Eat the right sweets this Diwali

Come October and Indians are already in Diwali mood. One important aspect of the celebrations involves consumption of sweets accompanied by rich fried snacks. These are an essential part of socializing. However, here are a few things you need to note:

1. Buy sweets with quality certifications: : We all indulge in commercial sweets but remember they are high on calories, may contain transfat, harmful artificial colours, stabilizers, emulsifiers and unhealthy bulking agents. Sometimes synthetic milk is also used. They can cause allergies and affect your kidneys and liver as well as trigger asthma attacks. Make sure you buy your sweets from reputed outlets preferably having quality certification.

2. Watch the calories: Be aware of the calorie content of Indian sweets. The following may help you choose the most suitable :

CALORIE ALERT

• One boondi ladoo -185

• One rasmalai-180

• One rasgulla-170

• One gulab jamun--143-150

• One jalebi-140-150

• One piece sandesh-143

• One besan ladoo-140

• One plain burfi-125

• One kaju barfi-90

Remember that no one has just “one jalebi”. The count goes upto 3-4. So we are looking at a total calorie count of atleast 420. Jalebi is one of the most fattening sweets.

3. Other things to watch out for:

a. Some sweets like barfi have silver coatings. This maybe adulterated with Aluminium, which is hazardous, accumulates in bone tissues, may enter the brain and can cause dementia.

b. Toxic synthetic milk: Beware that a high percentage of milk solids used for making sweets are adulterated with synthetic milk made with urea and detergents which may cause liver and kidney failure

c. The transfat used in sweets are partially hydrogenated cheap vegetable oils and are known to cause lifestyle problems like hypertension, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes , cancer and more.

4. Switch to healthy homemade options: If you have a choice, go in for homemade sweets which would definitely be more healthy, lesser in calories and at the same time satisfy your sweet cravings.

a. There are plenty of healthy ingredients from which you can pick and choose. You may use any of the ingredients like oats, whole wheat flour, “ragi” , “besan”, “ jowar”, “bajra” and a few nuts, dried coconut, figs, dates, thickened skimmed milk, a little ghee, combined with organic jaggery and honey. These may be used to churn out an assortment of sweets like ladoos, cookies etc. There is no need for added sugar.

b. Another very healthy option is serving fruit slices dipped in melted dark chocolate or a fresh sweet salad made with anar (pomegranate), apple, figs, dried apricot, cranberries , raisins and walnuts with a honey dressing.

Watch out for my next article on :

DON’T PUT ON WEIGHT THIS DIWALI.

https://www.nutritionwithneera.com/single-post/2017/09/27/Party-hard-but-don’t-put-on-weight-this-festive-season

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