Eating Light

Being healthy is not about eating light, it’s about eating right, explains Vandana Luthra as she takes Sheetal Wadhwa Munshaw through a regular regime

In the hurly-burly of corporate lifestyle, the one area that suffers the most is health. Most professionals are conscious about their physical appearances and take recourse to all sorts of crash diets and pills to lose weight, but that is definitely futile in the years ahead. Dieting and starving one’s self is not required to maintain health. What matters is that one should follow standard eating patterns and eat the right combination of food that includes vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and fibre. What one needs to control is the eating pattern, avoid over-eating one day and starving the next. Moreover, one should know their individual calorie requirement that is determined on the basis of one’s weight and height. Also based on this, one should know how much activity is required. Consult a nutritionist, who will guide you with your personal requirements just as you would see a physician for a common cold or a designer for your apparel. Visiting a slimming centre or a weight loss clinic will help you strike the right balance as a nutritionist tests the body composition and advises you to eat as per the requirements of your body.

On an average, a woman should normally consume 1,200 calories a day and a man 1,800 calories. One should eat five to six meals in a day at regular intervals to keep one’s metabolism working. Eat less greasy foods and make the right choices.

Let’s go through some of the commonly eaten cuisines:

Chinese - Eat steamed fish, steamed not fried rice, eat a lot of vegetables, and avoid corn flour soups, eat clear soups instead.

Thai - Yes! the red and green Thai curries are the most popular but the least healthy. Don’t eat curries that are made in coconut milk. Instead, eat curries made in soya sauce.

Indian - To start with one must not eat rice and roti together. It is always preferable to eat rotis but if one is a rice eater, don’t eat it more than thrice a week and always opt for brown rice as it is healthier. Maida products in general should be avoided. Eat food that is rich in fibre as it is easier to digest. Avoid the dal makhnis and paneer makhanwalas. Instead, eat yellow sabut masoor dal and lots of vegetables. Non-vegetarians should stick to grilled fish or chicken.

Italian - In terms of healthy eating, Italian salads are great. But on an average Italian cuisine is way too rich to be consumed on a daily basis. It’s best saved for indulgent weekends.

Take a look at the ideal everyday diet:

Breakfast - Eat fruits, they’re excellent, be it papaya, pineapple, orange, apple or watermelon. Fruits that should be avoided include bananas, chickoos and mangoes. Eat a big bowl of porridge, oats or corn flakes. Depending on your level of obesity one should have double toned, single toned or skimmed milk. Scrambled or poached eggs with whole wheat bread make for great breakfasts. Idli sambar is also very good. What you need to do is combine any two things listed above and you have got yourself a wholesome breakfast. Breakfast should ideally be eaten by 9.30-10 am latest.

In terms of exercise, walks are not recommended in the morning. Instead meditate, relax, de-stress, think positive, eat well, and give yourself a good start.

Lunch - Lunches should be wholesome. For a continental meal, take two pieces of grilled fish or chicken. Top it up with loads of vegetables and a bowl of clear soup. In case it’s a Chinese meal, it should be steamed rice with steamed fish or chicken. If you’re eating a South Indian meal, idli sambar is a great idea. Avoid dosas completely as they are made in a lot of oil. Sambar is good as it is made of a lot of vegetables and finally rasam is extremely good and you could combine it with rice. In case of Indian cuisine, eat two rotis or chapatis and try and use atta that has a combination of wheat and black chana powder. Any dal is good and one vegetable is a must. While non-vegetarian in a meal like this can be avoided, die hard meat eaters must stick to grilled chicken. To complete it, eat salad and curd.

Evening snack - For the evening, have one or two glasses of butter milk or eat fruit if you haven’t taken any for breakfast. Even a fruit platter combining seasonal fruits is great. For those who can’t do without their evening tea, have a cup and accompany it with some microwave snacks. Coffee is not great for the skin, so it should be avoided. When it comes to tea, avoid masala chai. Black tea with little or no milk like a Darjeeling or Assam tea is perfect. The one thing to avoid with tea is sugar – ideally one teaspoon is sufficient. For people on the heavier side even half will do. Remember you consume sugar in other forms through the day.

Dinner - Walk for an hour before dinner or at least 45 minutes. Dinner should be the same as lunch in terms of content but in terms of quantity cut it down by half. So, if you eat two chapatis for lunch don’t eat more than one chapati for dinner. If you’re still hungry eat a fruit. Drink milk before you sleep, it’s healthy and also has a tranquilising effect so you’re sure to sleep well. One should eat an early dinner, before 9-9.30 pm, ideally.

(Vandana Luthra is proprietor of Vandana Luthra Curls & Curves (VLCC) and is a renowned nutritionist and cosmetologist)