To maintain a balanced and nutritious diet during Ramadan, you should continue eating well balanced meals to keep you active and healthy. This includes eating food from all the major food groups, equally distributed between the two meal times:
Fruits and vegetables
Breads, cereals, and starchy vegetables (like potatoes)
Meat, fish and chicken
Dairy products such as milk and cheese
Tip #1: What to eat for your morning meal (Suhoor/Sehri):
Your first meal of the day should include complex carbohydrates and high-fibre foods, to provide you with long-lasting energy throughout the day. These foods are rich in nutrients and their fiber ensures that their energy is released slowly.
Examples include whole wheat bread, oats, Weetabix, Bran flakes, nuts, beans, brown rice, fresh fruits and vegetables.
This can be accompanied with lean proteins (meat, chicken or fish), which will also help you to feel fuller for longer.
Also don't forget to hydrate! Water and fluids with vitamins, like fresh fruit juices, are great options.
Try to stay away from drinks with caffeine like tea and coffee. They promote faster water loss and can lead to dehydration.
If you don’t have an appetite early in the morning, try to take blended fruit juice or a smoothie made with dairy, fruits, cereal and/or vegetables.
Tip #2: What to eat for your evening meal (Iftar):
It is a great tradition to break your fast with dates, nuts and water. This helps is good for rehydration and restoring sugar and salt levels in the body.
If you don’t have dates, break your fast with small portions of fruits, nuts or soup. It’s important to do this because it:
Decreases the feeling of hunger, preventing one from overeating
Prepares the stomach to receive food after many hours of fasting
Fruits are rich in sugar and energy, restoring nutrients in the body
Their fiber content prevents constipation as a result of altered meal times
After breaking your fast, serve a normal well-balanced amount of food. Half your plate should consist of leafy vegetables, a quarter of starchy foods (rice, potato, pasta or bread) and a quarter lean proteins (red meat, chicken, eggs or fish).
Tip #3: Use Healthy Cooking Methods
Cooking methods obviously influence the tastiness of a dish, but you have to remember that food can still be tasty without cooking it by deep frying or using plenty of oil or ghee.
Fried savory foods are commonly consumed during this month and this can be harmful to your heart’s health as well as cause digestive issues such as bloating.
Better cooking methods are to bake, steam, stir fry, dry fry or grill.
Curries should also be made using minimal amounts of vegetable oil.
Tip #4: Foods to Avoid
Deep fried foods – fried samosas, fried chicken, fried spring rolls and fried potatoes (like chips or viazi karai).
High-fat cooked foods – oily curries and greasy pastries (like kaimati).
Unhealthy saturated fats from full-cream dairy, chicken skin, visible fats on meat, coconut milk, butter and ghee.
Tip #5: Healthy Alternatives
Baked samosas, baked spring rolls and oven baked potatoes.
"Dry frying" – using a non-stick pan.
Grilled or baked meat, chicken, fish as a healthier alternative – while retaining the flavour and taste of the food with natural spices.
Good fats include those from avocado, olives, nuts, fish and vegetable oils.
How big should your plate be?
Your food should fill a plate that has the length of the tip of your middle finger to the wrist of your hand.
Your plate should not be heaped or overflowing with food.
Your plate should be filled with half plate of vegetables, quarter plate of protein & quarter plate of carbohydrates/starch as shown below.
Let your Antara Nutritionist know if you are having any difficulties or challenges in managing your diet. Book a session with an Antara Nutritionist through the Antara App or by clicking here. |