THOSE TIMES OF THE
YEAR!
The sad picture!
We'll are
very well acquainted with the kind of diet changes that we reinforce whenever
the calender hits a festival date. From those oily chaklis in Diwali to those
sweet puranpoli in holi, Indian tradition of festivals have undoubtedly a large
spectrum of palate varieties to offer.
Although the festivals come as good news
to most of us, some of us have a tough time controlling our taste buds and tend
to kind of, go with the flow. This is a problem, majorly for certain risk
groups like hypertensives, diabetics, etc. Thus, there turns up a need, to
curtail these cravings, both for the risk groups and even for the general
population. Here's a bunch of alternatives you can imply to help prevent these
sweet monsters over take over your health.
- Substitute!
Festivals like Diwali
have loads of sweets to offer which are rich in calories as they're basically
derived from sugar, ghee, etc. Try and minimize these components as much as you
can. Sugar can be replaced with sugar free residues which do not cause much alteration
to the taste. Ghee can be minimised as much as possible. Remember, every single
gram of fat counts!
- Keep a conscious approach
Avoid
over eating : invariably it is noticed that the foods consumed during the
festive seasons have no Barre to their consumption and one tends to over look
the amount of sweets one consumes, because let's face it , who doesn't like
sweets? Well a conscious effort needs to be made at this stage to prevent
excess consumption of any type of sweet
given the price at which this temporary pleasure comes at.
- Excess fluids!
Drink as much of water
as you can. This not only dilutes the acid in your stomach, thus reflexly
inhibiting the hunger vibes, physically it also gives one a sense of fullness in the tummy. Consequently , one
tends to eat less. This is one reverse method to prevent excess sweet
consumption.
- Make the plates smaller!
Sounds
silly, but this simple gesture can psychologically challenge your mind that
whatever you will be having, is just going to be restricted to this plate and
nothing more to it. That way, you eat slowly, digestive every nibble you chew
on, thus effectively filling your stomach rather earlier.
- Serve supplementary dishes too. While
serving, don't just place sweets and mithai on your plate, also make
sure there are extra supplements like nuts, etc present on the plate. One needs
to resist the craving to eat sweets when served in front of them. In case it
becomes impossible to resist, that is when one targets the supplementary nuts,
thus effectively decreasing sweet consumption.
At the end
of the day, it's the consumer’s call, what kind of a life he expects down the
line and how does he act accordingly in such situations. These interventions
just help the individual reach his target of no sweets, but at the end of the
day it's his will power only that makes a difference.
