Most Indian households whip up a variety of dishes for the morning meal without realising the number of calories that go into them.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If we walk into any regular eating joint before work, the popular dishes in the menu card will leave you wondering what to have and what to miss. It is often difficult to decide between the delicious dosas and the crunchy vada pav. Besides that, if you want that breakfast to start a long day, stuffed parathas are just hard to give a miss.
An analysis of our breakfast menu in the last week will tell us much about the calories loaded into our body.
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How can we replace some unhealthy breakfast options with healthier ones?
Let’s discuss about some of the popular Indian breakfast menu that can be replaced with some healthy dishes and ingredients.
• Paratha: This very popular breakfast item in north India could be healthier, if cooked in the right way. Usually, parathas are cooked with ghee, butter or vegetable oil and stuffed mainly with potatoes. Your tummy filling paratha could be made healthier by mixing a variety of flours like ragi, oats, jowar together and adding more vegetables to the potato filling. With all these healthy ingredients, if parathas are roasted with minimum oil, one could consume this traditional breakfast in a healthy way.
• Vada Pav: For most working Mumbaikars, the Vada Pav is the most dependable breakfast as its not only easily available but is easily consumed by the time starved Mumbaikar on trains, buses and metros. However, the calorie loaded Vada Pav could be replaced with some healthier options like poha or upma that consume lesser oil and have more veggies.
• Toast butter: A convenient breakfast option across the world, toast butter that has calories coming from all-purpose flour and processed butter loaded with salt and preservatives which could be replaced with some healthy brown bread sandwich filled with vegetables.
• Medu Wada: A popular south Indian breakfast option is made with healthy ingredients like lentils but is deep fried and not easily digested when consumed as the first meal of the day. Instead, the medu wada could be replaced with idli sambhar or dosas or uthappam made with less oil.
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• Poori Bhaaji: For any Indian food lover, Poori Bhaaji is a lip smacking breakfast but it is one of the unhealthiest options for breakfast. One could instead start their day with multigrain roti and bhaji or Pav bhaji without butter. The ingredients used are the same but these healthier options are cooked in a better way.
• English Breakfast: Cereal, sausages and bagels are increasingly consumed by millennials looking for a quick breakfast fix, but the processed flours and preservatives only contribute towards a higher cholesterol level. You could have boiled eggs with sauteed vegetables instead!
• Instant noodles: We have seen many celebrities promoting different brands of instant noodles that are not only made with processed flour but also unhealthy spices like mono sodium glutamate (ajino moto) and processed vegetables. These can be replaced with oats, quinoa or broken wheat and can be cooked with lots of vegetables and less oil.
• Samosa-Kachori: Deep fried and made with all-purpose flour, the ingredients and spices used to make samosa and kachori may result in gut related issues over time. This popular snacking combo could be replaced with besan chilla or shallow fried vegetables tikkis.
• Jalebi Fafda: Gujaratis can choose to ditch the sugar rich and deep-fried jalebi fafda combination for a healthier dish like dhokla that uses healthy and nutrient rich ingredients and is steamed.
• Biscuits and packaged juices: Big brands package biscuits and juices as healthy. While multigrain biscuits are getting popular among people, packaged juices are available easily at discounted prices and offers. Biscuits can be replaced with roasted khakras and packaged juices could be replaced with coconut water or some fresh fruit or homemade juices.
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It is easier to fall prey to the mouth-watering breakfast ideas but little bit of mindfulness while eating will reduce calorie intake and will benefit overall health in a long run.
