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Eco-friendly earthen utensils gain popularity over modern ones

This summer has seen an increase in the number of families opting to use earthenware in their homes. Nothing like a swig of cool water from a clay pot to quench thirst on a hot day. Vendors in Valluvarkottam, Besant Nagar and Velachery say that they get as many as 40-50 customers a day asking for water holders, cooking utensils and pots made of terracotta.

Eco-friendly earthen utensils gain popularity over modern ones
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Chennai

Their eco-friendly nature is one of the reasons why people are going back to traditional pots and pans, according to the sales staff at K Janaki Clay Pots, a small shop on Kodambakkam High Raod. “First, people have become conscious of environmental pollution and they want to make small changes at home. Replacing plastic bottles with clay ones is an easy step,” they say.


The 30-year-old Krithika and her husband Narayanan are both IT professionals based in OMR but share a passion for all things natural. “We know that our generation lives in an artificial world where even the vegetables we eat aren’t grown naturally. So, by replacing our cookware with traditional vessels, we hope to trace our way of living back to our ancestors’. Right from cooking food to setting curd and storing water, we have switched to the healthy way,” she says. Their aim is to set up a self-sustainable, eco-friendly home within the next five years.


A city-based NGO called Visai has been conducting awareness programmes about waste segregation, micro plastics and so on. Its founder Saravanan S says, “Everyone knows that reusable plastic has been banned so we are encouraging people to replace it with eco-friendly material through our project called Plastic Parithabangal.” Through a social media campaign called #PlasticSwapChallenge, they have been motivating people to give up plastic water bottles for earthen and copper ones.


Second, cooking in earthen utensils also has many health benefits. “A clay pot’s porous nature allows both moisture and heat to circulate through the food, which results in aroma. It also retains nutrition, which is generally lost in steel or aluminium utensils,” says Ayurveda expert Shanti Nair, who conducts workshops on traditional food and medicine in the city.


A Few health benefits of cooking in earthenware:

  • Clay is alkaline in nature and when it interacts with the acidity in the food, it neutralises the pH balance eventually making it healthier.
  • Due to its heat resistance, the food retains all the natural oils and moisture while slow-cooking, hence, extra oil need not be added.
  • Earthen utensils are not very expensive and cost-efficient compared to most other types of utensil. 
  • Cooking in a clay vessel infuses the food with many important nutrients like calcium, phosphorous, iron, magnesium and sulphur.

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