Light up your HEALTH

Namaste & Shubh Deepavali Health Enthusiasts!

Diwali marks the embarkment of a new year as per the Hindu calendar. The festival of Diwali comes with a lot of hope, light, love, celebrations and a table full of festive foods. Though the year 2020 has been dull, restrictive and confining but it definitely is no reason for us to start the new year without the spark and spontaneity of this festival and indulge in all the fiesta and delicacies.

Never ever has health been that much of a priority as it has been in this COVID-19 times and at the same time it has become all the more necessary and deserving to take a break and enjoy this festival with your family and close ones. This write up has all the dietary announcements that needs to be heard this Diwali. While we try to welcome our palate with simple carbohydrates, high fat and high salt foods more easily during the festival let us remind that these are major causative factors of diseases like Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart problems. The Indian diet consists of more than 65% of total energy coming from carbohydrates which is much higher than the ideal requirements (1). Let’s not forget that along with these dietary factors the high genetic susceptibility towards chronic degenerative diseases and poor dietary practices seen in Indians calls for more attention to both the diet and eating habits(2).

Our health is in our hands and it is important to note the foods your hands reach out to this Diwali. Foods like besan ladoo, nariyal ladoo, motichoor ladoo, gulab jamun, shakkar para, karanji are commonly seen in abundance as our traditional Diwali sweets – All these sweets are loaded with sugar, refined carbohydrates and high fats. The emergence of various Diwali hampers has also seen the incorporation of homemade chocolates and assorted nuts and dry fruits, this further adds to the varied ways in which you could introduce within your system a delight of taste that leaves a residual heaviness of excess calories in the form of body fat that remains with you even after Diwali.

We usually form new resolutions with every new year. This Diwali let us not make resolutions because resolutions are difficult to follow. This Diwali let us look at the positive aspects of foods, learn ways of substituting ingredients that we need to restrict, let us reduce the portion size of our sweets by dividing and sharing with others. Let us derive happiness from the moments we spend in buying, preparing and distributing foods and not just focus merely on eating. Hope we are mindful and savor the sweets and dry snacks avoiding the mere engulfment of food mindlessly.

TIPS FOR MAKING HEALTHIER FOOD CHOICES THIS DIWALI

1. Sharing is Caring

What may be high calories for you may be a basic necessity for someone, so why not share and distribute your sweets with your loved ones and also the more deserving ones around you. I hope you do understand the deeper meaning of sharing it with someone who will benefit more from the calories. While you share you can keep aside a small portion of the sweet that you can enjoy.

Distribution and division are the key to smaller portion.

2.Make your Calories Nutritive

Instead of going for dishes made of simple carbohydrates like sugar and refined flour that only gives you calories go for dishes that use whole ingredients like dry fruits, nuts and seeds as it will provide you with fiber and micronutrients.

3. Don't Stock on Sweets

Diwali is unique because of its sweet treats but at the same time they are high in calories, simple carbohydrates and fats. While you shop make certain you buy only according to your personal requirement, for gifting and distribution.

One should not stock their house with a lot of sweets as then the temptation to consume it is also high.

5. Healthier Cooking Methods

Cooking method can be altered for the same recipe to reduce the caloric density of the food. For e.g. Instead of deep frying the nuts and sev/gathiya, roast your nuts and bake the sev/gathiya.

6.Snack Healthy Before You Step Out

Before you head out for a gathering or a party make sure you have eaten a filler or a healthy snack so that you don’t have a big appetite.

For e.g. Before leaving home, snack on a fruit or two OR some boiled sprouts to reduce your appetite.

7. Nod Your Head Left and Right

Reduce overeating of high carbohydrate foods, sweets and deep-fried snacks towards the end of the day. For e.g. If you have been eating a lot of sweets during the day say NO to them towards the end of the day.

The key to refrain is to learn to enunciate the word ‘NO’ more often.

8. Start Your Day by Hydrating Yourself

Don’t forget to start your morning with a low-calorie refreshing drink. For e.g. You can have lemon & mint water in the morning or a lemon tea or any combination of your choice or simply plain drinking water will help.

9. Stay Hydrated Throughout the Day

With the spread of all different kinds of sweets and savories don't forget to drink enough fluids throughout the day. Just see to it that you drink around 8 glasses of water in a day.

As Lord Gautam Buddha has said “To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” The above tips should not be considered as an optional dietary tip easier forgotten but rather should become a way of life.

“Here comes Diwali with love and laughter in every family

Here comes Diwali with a mood for party and a season of frenzy

With sweets and savories, let’s choose for healthier dietary options

With new dresses and decorations, let’s also choose a healthier version of ourselves

Let’s ignite the lamp of wellness and do away with the darkness of ill-health”.

Authors: Sakina Tabha (Studying M.Sc. Foods, Nutrition & Dietetics) & Pushpa Pal (Studying M.Sc. Foods, Nutrition & Dietetics)

Reviewer - Fatima Kader (Assistant Professor, Dept. Foods, Nutrition & Dietetics, College of Home Science, Nirmala Niketan)

References:

1. Nethan, S., Sinha, D., & Mehrotra, R. (2017). Non Communicable Disease Risk Factors and their Trends in India. Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 18(7), 2005–2010. https://doi.org/10.22034/APJCP.2017.18.7.2005

2. Joshi, S. R., Bhansali, A., Bajaj, S., Banzal, S. S., Dharmalingam, M., Gupta, S., Mukhopadhyay, S., Shah, P. R., Sahay, R., Sarkar, S., Manjrekar, P. V., Rathod, R. T., & Joshi, S. S. (2014). Results from a dietary survey in an Indian T2DM population: a STARCH study. BMJ open, 4(10), e005138. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005138

3. Palaniappan, L., Garg, A., Enas, E., Lewis, H., Bari, S., Gulati, M., Flores, C., Mathur, A., Molina, C., Narula, J., Rahman, S., Leng, J., & Gany, F. (2018). South Asian Cardiovascular Disease & Cancer Risk: Genetics & Pathophysiology. Journal of community health, 43(6), 1100–1114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-018-0527-8