“Maama please…. I don’t want to eat rice. I will eat an extra roti but will never eat rice for the rest of my life. I will put on weight.” shouted Lakshmi as her mom served sambhar and rice for dinner.
It has been seen that there is a growing awareness about healthy lifestyle, maintaining ideal weight and the like among urban Indians. When we talk about healthy lifestyle or weight loss we generally refer to low carb food, high fiber, fresh fruits, vegetables, exercise, etc. Reducing carbohydrates intake seems to be a unanimous suggestion by most weight watchers.
Roti and rice both play a very integral part in the diet of the Indian people. Their meal is considered to be incomplete without rice or roti. Rice and roti are high in carbohydrates and hence all weight watchers are caught against the big battle of roti or rice?
Let’s understand how we can include rice as well as wheat rotis in our daily diet without the fear of gaining weight.
Wheat Roti/chapatti
Roti or chapattis are generally made from wheat flour and is a staple diet in most parts of our country.
Tips to make rotis healthy and nutritious:
- Rotis made from wheat flour can be made low in fat by avoiding ghee, butter or oil while kneading the dough or while serving the chapatti.
- You can avoid adding salt while kneading the dough to avoid excess salt intake in our body. The rotis are generally served with vegetable or curry and hence can be had without salt.
- You can increase the fiber content in rotis by adding powdered oats or using jada flour (coarsely ground wheat flour) bran to the wheat flour. Nutritionist, Shamika Kulkarni suggests, “Jada flour is definitely advisable for making rotis because it has higher fiber content and is also less processed and less refined thus retaining the nutrients more than the refined flours. Nachni, Jowar and Bajra are also good options for making rotis since they are also high in fiber and rich sources of calcium, iron, etc.”
- To make rotis more nutritious and increase the quantity of proteins you can add soya flour or gram flour to the wheat flour before kneading the dough.
- You can also make nutritious masala rotis by kneading the dough with cooked dal or lentils. You can add onions, coriander, fenugreek or spinach to make it more healthy and tasty. Shamika Kulkarni says, “The nutritional value of the roti will definitely increase because adding lentils or dals will increase the protein content of the roti and the addition of onions, coriander, leafy vegetables or any other vegetables like bottle gourd (dudhi), grated carrots, cabbage, cauliflower will increase the fiber content as well as well as vitamin and the mineral content of the roti and also make it healthy and tasty. One must take care to avoid excess use of oil or ghee while making these rotis so as to control the caloric intake.”
Benefits of eating wheat rotis:
- Wheat rotis get slowly digested which results in a feeling of satiety for a longer time and hence good for weight watchers.
- Wheat rotis take longer time to digest which helps to maintain blood sugar levels.
Rotis or chapattis made from whole wheat are low in fat and rich in fiber, hence reduces the risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer.
