It’s Diwali! It’s a time of celebrations and feasting with family and friends. While food is an integral part of festivals, there is a constant fear of gaining extra kilos. You need to select the festive food mindfully to avoid health issues and sudden weight gain. Time has changed and there’s no dearth of healthy Indian sweets that one can consume without feeling guilty. To understand what to consume and how, we got in touch with Anand Panwar, Executive Pastry Chef, Roseate Hotels & Resorts, and Sukesh Kanchan, Executive Chef at Sana-di-ge, Delhi. Here’s what they have to say:
Avoid white coloured sweets
Chef Panwar tells us, “During the Diwali season, one tends to buy and indulge in a lot of Indian mithai. An important tip is to select milk sweets with brown colour over white, to avoid rancidity. For instance, choose brown pedas over burfi. Select laddu with grains over khoya laddus. Also, another way to ensure that you gorge on healthy options is to choose anything with dry fruit like anjeer burfi or date burfi. They are healthy choices but are expensive too. To make it simple, avoid white and colourful sweets and go for the natural colour of ingredients or cooking.”
Keep hygiene in mind
Chef Kanchan adds, “Deepawali is a festival of love and fun, where you visit your loved ones, spend time with them and gorge on delicious sweets and sumptuous food. Since our body is not habitual to heavy food and sweets on regular basis, it adversely affects our health. Thus, on Diwali, we need to be extra careful about what we eat and how much we can consume. Hygiene is also an important factor that people tend to overlook. Always ensure that the place from where you are buying sweets or eateries should follow proper safety and hygiene protocols. Furthermore, there are various healthy alternatives available these days like gluten-free, sugar-free, nuts, raagi sweets, etc. One can choose from a wide range of options to enjoy a carefree Diwali.”
Be Mindful
The key to consuming everything and yet staying fit is –moderation. Avoid sugar and maida as these cause inflammation in the body which can increase your chances of chronic diseases. Happy Diwali!
