Healthy food tips before, during & after Holi

Holi is a festival of colors through and through. We not only play with colors but eat a variety of colorful food. Traditional Holi dishes are rich and heavy, and if you are watching your weight, Holi food could be a disaster for your diet regime. But then again it is Holi and there is food all around you, so how do we successfully navigate through the food festival without feeling guilty about gorging all the Holi delicacies?
The answer is rather simple, by balancing our diet for the entire week. No one wants to kill their mood and love for food on a festival, and now you don’t have to. This would require a bit of effort, one must prepare for Holi, almost 2-3 days or a week before Holi, and continue till after Holi but it is a price worth paying.
Here are 10+ healthy food tips before, during, and after Holi to keep you healthy and happy:
Tips to Stay Healthy Before Holi:
Preparations for Holi should start 2-3 days before Holi, and we don’t mean just festive preparations but even preparing the body and digestive system for Holi. Food you eat during this time should focus on strengthening your digestive system, here are a few tips on how that could be done:

1. Eat Light: While celebrations for any Indian festival start a day or two before the actual festival, ensure that you keep your food light. Include more fibers and digestive food in your diet to help cleanse your body.
2. Take Probiotics: Probiotics are good bacteria or yeast which help with the digestive process. There are several probiotic drinks in the market, ensure you start taking some to strengthen the digestive system, these should be taken before, during and after Holi. Probiotics are generally safe for everyone, some may even suffer from diarrhea, gas, bloating, upset stomach for a couple of days after starting probiotics but this gets corrected easily. However, if these symptoms continue or if you get an allergic reaction, stop taking the probiotic immediately and consult your doctor.
3. Reduce the Intake of Sugar/Sweets: In the pre-run to Holi it would be safer for everyone to reduce the intake of substances that are rich in sugar.

Tips to Stay Healthy During Holi:
There are several things one could do on the day of Holi to stay healthy, from opting to make healthier supplements of favorite Holi dishes to eating right. Here are some tips, as well as healthy dishes one could prepare for the day of the festival:

4. Breakfast: Opt for a light breakfast on Holi, like Poha or curd and flat rice. This would help keep your stomach full even after a long time of you having breakfast and is light enough to be digested easily.

5. Hydrate Yourself: Holi is the one time when we people forget to hydrate themselves, despite there being so much of water around them. Ensure that you drink a lot of water to keep yourself hydrated.

6. Cook Healthy Substitutes:Tweaking your favorite Holi recipes, even a little can go a long way in making your Holi. Here are a few healthy tweaks to your favorite Holi dishes:
   1. Baked Gujias: The casing is made with whole wheat and semolina(suji) instead of refined flour(maida).Instead of deep frying your gujias, opt for baking them. This would reduce the oil intake of the gujias, leaving you free to dip these delicacies into sugar syrup.
   2. Brown Bread Dahi Vada: Brown Bread Dahi Vada is healthy substitute to your regular deep fried dahi vada and it takes only 5 minutes to make them.
   3. Ragi Malpuas: This one is made with ragi flour, whole wheat and oats. All the big flavours, minus the guilt.
   4. Low Fat Thandai: Holi is incomplete without its staple, Thandai. A glass full of lip-smacking delicacy down your throat can not be altered by any other drink. This year just make it with low fat milk and add honey as the sugar substitute and enjoy the guilt-free drink.
   5. Frozen Yogurt: Instead on gorging on Malai Kulfi, one could opt for colorful frozen yogurt which comes in exciting flavors and colors.
   6. Baked Kachoris with Chana Masala in Rice Bran Oil: These deep fried savory delicacies taste as good when they are baked. Serve them hot with chana masala cooked in low absorb, rice bran oil instead of ghee and you have healthy meal in your hands.
   7. Fruit Raita: Raita is healthy on its own, but this Holi, opt for a fresh fruit Raita, just throw some apples, pomegranate seeds, and bananas in a bowl of curd with salt and chat masala and you have a healthy and unique raita at your disposal.

7. Moderate Yourself: An overdose of Thandai mixed with Bhang could lead have dangerous effects, it is better to moderate yourself, than let yourself go with the flow.z

8. Avoid Touching the Food: Some harmful color particles could remain in your hands despite you having washed your hands vigorously. It is better to opt for eating with forks or spoons to prevent harmful chemicals from entering your body.

Tips to Stay Healthy After Holi:
Holi takes a toll on the body, with so much of activity in one go, not to mention that being drenched and colored all day, zaps us off our energy. One must thus take some steps to ensure that one doesn’t end up feeling tired and unwell after Holi, continue these for a day or two after Holi:

9. Get Enough Rest: Ensure that you get enough rest to allow your body to rejuvenate itself before you jump into the fray of your everyday life.

10. Eat Food Rich in Protein, Complex Carbohydrate and Fiber: Avoid eating rich and oily food, it would only irritate the digestive system. Eat a balanced diet to maintain your energy, avoid sugar to balance out the intake of extra sugar during Holi.

11. Drink detoxing drinks: Cucumber and mint water is a good detoxing agent and ideally should be had daily, but right now it becomes even more important. This drink hydrates and refreshes your body, as well as helps you detox and keep your skin healthy.

12. Exercise: Holi can completely rob us off our energies, we may even be tempted to cheat our workout routine, but that’s what we mustn’t do. In case you have muscle fatigue, avoid any strenuous exercises, but opt for small walks.

Holi is a celebration of the vibrancy of life itself. Our own health is an important component to having a vibrant and happy life. We hope you have a Happy, Healthy and Colorful Holi.