Maintaining a balanced diet after the Idul Fitri feast
Maintaining a balanced diet after the Idul Fitri feast
By Dian Utami Soekanto
BOGOR (JP): After a month of fasting, many people can't help but see the Lebaran celebration as a time for indulgence.
A piece of ketupat, traditional boiled rice-cakes prepared to greet the end of Ramadhan, may not be too fattening, but chicken and papaya curry with thick coconut milk is swimming in fat.
Combined with other dishes that Indonesian Moslems prepare for Lebaran, such as sambal goreng ati (fried beef liver with chili) or semur (steak with plenty of ketchup and garlic), even just a plateful can gain back the weight shed during the fasting days.
To counter the weight gain, many Indonesians fall victim to fad diets.
Vera, 21, is an example of a person who has let her body become a lab for experimental diets. After Lebaran last year, she rapidly gained weight. The 155 cm tall and 61 kg woman really felt terrible about her body.
So she skipped breakfast and only ate a sandwich for lunch. For dinner, she had an apple and a slice of roast beef. She lost 6 kg in six weeks but became bored of her diet. She was also constantly tired and hungry. Eventually, she lost control and started to binge.
There are dozens of diets whose designers claim to be effective. Some of these diets sound scientific and therefore convincing, but not every one is safe.
Diet experts Harvey and Marilyn Diamond recently published Fit for Life, a book on dieting which encourages readers not to diet, but to improve their consumption pattern.
The main principle of the book is to avoid eating food which is high in protein with carbohydrate rich food. They argue that the human body is unable to digest the two micronutrients at the same time.
They believe a person can consume a plateful of steak without having to worry about their waistline. However, eating it with potatoes or rice, both sources of carbohydrate, is asking for trouble.
If a person really wants to eat potatoes, they should save them for the next day or several days later when their body is ready to digest them, the writers believe.
According to the book, only having fruit or juice for breakfast is best because you shouldn't combine it with other meals.
The Diamond Diet isn't totally off base. But we still have to be careful and make sure that our body gets the necessary nutrients. For instance, we still need adequate protein to replace body cells.
Ketogenesis
The Diamonds' statement that a person can eat anything which is high in protein as long as you don't combine it with carbohydrate-rich food, can be misleading.
This could lead a dieter to indulge in fatty foods and forget all about calories or cholesterol. For the Lebaran holidays, when many dishes are prepared with thick coconut milk, this attitude may be downright harmful to your health.
In addition to endangering the waistline, this diet of fatty food may also harm the kidneys, especially over a long period of time. You will probably lose a great deal of weight in a short time, because this diet is diuretic; you tend to urinate more often.
However, you are also exposed to ketogenesis, or the build up of ketone (organic compound consisting of the carbonyl group united to two polarized alkyl radicals).
In plain language, you may feel nauseous, get headaches or even slip into a coma due to a toxic buildup in your body.
What about a carbohydrate-rich diet like the Beverly Hill diet? This is not a good option, either. The carbohydrates which are not absorbed by the body will eventually turn into fat tissue. What's worse is this diet may cause diarrhea, muscle weakness and dizziness.
Balance diet
There is really no choice after these days of gluttony but to return to the true and tried formula of a balanced low calorie and high fiber diet.
Discipline and motivation is needed to succeed, but after a month of daytime fasting this shouldn't be hard.
There is the problem of seeing people eat, in contrast to Ramadhan when people not fasting tend not to eat in public out of respect. But, this shouldn't be a problem if you are determined.
The principle of this diet is to control the intake of energy. Fiber helps you to feel full sooner, and prevents constipation. Regular exercise and a more active lifestyle will help increase output of energy, and the burning of calories.
Make sure that you have balance and adequate amount of micronutrients (carbohydrate, protein, water, vitamin and mineral). Reduce fatty foods.
At the start of this diet, you will probably lose a great amount of fat and liquid. For every 3,500 calories cut, you can lose a pound of weight.
It is advisable that you do not cut your food intake to lower than 1,000 calories per day. Usually, a woman should not drop her calorie intake below 1,200 calories a day, while a man stay above 1,600 calories.
It is better to have your own table outlining the calories in foods you normally consume. If you have to, why not measure your food? You'll get used to it in no time.
Avoid empty calorie foods -- those which contain nothing else but calories, such as sugar, cakes, whipped cream, candies and soft drinks.
If you plan to go on this diet, or any diet, consult your physician first. Then, elicit support from people around you, and make sure they won't sabotage your effort to reduce by offering you fatty or sugary foods when you come to visit.
Understand that you will need to reduce, or completely do away with snacks. But what if you get the "munchies"? Try to have healthy snacks, like fresh fruit.
Other healthy snacks? Try a mix of yogurt and strawberries on top of dry cereal. Or, try cutting tofu into small squares and mixing it into salads, soup or other vegetable dishes. Tuna salad mixed with bean sprouts can be a fun, healthy snack.
The following is an example of a 1,200 calories menu for one day.
Morning: three slices of bread, a slice of cheese, a teaspoonful of jam, a glass of non-fat milk and an apple.
Lunch: Two slices of bread, a slice of lean chicken about 30 grams, one boiled egg, a piece of lettuce, a teaspoonful of mayonnaise and a teaspoonful of ketchup.
Dinner: Tenderloin steak, about 75 grams, with two mid-size boiled potatoes, vegetables and fruit.
Try to be more creative with your choice of food so that you won't get bored and be tempted to eat fatty foods again.
Dian Utami Soekanto is in her final year at the School of Agriculture in the Bogor Institute of Agriculture.