A Drink Of Health

On a rare sunny Saturday afternoon, London's Borough market is bustling with activity. Visitors stroll through the market lanes, occasionally pausing to sample the jars of sauces, dips and creams set out for tasting by the traders. And through this crowd of traders selling everything from meat and sizzling hot food to fruits and nuts, an invisible line of contradiction runs. For, next to the queue for a healthy salad bowl is an equally long queue for a plate of gnocchi dripping with hot cheese. And then you notice it. The tiny shack in one of the darker lanes, just opposite a wine stall and adjacent to a stall full of chocolate-coated nuts "" the organic vegetable juice stall.

The bestsellers at the stall are unquestionably the detoxifying lemongrass shots, that taste "just like grass" according to some takers, and the hangover specials that claim to rid you of your suffering after the Friday-night drinking binge. Surprisingly, while going organic on juices might not seem like quite a climb in London, it does in India, where even five-star hotels sometimes find organic vegetables with great difficulty. But if as a teetotaller you've had to survive on colas and orange juice every time you head out for a drink, vegetables could be the answer to your woes "" rather than fruits, because they are healthier, owing to reduced presence of sugar.

At Pure, the organic restaurant at Taj Lands End, Mumbai, the idea of an organic juice cafe stemmed from executive chef Jitendra Kumar's realisation that not only are colas unhealthy, they also take away the flavour of the food they accompany. So colas have been replaced with pure celery juice and others like it. While the Taj manages to source its organic foods from countries like Thailand, Kumar adds that you don't necessarily require organic produce if you're making the juice at home. Just simple, washed vegetables will give similar results.

Some of the most interesting combinations that are becoming favourites with customers at Pure include grapefruit and fennel; carrot and ginger; carrot, tomato, radish and coriander leaves infused with lemon juice and rock salt; and spinach, parsley, cucumber and beetroot juices. One of the healthiest juices on the menu is wheatgrass juice, that is known to detoxify, and the regular intake of which is said to prevent cancer.

While the idea of vegetable juices isn't new to a country where bitter gourd juice has been a popular remedy for multiple health problems, the idea of delicious vegetable juices is. Take the juice bar at the "wellness buffet" at the Park Hotel, Delhi, for instance. Here, juice enthusiasts can choose their ingredients from a variety that includes carrot, cucumber, bitter gourd, tomato, green apple and watermelon. "The benefits of these juices are endless," says Bakshish Dean, executive chef at the hotel, "weight loss, sugar control, skin glow, hair growth, digestion, detoxification, cholesterol control, rehydration and blood purification, to name some."

In fact, vegetable juices can provide excellent dietary support if one is recovering or hoping to recover from an illness. Grapefruit and fennel juice, for example, aids in reducing colds and flus and even acts as an anti-inflammatory. Celery, that is best taken either raw or as juice for maximum benefits, is an excellent blood cleanser and even has anti-fungal qualities. However, not everyone might be as adventurous as the bitter gourd juice drinkers. So, if you're looking to have some fun with your juiced vegetables, Dean suggests adding herbs like basil, rosemary, lemongrass or thyme to make them healthier and definitely more exotic.