Fluffy, tender, tangy and sweet dahi vada are a combination of all your favorite flavors and textures in one tasty snack. They consist of homemade fried lentil dumpling fritters, dunked in creamy whipped yogurt and topped with both spicy and sweet chutneys. Try my heirloom and classic dahi vada recipe with step-by-step photos for a fun appetizer or shareable party treat.

What is Dahi Vada

Dahi Vada are a popular street food from North India. “Dahi” means yogurt and “Vada” means deep fried fritters or dumplings, and the recipe is about as straightforward as it sounds.

 

Fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth dumplings are coated in a simple creamy yogurt, and topped with classic Indian chutneys.

Dahi vada are often made for special occasions and festivals, but can also be enjoyed anytime for a party snack or appetizer.

A perfect dahi vada recipe starts with tender and puffy homemade fried lentil fritters that are soaked in water, drained, and then covered in tangy whipped yogurt.

These fluffy fritters are traditionally made with the ivory colored skinned urad dal, also known as black gram or urad bean or matpe bean.

Generous helpings of both spicy green coriander chutney and sweet tamarind chutney are beautifully drizzled over the top before serving.

The result is an impressive and delicious snack that includes just the right balance of sour, sweet, savory, and spicy flavors in every bite.

While dahi vada do require some time to make, you’ll quickly see with one taste how very worth every bit of effort they are. And, much of the prep work – like making both of the chutneys and yogurt – can be done well in advance.

Follow my step-by-step instructions with photos below to learn how to make the best traditional, authentic dahi vada recipe from scratch, with tips to ensure they turn out terrific every time.

You can also check the salty and savory South Indian variation of dahi vada called as Thayir Vada which has a complete different taste and flavor profile.

How to make Dahi Vada

Soaking Lentils

1. Soak 1 cup heaped urad dal (200 grams husked and split black lentils) overnight or for at least 4 to 5 hours. Later drain all the water using a colander or strainer. If you prefer, you can rinse the soaked urad dal.

Grinding Lentils

2. Then add the drained and soaked lentils in your trusted blender or mixer-grinder.

3. Add in ½ teaspoon chopped green chilies or serrano/thai chillies, 1 teaspoon chopped ginger, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 pinch of asafoetida (hing) and salt as needed.

Note: For a gluten-free version, use a gluten-free asafoetida or skip it.

 

The eventual outcome of these children as they grow into adult life depends on the support they receive from educational institutions, family and friends.

 

Chandigarh, September 28

Four years after undergoing a simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplant at the PGI here, a 32-year-old recipient from Uttarakhand delivered a baby girl.

Prof Ashish Sharma, Head, Department of Renal Transplant Surgery, PGI, said, “Less than 150 pancreas transplants have been carried out in India so far. Out of these, 38 have been done at the PGI alone. This is the first childbirth happening after pancreas transplant at our institute and possibly the first in India.”

Expressing happiness at the successful delivery in this high-risk case, Prof Seema Chopra, obstetrics incharge at the institute, said, “There were different opinions as she was considered to be a high-risk patient given her history of diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure. Ultimately, after consultation with an obstetrics team, she decided to proceed ahead. Fortunately, her glucose, blood pressure and kidney function remained within normal limits throughout the pregnancy. However, in view of her high-risk status, it was decided to perform a Caesarean section at nine months and she delivered a baby girl weighing 2.5 kg with an uneventful recovery.”

The mother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 13 when she developed loss of consciousness, and had been under treatment at the Department of Endocrinology, PGI, since then.

