Health Tips during Ramadan

The month of Ramadan is a great opportunity to focus on bringing back a balanced and healthy lifestyle in your life. Through fasting, you begin to learn how to manage your eating habits, how to improve self-control and discipline. Follow the below tips to make a few lifestyle changes to get the best out of this Ramadan.

Fasting during Ramadan not only has spiritual benefits but also different health benefits. Some of the benefits of fasting during Ramadan are:-

Promotes Detoxification
Improves your blood fat levels – Lowers LDL cholesterol levels & increases HDL cholesterol
Decreases risk of Cancer
Helps to Overcome addictions (smoking, caffeine etc)
Promotes fat breakdown and weight loss

Guidelines when breaking fast

Break your fast slowly beginning with dates/water and then salad, soup, and the main meal. This will help to avoid overeating and even rehydrate your body. Overeating can lead to fatigue and also stomach pain and bloating.
Delightful sweets are very hard to resist, but eating in high amounts can lead to increase in the sugar levels. That’s why it’s recommended to eat less amount of sweets or sugary items during Iftar.
Your Iftar should include lots of protein and fats. It is better to avoid excess carbohydrates in your meal.
Make sure to wake up for Suhoor and hydrate yourself with at least 2 glasses of water.
Exercising during Ramadan is very beneficial for maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle. 20-45 minute workout (yoga or walking) will get your blood flowing, maintains your muscle mass. It is recommended not to do weightlifting during Ramadan.

General Guidelines for Diabetic patients during Ramadan

For people with diabetes, instead of taking 5-6 meals, it is reduced to 2 or 3 meals during Ramadan. Good glycaemic control can be accomplished by people with diabetes, maintaining appropriate diets. It is suggested that during Ramadan similar general dietary guidelines should be followed as those throughout the year. Below are some tips for you to follow:

Meals should be well balanced and nutritious which should include milk products, lean meat, baked chicken or fish, salads, veg, fresh fruits and complex carbohydrates.
Being Diabetic, the desserts or sweet items during Iftar should be replaced by fresh fruits
Good alternative drinks for Diabetic people are sugar-free drinks, unsweetened green tea and fresh juices.
The meals that are prepared during Iftar and Suhoor should be either baked or grilled, and not fried as that can increase your weight and imbalance the sugar levels.
Dates are healthy and provide nutrition, but it contains 20 calories each. Hence, it should be consumed in moderation.
Butter and ghee usage in the meals should be replaced with healthy oils (corn or sunflower oil).

May everyone who observes the blessed month of Ramadan have a peaceful, healthy and happy time with family and friends.