HEALTH PLUS MED­ICAL COR­RE­SPON­DENT

Di­vali is an in­cred­i­bly spe­cial day for mil­lions liv­ing all over the world. No Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion is com­plete with­out the plate­fuls of barfi, ladoo, sweet rice etcetera. These desserts made dur­ing Di­vali are so rich and tasty that it is just im­pos­si­ble to re­sist while every­one in your fam­i­ly in­dulges. It is that time of the year when your di­et plan and ex­er­cise sched­ule are chucked aside. But then days af­ter, the guilt sets in.

Health Plus want­ed you to en­joy the best of both worlds and dar­ing­ly de­cid­ed to re­search: “Is there such a thing as healthy Di­vali?”

If you’re watch­ing your weight, mind­ful of your health, di­a­bet­ic, have high cho­les­terol or heart dis­ease, then ghee, sug­ar laden mithai and salt heavy snacks are sim­ply not a good op­tion. But this does not mean you have to suf­fer and for­go the cel­e­bra­tion.

Make mod­er­a­tion your Di­vali mantra!

The vast ar­ray of tra­di­tion­al sweets means the fes­ti­val of lights might al­most be called the fes­ti­val of mithai.

Tra­di­tion­al Di­vali hos­pi­tal­i­ty be­lieves “the guest is tru­ly your God'' so, why not treat your guests to health­i­er dish­es? If you are host­ing the Di­vali cel­e­bra­tion why not in­clude health­i­er op­tions of tra­di­tion­al dish­es such as baked samosas or whole wheat nankhatai or co­conut ladoo? Man­age the in­dul­gences mod­er­ate­ly with­in the fes­tive pe­ri­od and do not feel oblig­ed to pol­ish off all the left­over mithai that have been giv­en to you by friends and fam­i­ly.

These are a few rec­om­men­da­tions you can ad­here to:

Plan ahead. Have mithai and fried snacks in small amounts. Set your­self re­al­is­tic tar­gets for the fes­tive pe­ri­od as many peo­ple do not just cel­e­brate Di­vali on one day, but the cel­e­bra­tions may con­tin­ue for many days, even dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

- Avoid skip­ping meals, this is par­tic­u­lar­ly im­por­tant for di­a­bet­ics.

- Be­fore eat­ing snacks, know your blood glu­cose val­ues, drink wa­ter and con­tin­ue to sip wa­ter to bring in that feel­ing of full­ness.

- If you are mak­ing mithai your­self, use low fat in­gre­di­ents like low­er fat milks and oth­er dairy prod­ucts. Use nat­ur­al sweet­en­ers like dried fruit and dates to make the sweets. In­stead of us­ing fried in­gre­di­ents, make chiv­da by us­ing roast­ed shelled peanuts, low­er fat crisps, rice krispies or corn­flakes, roast­ed chick­peas and spices.

- Re­place sat­u­rat­ed fats like ghee and but­ter with small amounts of un­sat­u­rat­ed fats such as pure veg­etable oil, olive oil, sun­flower oil, corn oil etcetera to make your dish­es.

- Im­press your guests with a se­lec­tion of sal­ads such as av­o­ca­do sal­ad, toma­to and onion sal­ad, cho­les­terol bust­ing dish­es such as soya cock­tail sticks, chana masala, oat tik­ki, matar pa­neer made with to­fu etcetera.

- If you are hav­ing fizzy drinks, choose sug­ar free or just stick to wa­ter.

Even the most dis­ci­plined di­et-fol­low­ers let down their guard and get in­to the fes­ti­val spir­it so go ahead and en­joy your­self with fam­i­ly and friends with­in mod­er­a­tion and ad­her­ing to COVID-19 Health reg­u­la­tions, keep­ing the above tips in mind.

Above all a very hap­py, healthy and holy Di­vali!

Healthy Di­vali recipes

Try these healthy ver­sions of the fa­mous Di­vali sweets and have a healthy, guilt free Di­vali. We know it is hard to di­gest when you hear healthy sweets and snacks, but these healthy Di­vali recipes men­tioned be­low are worth a shot es­pe­cial­ly if you are Di­a­bet­ic.