एक स्वस्थ शरीर के लिए स्वस्थ भोजन की आवश्यकता होती है एक स्वास्थ्य जीवन जीने के लिए हर व्यक्ति को संतुलित आहार की आवश्यकता होती है संतुलित आहार का मतलब यह नहीं होता कि हम भोजन पेट भर कर खाएं संतुलित आहार का अर्थ होता है जिसमें उचित मात्रा में प्रोटीन, विटामिन और कार्बोहाइड्रेट ,वसा आदि उपस्थित हो आज के टाइम में बच्चों से लेकर बड़ों तक हर कोई जंक फूड खाने की आदत बना चुके हैं क्योंकि जंक फूड बहुत ही स्वादिष्ट होता है और आसानी से हर जगह उपलब्ध हो जाता है तथा या कम दाम में भी मिल जाता है दिखने में भी बहुत ही आकर्षक और सुंदर दिखाई देता है जिसके कारण लोग बहुत ही आसानी से जल्द इसकी ओर आकर्षित हो जाते है  यह जंक फूड हमारे स्वास्थ्य के लिए लाभदायक नहीं होता अपितु यह हानिकारक होता है।जी जो की कई सारे बीमारियों का कारण बनता हैं। एक स्वस्थ भोजन से हमारे शरीर की रोग प्रतिरोधकता क्षमता को बढ़ती है जो कि हमें कई प्रकार के बीमारियों से लड़ने की क्षमता प्रदान करती है भोजन को हमें स्वाद के अनुसार नहीं बल्कि शरीर को स्वस्थ और मजबूत बनाने के लिए खाना चाहिए। एक स्वास्थ्य भोजन हमारे अच्छे शरीर का निर्माण करता ही है साथ ही हमारा बौद्धिक विकास भी करता है शरीर को स्वस्थ होना सबसे बड़ी उपलब्धि है एक स्वस्थ शरीर के साथ स्वस्थ दिमाग हमें कामयाबी की ओर लेकर जाता है|

योग स्वस्थ जीवन व्यतीत करने की कला तथा विज्ञान है। योग से आत्मज्ञान की प्राप्ति तथा सभी प्रकार की शारीरिक परेशानियों को दूर करना है। योग मनुष्य के मन और आत्मा की अनंत क्षमता को बढ़ाकर आत्मज्ञान की प्राप्ति करवाता है। योग करने से हमें अच्छी नींद आती है तथा हमारा शरीर स्वस्थ और तंदुरुस्त रहता है। योग से हमें शांति तथा आनंद प्राप्त होता है। योग से हमारा मस्तिष्क एकाग्रचित होकर काम करता है तथा हमारे मन में अच्छे विचारों का निवास होता है। योग हमारे शरीर को स्वस्थ, लचीला तथा शक्तिशाली भी बनाए रखता है। 

New Delhi: Scientists have discovered a new virus similar to SARS-CoV-2 in a Russian bat that can infect humans and is resistant to currently available vaccines. 

In a research paper published Thursday in the journal PLOS Pathogens, researchers from Washington State University said the virus, known as ‘Khosta-2’, comes under a sub-category of coronaviruses called sarbecovirus — the same category to which SARS-CoV-2 belongs.

The discovery highlights the need to develop universal vaccines against sarbecoviruses to protect the human population against future Covid-like pandemics, the researchers point out. 

Sarbecoviruses are respiratory viruses that frequently undergo recombination — a process of viral strains mixing to make a new strain.

Researchers from the Washington State University in the US first discovered the virus in Russian bats in late 2020. 

The team had identified two new viruses and named them Khosta-1 and Khosta-2. They determined that while Khosta-1 didn’t pose much threat to humans, Khosta-2 demonstrated some troubling traits.

Although the virus initially appeared to pose no threat to humans, when they looked more closely, they were “really surprised to find they could infect human cells”, Michael Letko, WSU virologist and one of the authors of the study, said in a press statement. 

The team also found that Khosta-2 was resistant to both the monoclonal antibodies and serum from individuals vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. 

“Genetically, these weird Russian viruses looked like some of the others that had been discovered elsewhere around the world, but because they did not look like SARS-CoV-2, no one thought they were really anything to get too excited about,” Letko, a virologist at WSU, said in the statement. 

Although hundreds of sarbecoviruses have been discovered in recent years — predominantly in bats in Asia — the majority are incapable of infecting human cells, the team said. 

“That changes a little bit of our understanding of these viruses, where they come from, and what regions are concerning,” Letko said. 

“Our research further demonstrates that sarbecoviruses circulating in wildlife outside of Asia — even in places like western Russia where the Khosta-2 virus was found — also pose a threat to global health and ongoing vaccine campaigns against SARS-CoV-2,” Letko said. 

