This Is What You Must Avoid To Prevent Blood Sugar Spikes Weight Gain During Festivals

Controlling your blood sugar levels might be a tad bit difficult during the festive season. With sweets all around you, anyone can get tempted towards the goodness of jalebi, ghee, gulab jamun, laddoo, rasmai, barfi and much more. However, in some cases this indulgence can take a toll on your health, blood sugar levels and weight. With a few tips and tricks, you can prevent sudden spike in your blood sugar levels.

Diet tips to prevent blood sugar spikes during the festive season

Proper diet plays a very big part in controlling sugars along with exercise. Many of you are unaware of the right kind of food that can help in managing sugar levels.

1. A simple way to cut down the sugar levels is the intake of right kind of food. One very big enemy of diabetics is milk. There are lot of things involved in it including the Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and its effect on the performance of insulin etc. So, if one avoids the use of milk in making sweets it would be a great thing. In this case, we will avoid lot of hurdles at the very first step.

2. In fact, there are lot of options when it comes to making sweets which could be really healthy and beneficial to diabetics. You can use coconut butter or coconut oil instead of ghee while making sweets. Natural sweeteners like honey, jaggery, coconut sugar, date sugar, etc can be used as sweeteners instead of white refined sugar. Date paste is another wonderful option for diabetics to satisfy their urge for something sweet. 

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3. You can opt for milk alternatives like almond, soya, coconut or groundnut milk.

4. Diabetics can definitely have sweets while practicing portion control. However, continuous monitoring of sugar levels has to be done to in order to know how the food you are eating is affecting your blood sugar levels.

How to prevent weight gain during the festivals?

Despite taking the above precautions, slight weight gain is inevitable during the festive season because of increased calorie intake.

1. This can be dealt with proper exercise. You can burn some extra calories by doing proper workout including both cardio and weight training exercises. While cardio can help you burning extra calories, weight training and strength training can help in building muscles, improving insulin sensitivity, stamina and overall body strength.

2. You can also try intermittent fasting during the festive season to prevent unnecessary weight gain. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern in which your day is divided into two phases: the eating phase and the fasting phase. As the name suggests, you are required to eat only during the eating phase and fast during fasting phase. During the fasting phase, you are only allowed to drink water (not even tea or coffee). Lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho believes that your fasting phase can last for as long as you want: 10 hours, 12 hours, 14 hours or 16 hours. An effective way to practice intermittent fasting is to have early dinners, around 7, 8 or 9 pm ideally. You can then break your fast after 10, 12, 14 or 16 hours, whatever suits you. Break your fast with a fruit or nuts. Have your meal after 15 or 20 minutes of eating the fruit.

Also read: Planning On Doing Intermittent Fasting? Make Sure You Don't Have Any Of These Conditions

Also, make sure you eat proper wholesome meals during your eating phase. Simple home-cooked food including all major food groups like protein, fats, carbs and carbs should be a part of your meal during eating phase. Food quality matters. Try to stick to only healthy and nutritious food when you're on intermittent fasting.

Portion control matters. Intermittent fasting is a few of those diet plans that allow you to eat everything but this doesn't mean you go overboard with eating. The amount of calories you consume still matter. Listen to your body and avoid overeating if you want to lose weight with intermittent fasting.

These steps can help in preventing unnecessary weight gain during the festive season. It may also help in keeping blood sugar levels under check.

All in all, the bottom line is that the festive season is meant to be enjoyed guilt-free, in full fervour. Try these tips this year and let us know how they work for you.

Also read: Festive Season Is Round The Corner! Do Not Indulge Yourself In Sweets Instead Keep Yourself Full By These Healthy Nuts

(With inputs from Dr Pramod Tripathi, an MBBS from BJ Medical College, Pune. He is also the founder of Freedom from Diabetes)

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