First off, it’s important to know the lingo. When considering low fat food options, there are four different categories to consider:

The four categories above are pretty self-explanatory. If you read the nutrition label on the back of any package, you can see how many grams of fat are in each serving, and when you are grocery shopping, you can easily compare labels to see what the full fat option would look like (hint: compare grams of fat to see how much it has been reduced and compare grams of sugar to see how much has been added).

You might be thinking to yourself, “I know how to read nutrition labels, but what’s the difference between naturally low fat and processed low fat — low fat is low fat, isn’t it?”, and that’s a great question! Herein lies the answer to some of your weight loss confusion, and it involves not only reading the nutrition label but also reading the list of ingredients. Many people assume that when it comes to low fat diet, the lesser fat the better, but that is far from true. Let’s see why:

1.  Low fat processed foods

Let’s take fat-free flavored yoghurt for example. Everyone knows yoghurt is a healthy option—After all, it is high in protein and full of active bacterial cultures to help with digestion. Full fat yoghurt is rich and full of flavor, and one serving is often enough; however, when the fat is removed from full fat dairy, it is often replaced with fillers (additives to bulk up the food) and sugar. Fillers range from binding agents to hydrogenated oils, which can often be indigestible or toxic to the body.

When reading the label, look for things like cellulose, xanthan gum, locust bean gum, soy, palm oil, olestra, carrageenan or potassium bromate to name a few! Added sugar is equally as dangerous. The added sugar will not only make up for some of the calories you might have saved by removing the fat, but it will also result in an increased spike in blood sugar, leaving you with unnecessarily high insulin levels. In addition, because the fillers and sugar serve to make the low fat product more palatable, it often doesn’t compare to the real thing, and you might end up eating even more than one serving to feel satisfied, leaving you with even more calories consumed than if you had just had the full fat version to begin with! Pass or fail? I give fat-free flavored yoghurt a fail.

Try choosing plain yoghurt to cut back on sugar content, and choose a low fat or reduced fat option (1-2% MF) to cut back on some of the calories. This is an example where fat-free isn’t ideal, but light or low fat still wins! The same rules apply to other low fat or fat-free processed foods, so put your thinking cap on, bust out the nutrition labels; start comparing fat and sugar content, and look for some of the sneaky fillers listed above! There’s no shame in geeking-out over this. Your health is on the line!

2.  Naturally fat-free food

Fruit is an excellent example of a food that is low/no fat in its natural state. This means the food doesn’t require any processing, fillers, or added sugars to make it fat-free. Fruit is filled with beautiful vitamins, nutrients and fibre, but some fruit is high on the glycemic index, which causes a spike in blood sugar and insulin.

Vegetables on the other hand are generally low in sugar and higher in fibre, which bring the resulting blood sugar spike way down as compared to fruit. Does this mean you should skip fruit in place of vegetables? Coming from a weight loss perspective, it would be a good idea to limit fruit to 1-2 servings per day and fill your plate with veggies instead to help regulate your blood sugar, but for overall general health, they both have great qualities and should both be included in your healthy diet. Pass or fail? I give fruit (1-2 servings per day) and veggies (lots!) a pass with an A+.

Chaulk full of vitamins, nutrients and fibre, these dietary superstars are low calorie, naturally low in fat and easy on the waistline. (If anyone is left wondering, grains, legumes and lean meats also pass with flying colors).

So what does all of this mean? In any healthy diet, the average adult requires dietary fat to make up 20 – 35% of the total calories. 35% is more than one third of the recommended daily caloric intake. This means about ⅓ of the calories you consume each day should come from fat. Fat is not only great for digestion, skin and hair, but it is also essential for the absorption of many nutrients from other foods in your diet, and in order to lose weight and trim your body fat down, all your body processes need to be running smoothly! The bulk of fat in your diet should actually come from high fat, natural, unprocessed (or minimally processed) foods.

Huh? High fat foods for weight loss? YES!

When it comes to fat, the healthiest form of fat is monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats, which come from naturally occurring foods like avocados, nuts (or natural nut butters), seeds, and fatty fish (or fish oils). One thing to take note of when including ⅓ of your calories from fat is that fat is more than twice as calorie dense as its other two macronutrient counterparts and weighs in at a whopping nine calories per gram (as opposed to only four calories per gram for carbs and protein). For this reason, it will be important to keep an eye on your fat serving sizes. For a 2000 calorie diet, the calories from fat should make up between 400 (20%) and 700 (35%) total calories, which is about 44 – 77g fat.

The verdict?

Fat-free or low fat does NOT always equal healthy (in fact, quite the opposite) and is not always better for weight loss. To give yourself the best possible chance of weight loss, and to do it the healthiest, most balanced way possible, choose your fats from either naturally occurring fat sources or lower fat, sugar free/plain processed options. Always read labels carefully, and aim for 20-35% of your total calories from healthy fats.

The post Why a Fat-Free Diet Is Bad for Your Health appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Sindhi khoya is not easily available in mithai shops; if you’re lucky you may get it in a shop that specialises in Sindhi foods. But there’s nothing like the homemade khoya. That’s why we are sharing the authentic Sindhi Khoya recipe with you.

Preparing Sindhi Khoya requires lots of patience and time, so make sure you have an abundance of these two on the day you’re making it. Sindhi khoya stays good in the refrigerator for up to a month, so you can make a large batch and just refrigerate it. To serve, just add 1-2 tbsp milk to the serving and heat on a stove.

The important thing to remember is that this Sindhi khoya recipe must be cooked on a low flame to get the perfect taste and consistency. You can reduce or increase the proportion of nuts as you like. This is very calorie dense food, so a little goes a long way. It’s rich in healthy fats, but be sure to control your portion size.

Traditional Sindhi Khoya Recipe

Ingredients

• Milk 2.5 litres
• Dry dates [khaareek or chuara] 200 – 250g
• Poppy seeds [khuskhus] 100g
• Cardamom 25 – 30 [powdered]
• Nutmeg powder 1/2 tsp
• Sugar 300g [can be adjusted as per your taste preference]
• Ghee 200g
• Almonds 50g [chopped]
• Walnuts 25g [chopped]
• Cashews 25g [halved]
• Coriander seeds [dhaniya magaz] 3 – 4  tbsp [coarsely ground]

Method

1. Wash and pound the dry dates. Discard the seeds. The dates should be coarsely broken, not powdered.
2. Heat the milk. When it boils, lower the flame. Now rest of the cooking has to be done on low flame. Add the broken dry dates to the milk and let it cook till they soften. This will take about 15 – 20 mins.
3. Now turn off the flame and leave this overnight or for 6-7 hours. You may leave it outside or refrigerate. Letting this mixture stand for few hours helps the dry dates to soften completely and gives them a “melt in mouth” consistency, which is what makes the khoya so delicious.
4. The next day, heat some ghee [just enough for frying nuts] in a frying pan. Fry the almonds, cashews and walnuts and add them to the milk-date mixture. Take care to not brown/burn the nuts.
5. Also fry the poppy seeds, coriander seeds and cardamom powder in ghee, again being careful to not burn it. Add these ingredients too to the milk.
6. Now place the milk vessel on low flame and let it cook, stirring occasionally to make sure it does not burn at the bottom. Add the remaining ghee to the milk mixture. Keep cooking till the milk browns and only then add sugar. Stir till the sugar has melted in.
7. Keep cooking on low flame till the mixture dries up. Turn off the flame and add nutmeg [jaiphal] powder. Your sindhi khoya is ready.

The post Sindhi Khoya: a traditional winter delicacy appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.