Be mindful of home-cooked junk food, say experts

Dietician Deepalekha Banerjee and nutritionist Shiny Surendran share with us what one should keep in mind while preparing such food at home 

 One should be aware of what will happen when you eat junk food daily. If you have that understanding then you can control eating habits. Understand your cravings and prepare food accordingly. Instead of store-bought snacks, fill the snack boxes with home-made snacks. While making burgers, add four layers of veggies. Even, for pizzas, add more vegetable toppings. Another best method to watch what you eat is to check weight regularly. Buy a measuring tape or weighing machine and check your weight once in two days. This is not to give you any panic, but to make sure you are aware of what you are eating. Many clients approached me with weight gain during the lockdown. If you are aware of the medical bills when you go to a hospital, then you will be careful about your eating habits. You can eat anything, but everything should be in moderation.

One can reduce overeating home-cooked junk food by consciously eating frequent small meals at regular intervals. Long food gaps tend to make us feel hungry and we end up overeating. If you wanted to make junk food at home, opt for healthier ingredients in preparing the food. Use more vegetables in cooked or raw form, use wheat/multigrain bases for home-made pizzas, burgers, pasta, noodles. Add lots of vegetables and a serving of protein like eggs, chicken, soya chunks, paneer, tofu. You can add sprouts because it increases the nutritional value as well as the satiety of each junk food.

 Another way is to choose healthier ways of cooking like shallow frying, air frying, grilled and baked options. In case, you want to enjoy deep-fried snacks like samosa and murukku, add a fresh salad to it so that portion control is not a problem and you don’t overeat. But make sure that you are compensating in the next meals for the extra calories consumed to avoid unhealthy weight gain.