Every celebration is incomplete without a SWEET added in our happiness. And why not when the moment is so exciting, Mitha to banta hai!
And suddenly you realise, that you were on a weight loss diet and binged on your favourite sweet/ dessert.
‘I tried hard to control but control hi ni hota yaar’
This cycle of craving- binging- crash dieting keeps rotating again and again, affecting your mind and body both. Depressing! L
I am sure, most of you feel the same and ask yourself ”Can I never have my favorite dessert or ice cream if I want to be leaner?”
The answer is YES, you can eat sweets while losing weight. Yipeee 😆
Having sweets in moderation and eating intelligently is an art which need to be taught while managing your lifestyle.
The problem of obesity is not just Table Sugar but the hidden sugar which we consume unknowingly every day. Once that’s controlled, cheating on a small dessert will not come in the way of weight loss. 😉
Some of you might be taking care of your table sugar intake but unknowingly you might be consuming sugar in the indirect forms of refined flours like, noodles, pasta, pizza, burgers, white breads, and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) present in packed foods and non authentic supplements.
You land up buying abundance of food products with misleading nutrition labels, showing zero sugars but have high content of HFCS. Fructose is worse than glucose which directly affects your liver and triggers the early stage diabetes and heart disease.
Caution!!!…Sugar in your food
Foods processed or the foods introduced by humans like colas, pasta, noodles, white polished rice, breads, packed cereals, biscuits, pastries, khari, refined flour, sabudana, energy bars or drinks should be kept at a mile distance from you. Ready to cook soups, sauces, dressing might not taste sweet but they too are loaded with sugar.
Honey and jaggery are also sugars; therefore replacing table sugar with them has equal side effects. Even brown sugar is a simple sugar, the only difference between white one is that it lack molasses (the brown colour). So, do not get carried away with the market gimmicks.
Sugar is a New Tobacco
Sugar is as addictive as a drug, alcohol or tobacco which is the most detrimental fact of life today. Just like these, sugar causes the release of the hormone dopamine- a feel good hormone, making you feel high immediately. The feeling is so soothing that the brain signals for more craving sugar to feel the same high.
Also, the intake of sugar- simple carbohydrate, rushes in the blood stream boosting your energy level for short period of time with a sudden downfall in energy. This up and down effect of energy levels causes your brain to signal the craving for more sugar for instant relief.
If you are given a choice between a sugar candy (simple carbohydrate) and whole wheat bread (complex carbohydrate) and you chose a sugar candy, ironically, your brain will crave only for more sugar candy and not opt for the whole wheat bread.
Side effect of EXCESS sugar
The deranged blood glucose levels due to recurrent sugar cravings releases surplus insulin hormone to level the blood glucose converting the excess into fat. This can lead to clinical obesity. The insulin gets too tired of working constantly under pressure causing resistance.
When insulin resistance is accomplished by lethargy, hunger pangs, mood swings, weight gain, raised blood pressure and irritability, this often means you have developed a serious medical disorder called Metabolic Syndrome.
Sugar: Spy the fraud food
· Do not buy ready to cook foods like soups, whole wheat pasta, any vegetable, preserved foods like sauces, salad dressings, or mayonnaise.
· Avoid any form of biscuits even if it claims to be high fibre. No cream cracker, whole wheat or multigrain biscuits also.
· Throw away the breads from your kitchen whether it is white or brown bread. Brown bread has only the caramelised colour of sugar giving it a look of brown. Everything brown is not healthy.
· All the energy drinks or sugarfree drinks are loaded with aspartame which has more side effects than table sugar. It’ll just have the reverse effect.
· Throw away the canned fruit juices from your kitchen, it’s loaded which natural sugar, even if it claims to be sugarfree.
How to schedule sugar intake?
· Sticking to whole cereals, and home made preparations like wheat chappatis, oats upma, jowar or bajra khichadi, nachni chillas, keeps your insulin levels optimal. You will crave less for sugar.
· Eat starchy vegetables like potatoes, collocasia, yam which are loaded with easy digestible fibre. Best time to eat- post workout or when physically very active.
· Whole fruits also have fructose but in limited quantity with fibre, vitamins and minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonuritents, which has negative metabolic effects. Therefore, having one or two serving of fruits in a day is beneficial.
· Checking only calorie and sugar in the nutrition label is not enough but reading the ingredients in detail is extremely important. Keep your eyes open to alarm your brain to restrict HFCS, cane sugar, glucose, lactose, maltose, dextrose, malt syrup, molasses and brown rice syrup written on the pack.
· Last but not the least, once all the above instructions are taken care of, you can keep your favorite dessert for the occasion 1/week after 1.5 hours of lunch or dinner. You can also indulge in early morning or post workout.
So guys, enjoy the sweets which your mother cooks with love and affection. Enjoy sweets when you pass your exam with flying colors. Do not feel guilty to indulge the little sweet when you marry or deliver a baby. Eat and enjoy every taste of it.
Keep your tongue and heart as sweet as honey
Magical Shikha
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