Diwali - a celebration of good over evil is here. We wish that
the colourful and bright night of happiness may wash away all the darkness,
hatred and immorality from our society and our life.
Unfortunately, diabetes is one evil in life which can’t be just
treated away. Once acquired it has to be managed either by painful insulin
syringes, periodic check of blood sugar levels, controlling the kind of food
and how much we eat of it and regular exercises. After doing all this we still
will have to suffer from the complexities of diabetes.
Anyways, but this is not we want to talk about in this
blog. We are just a day away from the grand finale of the festival
season. Diwali is already burning
bright in Indian homes and fireworks will add to the haze in the air. This is
that time of the year when we are ready to get sugar high instead of being high
the other way round. Boxes of sweets and chocolates would have already started piling
up in your refrigerators which will be distributed to wish our near and dear
ones. Well, just like the beauty of this festival this time we decided to
present our high on content (usually) blog into a riot of colour and try to
bring out the problems of Diwali in a more easy on eye format.
Prepare for the Diwali
Evening
Along with preparing sweets and other rich-in-calories food items
with natural sweeteners, you can prepare your body for the evening, which means
eating food with very low or minimum calories from the morning till evening so that your body can easily
digest one or two sweets which aren’t avoidable.
Diwali isn’t the
excuse for skipping exercise
We all know festivals are the time to have fun
and relax on your own pace taking it easy on things as it comes. Well-well
that’s what a lethargic person may say but for a diabetic person festivals are
the time to renew the energy towards living a healthier life. Use this good
occasion to bring double the positive energies within yourself, think of it as
fighting evil. Dedicate your time in the morning to exercise - either walk,
jog, go gym, dance or swim and if possible spend an extra hour on Diwali day
doing household chorus (cleaning, dusting, mopping etc.) - this will give you a
few extra points for not only controlling diabetes but getting admired by
family members for the time you’ve spent in doing household chorus. Diwali is
also time for shopping, you can try parking your car little away from the mall/
shopping area, this will help you to break the stereotype routine exercises
avoiding monotony.
Try Natural
Sweeteners instead of artificial sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners should be avoided at all. Ofcourse you won’t
add sugar in your sweets to make them sweet but try to completely avoid
artificial sweeteners too, instead add dates or raisins or natural fruits to
sweeten your sweets. It will certainly need a little effort to come up
with exciting recipes that will keep you happy at the longer run, but you will
certainly gain many brownie points in next get together where you can claim to
find sweet recipes without compromising on their sweetness.
Add a dramatic twist in your diabetic healthcare by just replacing your regular refined/ mustard oils to more lighter and nutrient rich avocado or olive oil. These new age oils largely found in European continent contain monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats and Omega 3 fats which are gifted with natural tendency of lowering the blood sugar levels. The goodness of healthy facts can be further explored in food groups such as salmon, tuna and flax seeds.
The
“If-This-Then-Do-That” rule - Let’s say if you have a Diwali
dinner planned with friends and family which is bound to be loaded with
calories (along with their love), then try to eat a below average meal during
the day. You can just have fresh salads or drink buttermilk in your lunch menu,
so that you can maintain the harmony in your sugar levels.
Alcohol is bad
in everyday life as well as Diabetes -
Avoid consuming alcohol mostly but at festive occasions certainly.
The moment you will get high, all the plans of celebrating diabetes friendly
Diabetes will go for a toss, you may end up eating those fried items easily
available. The other reason is quite obvious; alcohol tends to increase your
weight leading to uncontrolled blood sugar. If it is must for you to have it
for social obligations: sip slowly on
your drink so that your host doesn't quickly refill your glass.
We can go on and on for different
lifestyle and festival friendly tips which may help you to celebrate Diwali
with Love and not with Diabetes but hope you got the crux of this blog -
“Self-Control,
Moderation and Dedication to fight Diabetes” -
this is what you need. If you need any
help in understanding the complexities of diabetes, please feel free to reach
us any time.
Have a wonderful, bright, environment
friendly and sweetness of love this Diwali. Celebrate it with one and all;
celebrate it with not so privileged ones and share a smile with them.
Happy
Diwali!
Yours,
Dr.
MS Singhal
Managing
Director - Grass-Diabetes.com
Singhal
Diabetic Clinic, Haridwar