This week I want to share how you can still enjoy your traditional Indian treats without feeling deprived.
I’ve been guiding many of my clients to lose weight and get healthier. And they are doing this whilst still enjoying their traditional foods, including their favourite snacks.
There are many foods that we are accustomed to having and these often are our comfort foods which we grew up eating and these make us feel good. However, having large portions of these will just leave us feeling heavier and lethargic. Also, when we have a lot of processed foods it can lead to indigestion and bloating.
Over the years there has been an increase in the number of people who have Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and blood pressure and one of the reasons for this is weight gain, which increases the risk of many chronic diseases.
Now you don’t need to give up your treats during the year. The first thing to do is become aware of your portion sizes and not have them in large portions. And if it’s too tempting, put these foods at the back of the pantry or fridge where you can’t see them easily.
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Secondly, begin to make some healthy swaps when having your treats.
Some simple suggestions are:
Instead of mainly fried snacks like bhel, chaat, chevdah, gathia and chakri, can you have roasted or baked snacks. I would suggest having a healthy bhel or dhokra as this tastes delicious but is lower in fat. And you can also bake your samosas or pakodas instead of deep frying them.
Many Indian desserts are made using milk, ghee, flour and sugar. And some of these like gulab jamun and ras malai are first fried and then added into a syrup to sweeten; so high in both fat and sugar. Make your own sweet treats using less sugars. Instead of high fat and sugar carrot halwa make it yourself, so you can have dessert but aren’t worrying about weight gain or indigestion.
As you can see, you don’t need to give these up but find a healthy balance and have these in smaller portions.
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Sujata Din is a Certified Health Coach and Certified Professional Cancer Coach. In this regular column for iGlobal, she offers some special insights, from useful wellness tips to recipes for creations that are not only delicious but also healthy.