It’s Time to …..Spring Clean your Diet

With spring just around the corner, people are getting ready to welcome the warmer months by clearing the junk, dust and dirt accumulated over the past few months and storing away the woollies for the next winter. This year along with spring cleaning your house, how about cleaning your diet too?
Spring cleaning the diet follows the same principles as that of cleaning your house-throw out the junk and stock up on the good stuff. Here are some tips to help you to start with:
Things to throw out/stop:
• Bhujias, sev, chivda/farsaan
• Chips, French fries and other fried stuff which are the regular snacks on cold winter evenings.
• Butter/ghee and the 5-10 liter oil bottles which was being liberally used on almost everything from dals to rotis,
• Egg puffs, aloo buns, vegetable puffs/patties
• Parathas, poories,pakodas/bajjis, samosas, vadas, butter chicken,
• All those ‘garam garam’ halwas-carrot, mung dal, sooji, kaju and such.
• Alcohol that was used as an excuse to “warm the cockles of the heart”!
With warm weather, the thought of oily, heavy food can make people sick in the stomach. Warmer weather calls for lighter cooking methods, more salads, fruits, buttermilk/chaas, and yogurts/curd.

Here’s a Simple Indian diet for Spring/Summer:
Early morning: Hot water or Tea
Breakfast: Idlis + chutney and papaya
Mid-morning: Masala chaas/buttermilk OR Tender coconut water

Lunch: Brown rice/semi-polished rice
Dal palak + cauliflower peas sabzi
Yogurt+Cucumber salad

Evening: Tea/ coffee with fruit chaat
Dinner: Phulkas with capsicum sabzi
Masoor dal,
Carrot raita
Mango

Don’t forget to keep yourself hydrated with at least 10-12 glasses of water every day.

Sample Diet For A Fast Paced Life

Now that Smitha Suresh has briefed us on "Nutrition For A Fast Paced Life",let us see what a day's diet would look like if you choose from the healthy options:
Sample Diet *:
On Rising: A glass of water +1/2 cup skimmed milk for tea/coffee(1 tsp sugar)
Breakfast: Plain Wheatflakes +cut fruits +1/2 cup skimmed milk
Mid-morning: Fruit + Thin buttermilk
Lunch: Kichidi (with mixed vegs)
+Kadhi (no pakoda)
+Garden salad(No dressing)
+Fruit
Tea time: 1/2 cup skimmed milk for tea/coffee(1 tsp sugar)
2-3 high fibre Marie biscuits
Dinner: Clear tomato soup/ Rasam
+Phulkas(No oil/ghee)
+Palak( with moong) curry(less oil)
+low fat curd/Raitha
+Fruit

*Note: the quantities have not been mentioned, as that needs to be determined individually.