If you are addicted to binge-watching late at night, then know that it can be bad for your heart and push you towards diabetes because you are not able to burn enough fat for energy.

US researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have found that “night owls” are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes or heart disease than people who get to bed and wake up early.

 

London, (PTI) Children with certain immunodeficiency diseases may have a higher mortality rate due to COVID-19, according to a study.

Researchers noted that most children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 develop a mild illness or show no symptoms at all, but for a small percentage, serious complications may develop.

The study, recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that children with certain immunodeficiency diseases carry mutations in genes that regulate the body’s immune system against viral infections.

“Mortality is much higher among children with primary immunodeficiency diseases infected with SARS-CoV-2,” said Qiang Pan-Hammarstrom, a professor at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

“Our results indicate that basic immunological examination and genetic analysis should be conducted in children with severe COVID-19 or multi-inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). The clinicians will then be able to help these children with more precise therapies based on their genetic changes,” said Pan-Hammarstrom.

Researchers performed genetic and immunological analyses in young patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases — also called inborn errors of immunity — who developed severe or critical SARS-CoV-2 infection.

“Our results clarify the molecular mechanism of these immune diseases, which opens up the possibility of developing a more targeted therapy,” Pan-Hammarstrom said.

“The knowledge acquired from the study also allows us to develop better strategies for the treatment and prevention of severe COVID-19 disease in these patients,” the scientist said.

The study included 31 children aged five months to 19 years. All children had some type of primary immunodeficiency disease without a molecular diagnosis and suffered from severe COVID-19.

Participants were recruited from August to September 2020 in Iran. None of them were vaccinated against COVID-19.

Eleven of the children, more than one-third, died of complications from the infection, the researchers said.

Five children, 16 per cent, met the criteria for multi–inflammatory syndrome, MIS-C. Some of the children lacked antibodies to the coronavirus, they said.

“This suggests that many children with this type of immune disease cannot produce antiviral antibodies and therefore would not have the full benefit of vaccination,” said Hassan Abolhassani, assistant professor at Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s first author.

Genetic analyses showed that more than 90 per cent of the participants, 28 children, had mutations in genes that are important for our immune defense, and that could explain their immunodeficiency, the researchers said.

An important mechanism was mutations that affect proteins which regulate the immune system during virus infection, known as interferons, they said.

The study also included a literature review, where the researchers globally found reports of about 1,210 patients with primary immunodeficiency disease and COVID-19. About 30 per cent of them were children.

The mortality rate among children with primary immunodeficiency disease and COVID-19 was more than 8 per cent, compared with about 0.01 per cent among children in the general population, they added. PTI

 

A research team from the University of Cologne and the Universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg has found that even the single administration of alcohol permanently alters the morphology of neurons. In particular, the structure of the synapses as well as the dynamics of mitochondria – the powerhouses of the cell – are influenced by alcohol. Using the genetic model system of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, Professor Dr Henrike Scholz and her team members Michèle Tegtmeier und Michael Berger showed that changes in the migration of mitochondria in the synapses reduce the rewarding effect of alcohol. These results suggest that even a single consumption event can lay the foundation for alcohol addiction. The study ‘Single-dose ethanol intoxication causes acute and lasting neuronal changes in the brain’ has appeared in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

 

 

 

 

Which changes in the brain accompany the transition from sporadic drinking to chronic alcohol abuse? That is the question a joint research project with working groups at the University of Mannheim-Heidelberg and the University of Cologne explored. Most scientific research has examined the effects of chronic alcohol consumption on the hippocampus – the control centre of our brain. Because of this, little is known about the acute neuronal interactions of critical risk factors, such as a first alcohol intoxication at an early age, explained Henrike Scholz: ‘We set out to discover ethanol-dependent molecular changes. These, in turn, provide the basis for permanent cellular changes following a single acute ethanol intoxication. The effects of a single alcohol administration were examined at the molecular, cellular and behavioural levels.’ The working hypothesis was that, similar to the formation of memory after a single lesson, a single administration of ethanol would form a positive association with alcohol.

