Get ready for a detox post festive season

Hydrate yourself by drinking warm water and eating healthy food to get the toxins out of your system

BENGALURU: India has festivals round the year and people enjoy mouth-watering dishes during this time. We may end up with some extra calories by the end of the festivals, which leads to high cholesterol, diabetes, weight gain and to a certain extent, cavities and dental caries as well. Preparing some traditional dishes is healthier than including commercially available sweets and savouries.
When we talk about traditional foods, we can prepare some healthy sweets like moong dal payasam, besan ladoo, rajgiira laddoo, which comparatively have some amount of protein and are healthy as compared to maida sweets. 

• Portion controlling is also important during this time because we never restrict to one laddoo or jalebi.
• Try and avoid deep fried products as much as possible because it will increase the amount of calories.
• Hydration is also important during this time but restricting to the liquids which gives us less calories is more important like plain water, buttermilk, lime water, tender coconut water.

Finally, after the festival season is over, detoxing our body is also important.
So what is detox diet?
Detox diet is generally done for two to three days to cleanse the body or eliminate the toxins. Detox diet mainly consists of fruits, vegetables, water, fruit juices, tender coconut water, lime water, buttermilk which is light on body with no spices or masala which helps cleanse the kidney. But salt or rock salt can be included in the diet to have electrolyte balance and avoid cramps.
In a detox diet, the kidney and liver are generally effective in filtering and eliminating most toxins. Including more fruits and vegetables that acts as high fibre in cleansing the colon is also helpful.
What can be consumed in detox diet?

•  Upon waking up in the morning — Warm water with honey and lemon / wheat grass juice/ ginger tea/green tea/chamomile tea/ carrot juice/dates
•  Breakfast — Oats /light porridges/steamed foods/egg whites and fruits
•  Afternoon — Lots of steamed herbed vegetables like spinach, broccoli and some salads as well.
• Evening snacks — Fruit Juice /green tea with crackers/ sprouted methi seeds chaat or roll/ sprouts salad with pomegranate/egg whites (boiled/scrambled)/fruit chaat 
• Dinner – Vegetable soups/oats or broken wheat porridges

– The author is chief 
dietician, Columbia Asia Referral Hospital Yeshwanthpur