“No white Diet” for Healthy Weight Loss – Do’s and Don’ts
‘No whites Diet’ is about restricting white food (mainly refined) in your diet. Most of the white food diets advice to avoid white rice, white flour, sugar, potatoes and dairy. Basically, all the refined foods that have no nutrition value and food that is high in fats.
Must avoid white foods:
White rice: White rice is nothing but polished rice, which is reaped off of all the good stuff. What remains in white rice is starch, which is nothing but calories with no nutrition. Also, white rice spikes blood sugar levels, and it is linked with increase in type 2 diabetes.
White flour (Maida): Like white rice, white flour is also a refined food with no nutrition. Fiber in food is very important for digestion and absorption of nutrients. White flour is stripped of all the fiber, so it floats around in our digestive system for a long time and does not allow absorption of nutrients from other food.
Avoid white bread, Indian breads like naan, tandoori roti, kulcha, and bhaturas. Also, foods like noodles, pastas and bakery products like cakes, pastries, cookies, biscuits are to be avoided completely.
Sugar: While we all know sugar is a modern day poison, we all consume in our morning tea /coffee, sweets, chocolates and after meal desserts. Not to forget alcohol, which is also a form of sugar. Sugar not only causes diabetes, but also weakens our immune system, restrict growth in children, causes hormonal imbalance and various types of cancers.
Refined sugar only doubles up the risk of above mentioned health problems. Sugar is one of the major causes of obesity as well. So if you want a healthy life for yourself and your family throw that sugar tin in the garbage right away.
While many people replace it with artificial sweetners, which is no good, as it badly affects your brain and nervous system. Same goes for diet aerated drinks.
Processed foods:
It is no rocket science that processed foods like packaged beans, fruits, meat, bakery products and pre-cooked meals are full of preservatives and no nutrition. You just eat calories with no good to your body. Read more about processed foods here.
So you must be wondering what should I eat if I cannot eat so many things. Well, the world has lot more nutritious and delicious food for you to savour.
Eat these whites in moderation and unadulterated:
Dairy: We don’t recommend avoiding dairy. Because the one serving of full-fat dairy a day is a very important source of nutrition for functioning of ovaries. Nutrition from unadulterated dairy products helps improve fertility in women.
So it is better to have full-fat cow milk without sugar, rather than adding spoonful of sugar to a glass of skimmed milk. Include full-fat cow milk, white butter, paneer (cottage cheese), home made ghee in your daily meals. But make sure you don’t overdo them.
Potatoes: Like many things in world potatoes have earned bad press for no fault of theirs. Potatoes are rich in fiber and vitamin C. A boiled potato is good to have just pre or post workouts. But when potatoes are fried in oil to make the French fries, wedges and other dishes is what makes them fattening. So keep it simple and enjoy a boiled or baked potato once in a while sans the oil, sour cream, mayonnaise, tomato ketchup and that extra bit of salt.
Replace the white stuff with beautiful colours:
Brown or Red Rice: These are non-processed rice, which are high in fiber. The fiber helps clear the system of all the toxins and thus regulates weight. Red rice is also known for fighting bad cholesterol in the body.
Red rice, Dal, Vegetables and a bit of ghee will become a complete meal of fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals and good fats.
Whole grain flours (Wheat, Ragi, Jawar, Bajra etc): So next time you buy bread check the flour used in ingredients list. It should say whole-wheat flour, because a lot of breads are made of white flour, just have a few sprinkled whole-grains and claim to be ‘whole wheat bread’.
Brown breads are not necessarily made of whole grain flour. So check twice before you buy, make a well-informed purchase. Use all kinds of whole grains to make your breads and rotis. Whole grains are rich in minerals, fibre, anti-oxidants and are full of health benfits.
Jaggery / Honey: We all know that honey is a rich source of minerals and anti-oxidants. Add honey to milk, curds, fruits, and to anything where you add sugar. Of course in moderation. Jaggery is also a great substitute to white sugar. Jaggery is rich in minerals like magnesium and potassium. It helps in relieving from acidity. Jaggery is instant energy booster and can relief from muscle ache and headache.
A lot of Indian sweets are prepared using jaggery and tastes heavenly. Replace gulab jamuns and rasgullas with healthy sweets like puranpoli, whole-wheat laddoos, shukadi, and sweet wheat porridge.
To lose and maintain healthy weight is very important to feed your body with fresh food. Eat fruits and vegetables that are in season and locally produced. If you are in India and buy New Zealand Kiwi, that Kiwi is easily 2 weeks old.
Replace imported food to locally produced, packed with fresh and refined with whole. These are small changes that will go a long way in losing weight and maintaining healthy lifestyle. Try avoiding the refined whites for a month and will surely see your waistline go down by 3 to 4 inches and lose a few kilos.
Pictures from wiki commons.
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