Diwali sweets: Rujuta Diwekar tells us if diabetics, non-diabetics should skip mithais during the festive season

Are you one of those who skips eating or feels super guilty after eating Diwali sweets? You have got to read what celeb nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar has to say about this.

By: Upneet Pansare | | Updated: October 31, 2018 3:20 pm

Go ahead and indulge in mithais this Diwali © Shutterstock

Diwali is a time of celebration, food and festivities. An important part of Diwali festivities is sweets. Traditionally, for Diwali and other festive and auspicious occasions, Indian have exchanged sweets like mithais and barfis and laddoos. These are meant to sweeten relationships and strengthen bonds, besides, of course, tantalising our taste buds. Many of us who want to lose weight or have diabetes or other health conditions avoid eating sweets during Diwali or feel very guilty after eating sweets. We tend to avoid sugar during festivals like Diwali and think we are doing ourselves a whole lot of good. But celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar is here to bust some myths. In her recent Facebook Live, Rujuta explained why you must eat sweets! Also Read - Have blackcurrants daily to control your diabetes: A few interesting ways of adding it to your diet

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Rujuta Diwekar says that you must eat sweets during Diwali — sweets made at home or made at your local halwai. Traditionally, our Indian sweets have been made with sugar, jaggery, ghee, coconut, nuts, dry fruits, pulses, millets, spices and a whole lot of other natural ingredients that are meant to give several health benefits to your body and keep it healthy during season change. All traditional sweets have a low Glycemic Index (GI). The natural ingredients used in these sweets actually help make your blood sugar levels stable. Whether it is karanji, chirota, besan ladoo, barfi, halwa, shakkarpari, these sweets have essential fatty acids, amino acids, protein and other essential nutrients that are very helpful to your body and overall health. The best thing would be to eat homemade mithais but if that’s not possible, you could give eat mithais from your local halwai. Getting together with the family and making these sweets also contributes towards our good health. Also Read - Can eating applesauce protect against chronic disease?

What you must avoid this Diwali

Don t give each other chocolates. Besides the fact that the chocolate industry employs child labour and should hence be avoided, you must understand that chocolates are not our traditional sweets. You must definitely not eat and gift others biscuits and ice creams and chocolate-covered dry fruits.

Also, make sure you are not starving yourself just because you want to eat sweets. Sweets are an important part of our Indian meals and should be relished. Did you know that WHO has it is okay to eat about 12 teaspoons of sugar every day? Our sweets made the traditional way, along with our chai and coffee will make up only about 5-6 teaspoons of sugar.

All these rules are applicable to even diabetics. Rujuta is also against any sugar substitues and natural sugar replacements and insists that we eat sugar and jaggery in their natural form for optimum health.

Published : October 31, 2018 3:17 pm | Updated:October 31, 2018 3:20 pm

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