Demystifying the fasting cuisine

Ritika Samaddar,HOD of nutritional therapy,Max Healthcare,could solve the puzzle. “A lot of patients have the impression that fasting will help them lose weight. What they don’t realise is that their normal diet is replaced with a heavy carbohydrate diet during fasting which leads to weight gain,” she says. Replacing wheat flour with buckwheat flour,or kuttu ka atta,as it is popularly known,is helpful,she adds,but by skipping proteins and other food groups,the fasting diet consists of only carbohydrates and fats.

The last two weeks,once again,saw hectic diet planning for the Navratras. Restaurants of all scales brought out special thalis,and Navratra foods flooded their menus. Sweetshops thought of innovative desserts and snacks to sustain the period of abstinence. Even international coffee and baked goods chain Cinnabon made “Navratra special sandwiches” without onions. Amid the frenzy,the actual purpose of fasting was lost. “The concept of fasting is actually to eat healthy satvik food,” says Samaddar. “The idea is to eat raw,organic foods that are not processed in order to remove toxins from your body. By changing your diet for a small period and eating less processed food gives the body time to detoxify and relieves stress.”

However,with the commercialisation of the fasting rituals,people now depend on conveniently packaged food that are counterproductive to fasting. “The chips and sweets available in the markets may qualify the criteria of foods allowed during fasts,but are not healthy and are high in fat and sodium content,” she adds.

Buckwheat flour is a common substitute for wheat,which is prohibited during Navratra fasts,but the mass poisoning incident due to adulteration,resulted in people opting for singhare ka atta — flour from water chestnuts. Water chestnut flour is primarily used to make batter in Asian recipes,and is actually starch and not flour. “It gives energy,but is not healthy if consumed in large quantities,” says Samaddar. Other forms of flour — maida,sooji,besan — are not permitted during Navratra.

Samaddar warns that the psychological impact of fasting leads to overeating. A regular packet of chips made from fried potatoes,salt and spices,weighs 15-20 grams and has about 70 calories. Chips produced especially for Navratra claim to be “low fat and low calorie”. Made from fried potatoes,but with rock salt and no spices,the calorie content of these chips,however,is the same as the regular varieties. “Chips for Navratra come in packs of 50-100 grams and,because they are in larger packs,people tend to overeat,” says Samaddar.

Haldirams claims to have sold around 200 Navratra thalis per day. A standard plate contains around 500 calories of samak rice,water chestnut flour roti,malai kofta and a dessert like burfi. The meal meets the minimum calorie requirements but the distribution of calorie intake is not even,says Samaddar. Narula,after repeated attempts to lose weight through Navratra diets,is wiser. “One always ends up eating so much during the fasts that weight loss doesn’t happen,” she says.