Weight Loss: 5 Reasons Why Home-Cooked Indian Food Is Your Best Bet to Lose Weight

Indian food has got a bad reputation among health freaks across the world. The food has been linked to high cholesterol, high fat and high calories, making weight watchers turn to western superfoods like broccoli, avocados, etc. While there is no problem in consuming foods that have been proven to be good for your body, no matter where these are from, it's healthier to eat seasonal and local as this is the food that our bodies are best adapted to. Moreover, India has a long standing history of preparing meals from fresh produce - fruits and vegetables - and the concept of frozen and processed foods is absent in Indian cooking techniques. So, when it comes to weight loss, Indian diet is one of the best ones to adopt, and this has been maintained by a number of nutritionists and health experts as well.

Weight loss is more than just a game of counting calories consumed and burned. It's important to achieve weight loss in a healthy manner, and to keep the weight off for good. Physical exercise is obviously important to lose weight, but diet plays a crucial role as well. Starving and eliminating major food groups is definitely not the best idea to lose those extra inches if you are looking for long term results. A healthy weight loss meal plan must be sustainable, filling and nutritious - the three qualities that home cooked Indian food has.

(Also Read: How To Eat Coconut Oil: 4 Yummy Ways To Add It To Your Diet, Benefits and Recipes)

^{Indian food has a bad reputation among health freaks around the world}

Here Are Five Reasons That You Should Swear By Home-Cooked Indian Food For Weight Loss:

1. Absence Of Processed Foods: Indian meals are hardly ever prepared using processed or packaged foods. A bulk of our dishes use fresh ingredients, from freshly ground masalas to freshly prepared breads. We also have a wealth of a variety of healthy carbohydrates that we use in our dishes. It is a fact well known that processed foods not only make you gain weight, but are also bad for your overall health.

2. Presence Of Health-Boosting Spices: From cloves to cardamom, to jeera, to turmeric and to ginger, Indian cuisines make use of spices with incredible health benefits. Most of these spices have now been turned into supplements by the western world, but our everyday meals already have the advantage of these health-boosting spices that perform functions like boosting digestion, immunity and control blood sugar levels, etc. All of these are important functions to ensure a healthy weight loss.

3. Presence Of Healthful Oils: Traditional Indian cooking involves preparing food in healthy oils like mustard oil, coconut oil and peanut oil. Admittedly, refined vegetable oils have now made their way into Indian kitchens and into our cuisine, but since ancient times were prepared in these healthful oils, which have healthy fats. Coconut oil, in particular, has emerged as a superfood, which not only fights cholesterol, but also aides weight loss.

4. Presence Of Numerous Superfoods: Indian meals contain what the western world has now come to recognise as superfoods. There are numerous examples of 'superfoods' in our kitchens, including everyday ingredients like ghee and turmeric, which fight inflammation in the body and prevent weight gain, when consumed in the right quantity and manner.

5. Variety Of Cuisines And Ingredients: The sheer variety of ingredients and dishes that is present on the Indian subcontinent is unmatched. It's important for someone watching their weight to have a number of different healthy recipes to rely on and Indian cuisine provides that luxury of choice. So, if you learn to cook Indian food, you can never run of ideas for healthy meals.

Now, obviously, when we talk about home-cooked Indian meals for weight loss, we are not referring to the excessively greasy dishes like chhole bhature or butter-laden chicken curry with naan, etc. You obviously need to still be careful of overindulging and overeating unhealthy street foods or fried foods. However, if you are looking for diet inspiration to lose weight, you can safely count on the humble and nutritious home-cooked Indian food.

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