Diet is a funny topic. It’s surprising to see no two dietitians ever agree on what you should eat. Diet is like a religion. Every religion is trying to convince you to convert to his or her religion. And follow the religion to the T. And completely change your life. But what dieticians don’t realise is that changing diet is tougher than changing religion.
E.g. Let’s take a keto diet advocate. He convinces a person to completely cut carbs from the diet, which means no wheat, no rice, no pasta, no pizza, no dal, no fruits, no juices, no legumes. Basically, nothing else, apart from non-veg and oils, butters.
Or let’s take another school of diet: Vegan diet. They ask a person to give up non-veg. And also, forget milk, paneer, curd, buttermilk, and ice-cream completely.
This thought itself is scary. We would find it easier to change religion than change diet so drastically. What about you?
There is one word answer to this problem: BALANCE. We don’t believe in saying that any food is forbidden ever. Why did Adam and Eve eat an apple? Because they were forbidden to eat. It’s human to crave for things which are forbidden. And that’s why most diets fail. So don’t worry. You will love this new way to eat. Probably the easiest meal plan to reverse diabetes ever.
A healthy diet is healthy for everyone. But in case of diabetes, we need to take some extra care. Let’s go through what you can eat throughout the day. When you wake up, do you have tea and biscuits? Do we need to tell you that it’s not a good way to start your day? You should always start your day with positive thoughts and positive food.
Hence, we recommend you to take 4-5 soaked nuts like almonds or walnuts. Raw nuts are a great source of essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids. Soaking will remove the anti nutrient and make it easier to digest. After an overnight fasting, having nuts was seen to help with glucose control. Also, we recommend you to take one of the following drinks:
We have two products which are designed for the mornings
Before We talk about breakfast, we would like to introduce you to two concepts that we strongly recommend: Truweight Plate or The Possible Plate and 50:25:25 ratio.
Our food plate should be 50% vegetables, 25% protein, 25% carb. Look at a typical Indian thali, especially south Indian thali. It’s a hill of white rice. With a small bowl of dal and vegetables. It is largely 65% carb, 20% vegetables and only 15% protein. And then we say “Indian diet is healthy”. If it was healthy, 15 crore Indians would not be suffering from diabetes and prediabetes. No, we are not asking you to stop eating your favourite food, just keep the ratio right.
Remember the ratio: 50: 25: 25
What do we fill our stomach with? Food, right? And that’s where the problem is. Only 50% of the stomach should be filled with food. Balance 25% with water. 25% with air.
Half the time, we confuse thirst with hunger and eat food. How many of you might be making the same mistake? A golden rule to follow here is: Drink a glass of water 20 minutes before your meal. According to ayurveda, water before the meal is amrit, but after the meal is poison.
Lastly, 25% of the stomach should be filled with air. Which basically means that you should stop eating, when you are 75% full. Japanese have been practising it for years and they live the longest. They call it Hara Hachi Bu. But why air? Let us explain with an analogy. If you put clothes in your washing machine, will you stuff it with no air? Will the washing machine function? You need some air in your stomach too for better digestion. And it will also prevent you from overeating.
Breakfast
Midmorning
Medium sized seasonal fruit
Lunch
Evening
Tea / green tea + roasted chana/ground nuts/makhana
Dinner
Bedtime
Cinnamon water will help with blood sugar control
In every phase, we will make some minor changes to your diet to highlight one important aspect of diet. You can carry forward good things from one phase to another. It is like learning different chapters in a book. If you read chapter 2, you do not forget chapter 1. “Variety is the spice of life.” Having different phases breaks the monotony and gives variety in diet plans. Phases also help to change the metabolic rate. An active metabolism induces weight loss. Phases like calorie shifting can revamp the metabolism and break plateaus if reached. Some of the other phases are:
Reducing fat from the belly is not just for cosmetic reasons but also important to reduce your risk for metabolic diseases. In this phase the focus of the diet would be to reduce belly fat by introducing foods rich in MUFA, Vitamin C, calcium, CLA, anti- bloat foods etc.
This week is all about forgotten foods: ragi, jowar, bajra, kuttu, foxtail millet. Foods that we ate till 50-100 years back in large quantities but somehow the advent of consumerism has ensured the death of these products in urban plates.
The body gets used to eating similar kinds of food and there is a chance that metabolism slows down. By changing the number of times you consume grains, we revamp the metabolism which helps in weight loss.
Immune Booster phase is about phyto-chemicals which are plant chemicals that may prevent and/or suppress disease in the human body.
You will love the following phases as well. But right now, it’s important to start with the first phase and start changing your life. Your actions will only bring a transformation. Wish you all luck!
Diet is the cornerstone of being healthy. It can achieve what medicines cannot. Remember the Possible Plate and the 50:25:25 ratio. Be mindful of what you eat at the various meals during the day. Do not starve in search of weight loss, it will not help. Allow yourself to go through the various phases and look for results that are not immediate.
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