Top 10 Diet Breakers

How strong is your willpower when you are on a diet? The type of diet you chose isn't the most important aspect of maintaining a healthy diet. It is whether or not you stick to it. Everyone who follows a diet - whether to lose weight or to become healthier - has times when it is tough to stay motivated and that is when it is just too easy to give up. Resisting tempting foods can be extremely difficult especially at the beginning of the quest but it is possible.

In order to stick to your healthy diet, it helps to know about the foods you can choose to overcome the craving when the initial excitement and motivation of a new diet wears thin. Here is a list of foods that can tempt you to break your diet (also called diet breakers) and some ways to deal with them:

1. Pizza: Nowadays, we get a variety of pizzas with yummy toppings ranging from plain cheese to variety of vegetables to paneer to tandoori chicken. The pizza base can be of any form – thin crust, normal, deep crust or even filled with cheese - but they all are made with quite a good amount of refined white flour (maida). White flour is devoid of fiber, and is stripped of essential vitamins, antioxidants and minerals during processing. They also increase triglyceride/lipid (cholesterol) levels in the blood. A better alternative would be tortillas (a flatbread made of either whole wheat or corn) available now with vegetable toppings. Authentic tortillas are low in fat and calories, but you do have to be careful as there are so many variables in purchasing tortillas. However, if tortillas are not available then you can also make a homemade pizza using a whole wheat base along with lot of vegetables. If you also want to put cheese then use a low calorie cheese.

2. Burger: Burger, french fries and soft drink – a great combination but not so great for your health. The patties in the burger are normally deep fried in oil which are generally high in saturated fats and trans fat. Even a vegetable patty would be high in calories and fat. Instead, choose a grilled patty with whole wheat bread filled with lot of raw vegetables. Another good choice would be sandwiches made of whole wheat or multigrain bread, which can also be grilled or had in the form of toast. The filling can be anything like raw vegetables, low fat paneer or grilled chicken. Enjoy the same way as burger but in a healthy way.

3. Ice Cream: Ice cream is a frozen dessert which is loved by every age group, starting from a 3 year old kid to an old age person. Ice creams are made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and usually combined with fruits (fresh or dry) or other ingredients and flavours. Mostly they contain sugar. But nowadays there are some healthy choice or substitutes available for ice cream such as probiotic ice-creams which helps the intestine for the digestion or low calorie ice creams which are made from using skimmed milk, sugar substitutes etc. So, the intention is to make you eat healthy and not to curb your craving.

4. Deep fried foods: After a long day at work, anybody would love to sit in front of the TV and munch on some snacks like potato chips, bhujiya, pakodas, samosas, etc. But we have no idea of how much of oil and what kind of oil is being used while preparing it. This is one of the main reasons for our cholesterol levels to go high. So let's try something that does not need any oil for making it like roasted channa, roasted moong, roasted vegetables, roasted wheat or plain murmura with lot of vegetables and less of sev bhujiya. You can munch on as it is quite nutritious.

5. Chocolates: The first expression that comes in mind is yummy. Chocolates are the symbol of gifts, love, etc. Chocolates are made up of milk, butter, sugar, liquor etc which makes it very high in calories. Dark chocolates are good substitute due to the presence of higher percentage cocoa extract rich in antioxidants which helps to flush out free radicals from the body. Eating dark chocolates in moderate amount (a couple of squares) helps to lower blood pressure and improves memory power.

6. Sweets/Mithai: When we speak about sweets many things comes to our mind like ladoos, jalebi, halwa, rasogolla etc. There are many variety of sweets and they differ from place to place but the basic ingredients used for making them is more or less the same. It includes sugar, milk, ghee/dalda, white flour (maida) etc. By seeing these ingredients we can make out that sweets are the highest calorie food and its tasty of course. To make these sweets healthy and low in calorie, a slight variation you can make is to substitute the ingredients. For example: instead of sugar use sugar substitutes made from sucralose or stevia, instead of whole milk use skimmed milk and instead of ghee or dalda use refined oil or palm oil. In this way you are not only cutting the calories but decreasing your risk for any health disorder.

7. Butter chicken: We all love it, don't we? It is very difficult to resist ourselves away from it but we tend to forget that the ingredients going into it like chicken and butter have a lot of fat and calories in it. A better choice would be something that is dry like tandoori, roasted or grilled chicken. These take in very less oil or no oil at all in the preparation, so it automatically cuts down the calories as well.

8. Cakes: Cake is often the dessert of choice for meals at ceremonial occasions, particularly weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. They are loved by all the age groups. Common ingredients used to make cakes include white flour (maida), sugar, egg, milk and butter or margarine. These ingredients make cake rich in fats, calories and sugar. By replacing ingredients, cakes can be made healthier and low in calorie. Sugar can be replaced by sugar substitutes made from sucralose or stevia, white flour (maida) with whole wheat flour. Instead of whole egg, egg-white can be used. Yeast can be used for softening.

9. Chats: Chats include many things like aloo chat, dahi papdi, masala puri, samosa chat, etc. As these are cheap and quick to make, we tend to have chats frequently. However, high percentage of fat, sugar, and salt in it are leading to obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other chronic illnesses. To avoid these, fried items over the chat (like sev bhujiya) should be avoided and the better options are chats like bhel, dal chat, tomato puri, kheera puri etc.

10. Coffee: Coffee is a weakness of many individuals. Most people use coffee as an aid to keep themselves awake because of the wake-up effects of caffeine. While coffee itself barely has any calories, everything we add to it - like sugar, milk, cream, etc - can pack on the unnecessary calories and fat. So, next time you have a craving, make a plain brewed coffee and add a bit of skim milk. Another better option is to switch to herbal tea or green tea. Herbal or green tea still has caffeine in it (though not as much), plus a bonus of antioxidants, making it a healthy caffeine fix. Similarly to coffee, milkshakes are rich in fat, sugar and low in fiber. So, the better choice would be fresh fruit juices or Soya milk.

These food items should be seen as a treat, not a regular part of the diet. The absolute best way to beat a craving is to try and let time pass. Often that is all that is needed to lessen the craving. However, if you are not able to control your craving, then it is better to keep in mind the healthy replacements so that you can fulfill your craving without adversely affecting any diet you are following. But remember to have these replacements in moderation else they won't remain replacement.