CO­CONUT LADOO

Co­conut ladoo is ex­treme­ly pop­u­lar in South In­dia. It is sug­gest­ed that you use fresh­ly grat­ed co­conut to en­joy the most of it and to make a health­i­er ver­sion of these, use hon­ey in­stead of sug­ar.

In­gre­di­ents

Grat­ed co­conut - 1 and a half cups

Hon­ey – 1 tsp

Car­damom pow­der – 1/4th tsp

Ghee – 1 tsp

Wa­ter

How to Make

Heat the ghee in a heavy-bot­tomed, non-stick pan on a low flame, then add in the grat­ed co­conut, and sauté for about two to three min­utes.

Take some wa­ter in an­oth­er pan, add hon­ey to it and warm on a low flame.

Fil­ter it through a sieve in a bowl.

Add the hon­ey syrup to the co­conut and mix well, then add the car­damom pow­der and give it a stir.

Let it cook till the mois­ture evap­o­rates and you see the jag­gery-co­conut mix­ture dry­ing up.

Turn off the flame and al­low the mix­ture to cool.

Grease your palms with half a tsp. of oil and roll the ladoo.

DRIED FRUIT LADOO

If you like munch­ing dry fruits, then you will al­so love de­vour­ing dry fruit ladoo. These are health­i­er than oth­er ladoo that are soaked in ghee and sug­ar. If you have been look­ing for a sug­ar-free sweet recipe for Di­vali, then try this dry fruit ladoo.

In­gre­di­ents

Chopped dates – 1 cup

Al­monds – 1/4th cup

Cashew nuts – 1/4th cup

Figs – 1/4th cup

Pis­ta­chios – 1/4th cup

Raisins – 1/4th cup

Des­ic­cat­ed co­conut

Car­damom pow­der – 1/2 tsp

Ghee – 1 tsp

How to Make

Grind the dates in a blender for four to five puls­es and keep aside.

Now, fine­ly chop the cashew nuts, al­monds, figs, pis­ta­chios, and raisins.

Heat the ghee in a wok on low flame, then add in the chopped dry fruits and sauté for four to five min­utes.

Add the coarse­ly blend­ed dates to the above mix and give it a nice stir, mash­ing the dates well.

Add in the car­damom pow­der and mix it well.

Turn off the flame and let the mix­ture cool for two min­utes.

Trans­fer the mix­ture to a large dish and roll the ladoo to the ap­pro­pri­ate size.

Store them in an air­tight con­tain­er.

WHOLE WHEAT NANKHATAI

Nankhatai is usu­al­ly made with all-pur­pose flour but to make a health­i­er ver­sion of it, use whole wheat flour. Yes, you will have to add in some sug­ar for sweet­ness, but that is okay. You can al­ways walk that ex­tra mile or run for 10 more min­utes on the tread­mill to burn those ex­tra calo­ries.

In­gre­di­ents

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Gram flour – 1/4th cup

Pow­dered sug­ar – 1/2 cup

Car­damom pow­der – 1/2 tsp

Ghee – 1/3 cup

Milk – 1 – 2 tsp

How to Make

Pre­heat an oven at 180° C for about 15 min­utes.

Line a bak­ing tray with parch­ment pa­per. If you don’t have parch­ment pa­per, grease the tray with some ghee. Keep aside.

Sieve the flours, pow­dered sug­ar, and car­damom pow­der to­geth­er in a deep bowl. Mix them well.

Slow­ly add some ghee to the bowl con­tain­ing the flour mix­ture and mix it well to make stiff dough. Use a lit­tle amount of ghee to bring the flour to­geth­er. Do not knead the dough. You can al­so add a ta­ble­spoon of milk if re­quired.

Now make small balls out of the dough.

Gen­tly press them to flat­ten them. Make a de­sign on them us­ing a fork or tooth­pick.

Place them on the bak­ing tray and bake in the pre­heat­ed oven for 20-25 min­utes.

Serve warm. You can al­so store the nankhatai in an air­tight con­tain­er for two to three weeks.

For more sug­ges­tions, check

https://www.veg­e­tari­antaste­buds.com/healthy-di­wali-sweets/