Diwali is a festival of celebration of lights, colors, lanterns, fireworks and last but not the least a very important aspect as mouth-watering food items known as ‘Pharal’ prepared specially in Diwali. So enjoy this Diwali with some important and healthy tips and some healthy recipes. Many of you gain weight during this season and also your blood sugar levels go heavier in case of the diabetic patients.
But then the festival celebrations shouldn’t stop! Don’t worry, here are some tips for healthy Diwali with Diwali healthy recipes which are delicious, so that you can enjoy eating them without any guilt.
Tips to keep blood sugar under control on Diwali:
1. Manage your Breakfast
Replace your usual breakfast with food items that have minimum calories so that you can have space for more calories in the evening when you will have to meet friends and relatives.
2. Reduce your calories at work
Limit your caffeine intake by reducing the amount of tea or coffee that you consume. Each cup of tea/coffee that you avoid- reduces the calorie intake by 50 kcals!! Reduce your consumption of aerated drinks- they add an extra 145 kcals for each 200 ml that you drink. Limit these calorie-rich beverages to avoid a sugar rush and the extra calories.
3.Workout
Exercise is an important part of your daily routine. Make sure that you include and set aside time for some exercises every day. Small exercises- chair exercises, walking, yoga, stretching etc- help in improving the metabolic rate of the body and leads to losing some of the extra weight and also prepares the body to burn the extra calories which will be eaten during Diwali.
4. Food Rich in Fiber and Water
Always try and choose foods that are rich in fiber and add a lot of water as well.
5. Take Small Portions –
With Diwali round the corner, you will be visiting your friends and family. With each visit, you land up eating a snack, it becomes important that you control your portions. Controlling portion sizes and eating in limited quantities will help you to eat a more variety of foods.
6. Choose Low-Calorie Sweets
Sweets are also divided into two categories. Each time you visit someone for Diwali, choose a low-calorie snack. Dry fruits like Walnuts, Almonds are a good option here.
7. Choose your Dinner
Pay attention to what you take at dinner. Usually, you have more freedom at dinner, especially if you are at home. You can choose to have a high protein- low carbohydrate food, or have soups or an early dinner to compensate for the day’s food extravagance.
8. Visiting Friends and eating healthy
When you visit your friends and relatives, try to take some nuts/ fruits rather than sweets. Nuts, fruits are healthy and save you from a lot of calorie intake too.
9. Use Natural Sweeteners
For preparing Diwali dishes, use natural sweeteners such as dates, raisins, fruits, honey instead of using artificial sweeteners such as sugar-free and jaggery or table sugar.
10. Prepare healthier foods
While preparing Diwali pharal items, use low fat, low sugar options. You can use skimmed milk instead of whole fat milk.
11. Saturated Fats
Avoid Vanaspati ghee/ dalda completely.
12. Choose healthier alternatives for traditionally prepared dishes.
- Mixed dry fruit laddu vs. besan/ rawa laddu
- Roasted chivda with added sprouts/ tomato/ salad vs. fried chivda
- Mixed grain baked shankarpali vs. sweet shankarpali
- Baked palak or ragi shev vs. fried besan shev
- Baked karanji vs. kried karanji
13. Double your Salads
When you take sweets/ snacks from Diwali pharal items, add double the amount of salads and fruits to your plate.
14. Nuts and Seeds
Eat dry roasted nuts, seeds, and dry fruits instead of fried, salted nuts and sugared version.
15. Start your meal with a liquid
Before eating snacks, drink a glass of water or any unsweetened liquid.
16. Compensate for extra calories consumed
As a rule, you should b=never fast or feast being a diabetic. Though, if you have eaten extra, you can compensate by eating less rice, chapatis, bread during the meal.
17. Never skip your work out/ exercise
Try to burn as many calories as possible especially during this festive season as you have consumed an extra amount of calories than your regular day.
How much you need to burn if you eat any one of the Diwali pharal item? Let’s have a look.
| Pharal
item | Calories | Walking
(min) | Swimming
(min) | Cycling
(min) | Running
(min) | Climbing steps
(min) |
| 1 Karanji | 180 | 55 | 35 | 45 | 45 | 35 |
| 1 K Shev | 170 | 50 | 35 | 45 | 45 | 35 |
| 1 Chakali | 100 | 30 | 20 | 25 | 25 | 20 |
| 1 Laddu | 200 | 60 | 40 | 50 | 50 | 40 |
| 1 K Chivda | 120 | 35 | 24 | 30 | 30 | 24 |
| 1 K Sweet Shankarpali | 280 | 85 | 56 | 70 | 70 | 56 |
| 1 Anarsa | 250 | 75 | 50 | 65 | 65 | 50 |
Read also – 1)Celebrate this Diwali with High Protein Healthy Ladoos 2)https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/delicious-and-healthy-recipes-for-a-guilt-free-diwali/
