Nutrition Tips and Diet in Ramadan
When Ramadan, the sultan of 11 months, comes, fasting and non-fasting are exposed to a wide variety of tables. While those who diet give up their diets, those who do not: “Is there a diet in Ramadan?” He is trying to seduce those who are on a diet by saying…
Then I will tell you; yes, diet is also done in Ramadan, and to the fullest!
My answer to those who say how will it be, my teacher, is by paying attention to small details!
-Number of Meals: Since your nutrition is spread throughout the hours you are awake for 11 months, you have the opportunity to complete your missing energy with snacks. However, the time you can eat in Ramadan is limited and some of it coincides with sleep time. For this reason, most of us try to get enough energy with Iftar and Sahur meals without having a snack. This is difficult to achieve as it is quite a challenging thing. When you can’t get enough energy, you need to attack sweets and this cycle goes on like this… The solution is actually very simple, you can get enough energy for your body by breaking the cycle by putting a snack between iftar and sahur.
-Sahur Meal: We all know that most of the day is spent without eating anything. However, some of us still prefer not to wake up for sahur and just spend the day with iftar. Wrong! When you eat in this way, you spend 20-22 hours of 24 hours hungry and thus you cause your metabolism to slow down. Metabolism slowdown is something we don’t want in the weight loss process…
Okay, let’s have sahur, let’s do it and what shall we eat? Should breakfast be made in sahur? No, there may be options such as reduced-fat light breakfast or soup, meals with olive oil. In order not to cause thirst, it is necessary to avoid plenty of spices and salt.
– Iftar Meal: Sending excessive food to an empty stomach after a long period of hunger may cause stomach sensitivity, while it can also cause sudden blood pressure and blood sugar spikes. When you break the fast, starting with soup and resting for a while will keep your sugar balanced.
In the same way, it is necessary not to turn to meals containing excessive fat in iftar. We have removed deep-fat frying in our normal diet, in the same way, deep-frying should be avoided during Ramadan. While cooking food, we should turn to healthy methods such as grilling, boiling, steaming and baking.
In order to lose weight, we first give up on bread. This is common misconception. We should get the carbohydrates our body needs without reducing our bread. Of course, the type of bread is of great importance here. In order to prevent your blood sugar from rising rapidly and to provide appetite control, you should turn to brown bread types. The amount of pulp in brown bread will keep you full for a long time and will facilitate your digestion by providing intestinal health.
– Mid-Meal: Consuming sweets right after leaving the iftar table can expand the stomach capacity. Instead of causing this, dessert can be preferred in the snack. Instead of sweets with high sugar content such as sherbet desserts, you should turn to light desserts such as milk desserts, fruits and ice cream.
-Fruit Consumption: Speaking of consuming fruit as a snack, remember how you ate during the previous Ramadan. You may not have consumed any fruit except for a few days in a 1-month period. You may be using your hunger as an excuse to spend Ramadan tired. But one of the most important types of starvation is fruit starvation. With the decrease in your fruit consumption, your vitamin and mineral levels also decrease, and this leads to fatigue and weakness. In between meals, you should pay attention to consume fruit with dessert or directly as a dessert.
-Water consumption: The reason why you attack food or lose weight in Ramadan despite eating very poorly is water loss. Not consuming enough water causes an increase in appetite and mineral losses. You need to drink after iftar, keeping the water with you all the time and finishing it until sahur will enable you to reach your goal.
-Physical Activity: A sedentary lifestyle is one of the biggest causes of obesity. Since there is no food intake during the day in Ramadan, the organs also slow down. Physical inactivity can also cause slowing of bowel movements. Physical activity should be added to your life in order to avoid digestive problems such as indigestion, indigestion and gas. You can take a walk half an hour after the iftar meal. This will ease your digestion.
-Time to sleep: Getting into a lying position immediately after consuming meals makes digestion difficult and may damage the stomach barriers. Reflux etc. can cause diseases. In order to prevent this, a lying position should be taken at least 1-1.5 hours after meals. Sleepiness should not be taken, especially immediately after eating the sahur meal.
You can get help from a dietitian to eat healthy in accordance with your body during Ramadan.
