According to Indian calendar it is the month of Shravan where everyday of every week has a festival and some pooja for GOD. For example Monday in Shravan is for Lord Shiv called Shrvani Somvar and then Tuesday for Mangalgauri and so on. From childhood I used to love this month of the year because our school used to get over early and also we used to meet our cousins and have fun. The raakhi festival or rakshabandhan festival also comes during this month. It was fun to pick raakhis and get gifts from brothers. This is also month where almost all Hindu people will be purely lactovegetarian and all foods will be without onions and ginger and garlic and eggplants. Not just a day or two but a whole month!! When I looked into the reason about this tradition being followed from ages, I found out that during this rainy season( It is rainy season in Indian continent in month of Shravan) all these vegetables or condiments get either fungus on them( in India) or there is a high chance of contamination with parasites. To avoid getting sick, this tradition started. Wise people!
This was also the time when I used to dread eating foods at home. Please don’t get me wrong.. I love the taste of these delicious , fried savory as well as loaded sugar foods but I just hate getting food coma and more importantly getting my blood glucose raised and that is not a good feeling to me.
In traditional marathi home, when there is a big pooja, and naivedya thali which of course will be made without ginger-garlic or onions and would be loaded with carbohydrates in savory or sweet form. Take a look at this traditional marathi thali.
This image is from the google. Delicious looking thali made by the blogger supriya from http://queenofmykitchen.blogspot.com/. And this is the diagrammatic representation of the traditional marathi naivedya thali.
I took this image from pinterest. If I start counting carbohydrates in this thali it is easily more than 200 gms. That is more than a days worth of carbohydrates for an active atheletic adult!! That too in one meal!
So what is the solution? If I want to eat naivedya thali?
Simple- Like the my food plate mentioned by choosemyplate.gov
I will increase size of vegetables in my plate to half of plate.- More of green chutney made with coriander, a big portion of cucumber salad.( I will make it with roasted peanut powder and greek yogurt/hung curds – my dairy part will come in it too). Also a big portion of non starch cooked veggies like green beans or cabbage or cauliflower instead of stir fried potatoes. I will also keep traditional spinach vegetable made with daal. ( Some of protein will be from daal.)
Then a phulka roti with ghee( applying little ghee or oil reduces spike in blood glucose and increases satiety) and 1/4th-1/3rd cup rice with ghee for grain part.
And a cup of kadhi or saar to drink.
One serving of fried papad/gilke bhajis.
Dessert would fruits and remaining yogurt from allowed serving with nuts and elaichi.
Tadaaaa! See! It comes to around 45-60gms.( Depending upon how much fruits and which fruits you eat.) You are happy and God is happy since you took care of your health! Enjoy!!
somethinghealthrelated 