. Add the salt and ground pepper and toss well. Serve warm.

2. Lotus seed tea

4 cups water

1 cup lotus seeds

Method:

1. Pour the water into a big pan, and bring to a boil.

2. Add the lotus seeds and turn off the heat.

3. Let sit for two hours, then strain the seeds out.

4. Add a sweetener such as jaggery powder or coconut sugar if you prefer it sweet, and drink in small doses, to relieve acidity.

3. Fox nuts and vegetable stir fry

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 cup fox nuts

2 teaspoons coconut oil

1 carrot, sliced thin and long

1 red bell pepper, sliced thin and long

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin and long

1 green bell pepper, sliced thin and long

1 zucchini, sliced thin and long

10 to 12 green beans, sliced thin and long

Salt according to taste

1 teaspoon black pepper powder

1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (optional)

1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional)

½ cup chopped basil

1 medium lemon, juiced

Method:

1. In a large wok, cook the fox nuts in a tablespoon of coconut oil, then transfer to a plate and set aside.

2. Heat remaining oil in the same pan, add all the vegetables, stir fry on a medium flame for about six to seven minutes (vegetables should remain crisp).

3. Add roasted fox nuts and seasonings and mix well.

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