 

 

 

 

The team tested its hypothesis using research in fruit flies and mouse models and found ethanol-induced changes in two areas: mitochondrial dynamics and the balance between synapses in neurons. Mitochondria supply cells and especially nerve cells with energy. In order to optimally deliver the energy to the cells, the mitochondria move. The movement of the mitochondria was disturbed in the cells treated with ethanol. The chemical balance between certain synapses was also disturbed. These changes remained permanent and were confirmed by behavioural changes in the animals: Mice and fruit flies showed increased alcohol consumption and alcohol relapse later in life.

 

 

 

 

The morphological remodelling of neurons is a well-known basis for learning and memory. These so-called cellular plasticity mechanisms, which are central to learning and memory, are also thought to be at the core of the formation of associative memories for drug-related rewards. Therefore, some of the observed morphological changes may influence ethanol-related memory formation. Together with the migration of mitochondria in neurons, which are also important for synaptic transmission and plasticity, the researchers speculate that these ethanol-dependent cellular changes are critical for the development of addictive behaviours.

 

 

 

 

‘It is remarkable that the cellular processes contributing to such complex reward behaviour are conserved across species, suggesting a similar role in humans,’ said Henrike Scholz. ‘It could be a possible general cellular process essential for learning and memory.’

Both of the observed mechanisms could explain observations made in mice that a single intoxication experience can increase alcohol consumption and alcohol relapse later in life. ‘These mechanisms may even be relevant to the observation in humans that the first alcohol intoxication at an early age is a critical risk factor for later alcohol intoxication and the development of alcohol addiction,’ explained Professor Scholz. ‘This means that identifying lasting ethanol-dependent changes is an important first step in understanding how acute drinking can turn into chronic alcohol abuse.’

I don't know about you but whenever I see TV commercials that show active men and women looking all smiling and happy because they take vitamins or supplements... well, I start to feel bad about the fact that I do not choke down such things on a regular basis.

I usually make a mental vow to start taking a daily vitamin. The new gummy ones for adults are especially attractive to a kid at heart like Mr. Bad Food.

But after watching a recent Good Morning America report that basically says most people can get the vitamins and minerals they need from a balanced diet, I am rethinking my beliefs.

After all, the Diet-to-Go low-fat meal plan that I have been enjoying for the past year meet the guidelines of major health organizations like the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.

These delicious meals are properly portioned and balanced to give me what I need to get healthy and maybe even lose a little weight while I do so.

So if the GMA report is true, why are so many people plunking down so much money -- about $20 billion a year -- for vitamins and dietary supplements?

According to industry data, about half of all adult Americans take a daily multivitamin. So are we frittering away our money by doing so?

Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' senior health and medical editor, says that for most people, eating a well-balanced diet from all the food groups is the best way to ensure you get the vitamins you need.

Besser doesn't take vitamins and he doesn't recommend them for his patients who follow a well-balanced diet and aren't in any particular risk groups.

Mr. Bad Food doesn't want you to stop taking vitamins or supplements -- especially if you've been urged to do so by your doctor. But what

you can do is to make sure your daily diet is well-rounded so you are getting the nutrients you need to be healthy without supplements.

Two groups that should consider vitamins: pregnant women and the elderly. The best bets: Folic acid, vitamin D and calcium.

Folic acid is vital to a baby's early development.

"If you're in the child-bearing age, you need to take folic acid," Besser said. "It's really early in pregnancy that you need to have those high levels of folic acid.

"Start taking it now and take it through the period where you may have children."

Vitamin D is essential for bone health and we become deficient as we age. The good news: Many people get enough vitamin D through normal sun exposure.

"Vitamin D is extremely important," Besser said. "I am convinced about the importance of vitamin D in your bone health."

As we age, our skin loses its ability to make vitamin D. So if you're older or live in a northern climate where the sun isn't a daily visitor you may need more vitamin D.

Besser said it's not a bad idea to combine calcium with your vitamin D.

"When you mix calcium and vitamin D, that's when you get those strong bones," he said.

Sorry gummy vitamins... Mr. Bad Food will stick with his beloved Diet-to-Go meals to get his daily vitamins and minerals!

Author -John McGran