Calorie Control

Despite all the sweets that come your way this festive season, there are ways to maintain optimal health. Dolly Kumar shares four easy tips to keep your sugar-lust in check.

Switch to natural sweeteners: Add natural sweeteners such as honey or stevia (a plant-based natural sweetener), which are sweeter than sugar and thus are needed in smaller quantities, in turn reducing your calorie-intake. Incidentally, honey and stevia also have the added benefit of reducing toxin build-up in the liver as well as boosting digestion.

Spice up your beverages: For those who cannot give up on their morning coffee/tea without sugar, here’s another natural sweet saviour—cinnamon. If you can live with its sharp flavour overriding that of your coffee or tea, cinnamon can be a sweet and low-calorie blessing. Moreover, the sweet spice has the added benefit of increasing the half-life of caffeine in our system, keeping us alert for longer durations of time.
Go juice-free: Making a resolve to get healthier by moving from aerated drinks to tetra pack juices this festive season may not really do you much good. For one, most juices are low on fibre though high
in fructose, which adds to weight gain. Go high on whole fruits instead, and switch to fresh lemonade or coconut water, which have lesser calories and more health benefits.

Switch to healthier confectioneries: To further reduce your sugar-intake, switch your favourite confectioneries to low-sugar alternatives. If you love cookies, go for the multigrain or oatmeal variants, which are low on sugar and high on protein. Being high on fibre, these cookies will help improve digestion as well. Similarly, a switch from milk chocolate to rich dark chocolate will help too, for not only is the latter low on calories but also rich in anti-oxidants.

The writer is the founder of GAIA, a nutrition brand that houses nutritional supplements and caters to the health and wellness needs.