With Diwali being around the corner, people all over the nation are in a festive mood. It is officially the season of gifts, crackers and lots of sweets! The entire environment is magical with happy faces all around.
People are exchanging sweets as a token of love and happiness. They, no doubt, are having a great time. However, among all these celebrations, fitness sometimes take the back seat. This further results in health issues post the celebration. Keeping that in mind, here we have brought you top 5 tips for a safe and healthy Diwali –
Avoid Packaged Edibles
Packaged sweets are one of the most common sight during Diwali. With an attractive packaging and a catchy tagline, one can easily spot these on the shelves of supermarkets and streets. A large group of people even decide to exchange them over homemade sweets due to their easy availability.
People, in the festive rush, forget the fact that these are bad for health. These packaged sweets contain artificial ingredients that are engineered to make you consume them more and more. Besides being low in nutrients and fiber, they contain a large number of refined carbohydrates, trans fats which are digested quickly leaving you craving for more subsequently making you fat. Consider exchanging homemade sweets rather than these and wish your loved ones a happy and safe Diwali.
Baked Gulab Jamun
Gulab jamuns give us one of the most heavenly feelings in the world. Sipping on the hot fried skimmed milk and the sugar syrup is one of the most cherishable memories of Diwali every year. But this sweetness comes with a price tag. A lot of oil and sugar goes into preparing these. However, for you what if you could still satisfy your sweet tooth? Curious, aren’t you? We have a very healthy Indian recipe for you.
All you need to do is to bake the gulab jamuns instead of frying and soak them in jaggery syrup. Baked sweets are much healthier as compared to their fried counterparts. This would let you enjoy their taste without any guilt.
Dry Gifts
A suitable alternative to sweets this Diwali is to gift each other dry fruits. Being devoid of oil and sugar that goes into preparing a lot of sweets, they are healthy and tasty at the same time. Dry fruits are a rich source of nutrients and do not make you gain fat unknowingly.
Apart from that, while you are gifting dry fruits this Diwali, you should also switch to a dry celebration. Enjoy non-alcoholic drinks and keep the celebration safe. After all, there is no use of partying if you can’t even cherish it the very next morning! You don’t want to spend the festive season in a hangover, do you?
Healthy Multi-Grain Laddoos
Ladoos hold a very special position in our lives when it comes to sweets and Diwali is a special occasion when we get to feast on the lovely goodness of this sweet without worrying about anything. Even though this sweet comes packed with a lot of calories and sugar, you can consume them without any guilt if you work a little bit harder.
Multi-grain laddoos prepared using ragi or jowar are a healthier alternative to laddoos and are equally delicious. Use palm syrup instead of the regular sugar and get the same taste!
Steamed Halwa
Talking about Diwali, how can Halwa be left behind? Tracing its origin back to the middle east, it has found a special place in the heart of Indians. Carrot Halwa especially is everyone’s favorite and a must-have in every festival menu. One of the best ways to indulge in this sweet goodness in a guilt-free manner is to steam the carrot rather than frying.
This reduces the amount of oil and ghee that goes into making them. Substituting the condensed milk for a milk powder base also results in a much lower fat content.
Hence, these were some of the helpful tips to turn your Diwali into a healthy and safe Diwali. If you are aware of any other recipes that could also be added to this list, do comment in the comments section below.
Also, this Diwali promise yourself to keep the festival full of color and happiness. Drive the darkness away, let the lights shine, enjoy these low-calorie sweets and have a luminous and safe Diwali.
Happy Diwali!
