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An Ideal Balanced Indian Diet

indian, diet, health, food

If you've asked people around you what their top priorities were, eating healthy and fitness would be very low on their list. And it’s difficult to blame them. Indians generally tend to have lower quality of food readily available to them, have highly stressful jobs and long working hours. This, coupled with our extremely curbed knowledge on a balanced diet, culminates into the obesity epidemic India is advancing towards.

Our food is very rich in carbohydrates. Grains (wheat, ragi, rice, millets etc.), lentils (commonly known as dal), sweets, vegetables and fruits, legumes (such as green gram, beans) and dairy have a lot of carbohydrates. Dal which supposedly has a “lot” of protein, in fact has double the amount of carbohydrates as compared to protein.

An average adult should be getting at least 60 g of protein a day. However, most of us wouldn’t cross 20-30g per day with our carb loaded diets. People who exercise regularly, especially those who perform resistance training, should be getting at least around 100-120g of protein per day.

Eating too many carbs isn't particularly bad. The problem arises when we eat too many carbs and lead a very sedentary lifestyle. Working for 8 hours a day, which our forefathers used to do, out in the open fields will require you to eat a lot of carbohydrates. Such a diet isn’t optimal for someone spending most of their day indoors or in front of a computer.

So how do we go about getting the required amount of protein every day? You could use supplements such as whey protein. Usually one scoop gives about 25g of protein which is quite significant considering how much most of us get usually. However, ensure that the whey protein you buy is a good quality product. You can use this link to find the best whey protein available on the market. The tests were performed by an independent lab, so the results won’t be biased toward any particular product.

So what do you eat in order to get all your required micro and macro nutrients and enough protein?

1.       Eat 2-3 different vegetables and 2-3 different fruits every day. This will ensure you get all the micronutrients needed by your body. Cooking the vegetables and seasoning it will make it taste better. Fruits on the other hand taste great already, don’t they?


2.       Meat (chicken, fish, mutton) has a much higher amount of protein (about 30g of protein per 100g). One egg has about 6g of protein and a significant amount of vitamin B-12. Eating 2-3 eggs per day is absolutely fine.


3.       Dairy products such as paneer and milk have a decent amount of protein; whole milk has 8g of protein per 250ml cup while paneer has about 18g (and 21g of fat) per 100g. However, dairy products tend to have a lot of fat, which isn’t bad at all if taken in the right amounts. Just see that you don’t overshoot the required fat intake per day.


4.        Chickpeas (Channa), green gram, beans and other similar varieties tend to have about 9-10g of protein per 100g boiled. Though the amount of protein isn’t much, they have higher amounts of iron and magnesium which most of us don’t get enough of. They also are sources of complex carbohydrates, and are great pre-workout food.


5.       Nuts such as almonds, cashews, pistachio and groundnuts are great sources of unsaturated fats and protein (18-25g per 100g). However, they are higher on calories (about 500 calories per 100g) so take care that you don’t overeat them!


6.       Yogurt, preferably Greek yogurt is a great source of protein. Many sellers add a lot of sugar to the yogurt which isn’t optimal. Try looking for brands which aren’t artificially sweetened. Greek yogurt has about 10g of protein per 100g and it tastes fantastic!


7.       Rotis and chapatis also have some protein (about 3g per roti). Rice, while having a lower amount of calories doesn’t have much protein. It’s absolutely fine to be eating rice. People who say that you get fat by eating rice are wrong. Overeating rice is what causes you to get fat. Eating this along with some lentils (dal or sambar) is a great way to get some extra healthy carbohydrates and protein.

Eating a variety of the above, I get most of the required micronutrients and about 120g of protein every day. You can see that it isn’t really all that difficult to get the required amounts. You just have to be smart about what you eat and plan your food accordingly.

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