How to balance calorie intake while having your favorite dessert

“Anything is good, if it’s made of chocolate”. “Desserts are like the fairy tales of the kitchen – a happily ever after to supper”. You must have heard these quotes often. Sweets and desserts symbolise love and we often express our love with chocolates or our favourite desserts. Indians have a habit of ending a meal with a sweet treat, could be an ice cream, halwa or kheer. But along with happiness and pleasure, desserts bring with them loads of calories. Any dessert be it cakes, puddings, pies, ice creams, pastries or brownies are rich in sugars and fats and hence provide anywhere between 250 – 400 calories per serving. Even the Indian sweets like laddus, burfis, jalebi, jamun, halwas etc are equally calorie dense.

Dr. Meghana Pasi, Nutrition Consultant, MyThali Program, ArogyaWorld says, “We all know that refined white sugar, refined wheat flour (maida) and fats which are the main ingredients of sweets. High consumption of these can lead to weight gain and inturn increase the risk of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Instead of going on a guilt trip after slurping down a bucket of ice-cream, why not be a little mindful and go slow. This will help you stay healthy and relish them on your 90th birthday as well!”

Here are a few ways in which you can balance your calories for the day when you have had a dessert or planned to have one:

Apply this basic rule of having 5 food groups on your plate – Grains / cereals / millets, Dals / pulses/ meat / eggs/ fish, vegetables (both cooked and raw), milk or milk products (curd, paneer, buttermilk), fats / oils. Have at least 2 fruits everyday and a handful of nuts at mid-morning or snack time. Balanced meals help in providing all the required nutrients for the day to stay fit and healthy and maintain body weight.

Be careful about the portion you select. Always go for smaller portions or share your desserts with family and friends. Go for a small scoop of ice cream or half a cup of kheer or one rasgulla or one jamun. Further select a smaller bowl or plate so that you don’t feel that your bowl or plate is empty.

According to Dr. Pasi, fresh fruits, fruit juices or fruit pulps contain natural sugars and can be a very healthy substitute for refined sugars. These also become low calorie alternatives and add in vitamins, minerals and fibre. Other options are adding honey, dates, cinnamon, cardamom, jaggery, figs and raisins. Adding nuts, healthy fats and whole grain flours in your desserts will make it a healthy option for diabetics as well.

When you are out at a supermarket to buy processed foods that contain ingredients like sugar, salt, fat/oils in high amounts, immediately turn the pack and read the nutrition table. Compare foods from different brands and see which one is healthier. The one which contains more nuts, whole grains, more fibre, has less sugars, less animal fats and less preservatives is definitely the right choice. Go for more natural foods.

“This is not just another way to express your love but it also helps you to make healthier choices with the ingredients. When you bake in your kitchen, you can choose whole wheat flour instead of maida, add honey and banana instead of sugar and be generous with nuts. This not just makes the cake more nutritious, it also takes away the guilt that it will affect the health of my loved ones,” says Dr. Pasi.

Any exercise be it running, jogging, cycling, skipping, dancing, swimming or any other sport helps in burning calories and increasing metabolism. It is important that we spend all the energy we have gained from the food we consume. If the energy intake exceeds the energy expenditure then those extra calories will lead to weight gain and other degenerative diseases. Hence, make it a point to stay physically active at least 30 min everyday.