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Watch your plate
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At home or outside, the mantra is `eat right' to keep fit
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THE URBAN Indian is fighting the battle of the bulge. Our lifestyles are changing drastically. Eating out has become the norm rather than an exception. Working women, with a tight schedule, eat out often. We also face the need to party, both for social and work-related reasons. Children have discovered a plethora of tongue-tickling fast foods inundating the marketplace, and demand to be taken out.
Look around you. Restaurants are proliferating at an alarming rate. Keeping pace with them are a number of gyms. There is a message there somewhere! Women are being tempted with the wrong types of food and then performing penance by going to weight loss clinics.
Is there a magic formula to eating right?
Eating right is simple enough. It means choosing a diet that is:
Low in saturated fat and cholesterol, high in vegetables and fruits and high in calcium.
It means staying away from beverages and foods that are high in sugar or salt.
What should I be eating?
The basis of a healthy diet is the consumption of grains, fruits and vegetables. A balanced diet will include a combination of
* Rice, chapattis or pasta.
* Plenty of fruits and vegetables (at least five servings every day). For instance, a banana, 2 cups/katoris of vegetables, a glass of orange juice and a salad will give you five servings in a day. These provide you essential antioxidants.
* Low-fat or skimmed milk (gives you calcium and milk protein but without the fat). Even overweight children and pregnant women can be given low-fat milk without losing any of the benefits of drinking milk.
* Dried whole lentils such as kabuli channa, rajma, peas and beans.
* Fish, meat and chicken with the fat trimmed.
* Egg (If you are concerned about the cholesterol in the yolk, the white of the egg by itself is all protein).
Avoid deep fried foods. Boiling, steaming and light frying are healthy ways of cooking food.
Remember to keep food portions small. Eating from a smaller plate tricks your mind into believing you are eating more. Put your side dishes in small cups (katoris). This will help you monitor how many times you refill the cup and will avoid insidious overeating.
We are all trained from childhood to empty our plates, so we end up eating even after we are full. These habits die hard! We also eat to satisfy our taste buds and not our hunger. This leads to taking in more calories than the body needs. We need to retrain ourselves to be able to recognise when we are full. To achieve this:
* Eat slowly and Chew well.
* Stop eating when you feel full.
* Drink a large glass of water or diluted buttermilk, or eat a fruit, half an hour before your meal — this will fool your body into thinking that you are already half-full before you start!
* Don't watch TV or read a book while you are eating. You will be surprised at how much food sneaks into your mouth when your attention is elsewhere!
Sumithra asks: I end up eating out a lot because my work demands it. My husband too is an executive and we have to attend an inordinate number of parties as a couple. What should we do in these situations?
These are some guidelines you can follow:
* Eat a fruit or drink a glass of fruit juice before you go to the party or wedding.
* Choose small portions and go in for salads.
* Eat more vegetables and don't load your plate.
* Avoid deep fried food.
* Remember that alcohol packs hidden calories.
GITA ARJUN
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