The urban Indian is fighting the battle of the bulge. Our lifestyles are changing drastically. Eating out has become the norm rather than the exception. Working women, with a tight time schedule, eat out often. We also face the need to party, both for social and work related reasons. Children have discovered the plethora of tongue tickling fast foods inundating the marketplace and demand to be taken out.

Look around you. Restaurants are proliferating at an alarming rate. Keeping pace with them are a number of gyms. There is a message there somewhere! Women are being tempted with the wrong types of food and then performing penance by going to weight loss clinics.

Is there a magic formula to eating right?

Eating right is simple enough. It means choosing a diet that is

• low in saturated fat and cholesterol
• high in vegetables and fruits
• high in calcium.
• It means staying away from
• beverages and foods that are high in sugar or salt

What should I be eating?

The basis of a healthy diet is the consumption of grains, fruits, and vegetables. A balanced diet will include a combination of the following:

•  rice, chapattis, pasta
• plenty of fruits and vegetables (at least five servings every day). For example, a banana, 2 cups/ katories of vegetables, a glass of orange juice and a salad will give you 5 servings in a day. These provide you essential antioxidants.
• low fat or skim milk (gives you calcium and milk protein but avoids the fat). Even overweight children and pregnant women can be given low fat milk without losing any of the benefits of drinking milk
• dried whole lentils like kabuli channa, rajma, peas, beans
• fish, meat and chicken with the fat trimmed
• egg - if you are concerned about the cholesterol in the yolk, the white of the egg by itself is all protein

Avoid deep fried foods. Boiling, steaming and light frying are healthy ways of cooking food.

Remember to keep food portions small:

Eating from a smaller plate tricks your mind into believing you are eating more. Put your side dishes in small cups (katoris). This will help you monitor how many times you refill the cup and will avoid insidious overeating.