Light up Your Diwali in a Healthy Way

Diwali or Deepavali is the festival of light, celebrated through out the India.  In the eastern part of India this festival celebrated as Deepavali and northern India celebrated as Diwali. Diwali is a symbol of “victory of light over darkness, goods over evil and knowledge over ignorance” Diwali celebration is incomplete without the good food specially sweets which contain high calorie, ruined diet plans and healthy eating habits.

To celebrate Diwali along with healthy diet you have to follow some small corrective measures. Some healthy way to enjoy Diwali are:

• Stay hydrated: to prevent after Diwali health problem, try to stay hydrated. Take small and frequent sips of seasonal fruit juice or water to maintain hydration.
• Select healthy snacks in as an alternative of unhealthy, high calorie fried snacks.
• Select home made food instead of outside foods,
• Try to limit fried snacks and high calorie dessert,
• Altered sweets with dry fruits,
• Limit portion size while taking sweets and snacks,
• Select sweet smartly, like opt for Rosgulla instead of Gulab jamun,
• Try to avoid storing excess sweets and snacks at home,
• You can prepare sweets at home using pure deshi ghee. Ghee contain essential fat, vitamins like A, D, E which are required to protect your bones, skin and immune functions. Along with desi ghee you can add seasame seed which has a good source of calcium. Desi ghee if consumed in limited quantity, it helps to reduce body weight and maintaining glucose level in diabetes.
• You can add organic jaggery or khand as a substitute of refined sugar.
• While shopping for gift, try to choose healthy gift items, like a box of mix dry fruits, assorted seasonal fruits etc.
• To prevent after Diwali health problem, try to stay hydrated. Take small and frequent sips of juice or water to maintain hydration.

Some healthy sweets and mithai option:

• Sesame seed, dry fruit and coconut laddo,
• Dry fruit barfi,
• Elaichi granola bar,
• Oat apple crumble.

Recipe for sesame seed, dry fruits and coconut laddo:

Ingredients:

• Sesame seed ¼ cup
• Grated coconut ½ cup
• Jaggery 1 ½ cup,
• Almonds ¼ cup,
• Walnut ¼ cup,
• Raisins ¼ cup,
• Cashew nuts ¼ cup,
• Dates ¼ cup
• Pistachio ¼ cup,
• Cardamom powder 2 tsp,
• Desi Ghee 2 tbsp.
• Water 1 cup

Process:

1. Dry roast the sesame seeds in a flat pan on medium heat. Do this till they are a very pale golden color and aromatic.
2. Chopped the all dry fruits (almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, pistachio, dates ) in small pieces.
3. Put the jaggery and water in a pan and melt to form a thick syrup.
4. Add the toasted sesame seeds, chopped dry fruits and raisins to the syrup and mix well.
5. Add the ghee and cardamom powder and mix well. Take off from heat.
6. Grease your palms and when the mixture is still hot (but cool enough to handle) take enough in your hand to form a golf ball-sized lump. Roll between your palms till smooth. Lay on a greased plate to cool. Repeat till all the mixture is used up. The ladoos will soon harden to candy-like texture.

Enjoy your Diwali in healthy way. Stay healthy be happy.

 Tags: Diwali, festival session, HealthTip, Healthy Diet