Indians!!! Cuisine and Weight Loss/Management Discussion

Are there any indians in here??? Because we have a lifestyle, more to say food style is pretty different from what they have in the west and we could do with a guidance.

I'm indian!

yeah it's really hard when you're indian to be on a diet. Half the time i dont even know how many calories our dishes are...

where are u from?

I'm really sorry to bust in on your thread, but I love Indian cuisine. I don't know what is in half of the dishes I eat, but I know they are delicious!! What are some of the main ingredients in Indian food? I'm guessing a lot of bad stuff since it's so damn good

fried onions and tomato paste ( i use spagetti sauce) and oil

I think those three things are in almost ever dish... and we fry everything! lol... like if we're making ummm okra then we put oil in the pan, fry the onoins, put a little bit of paste and then put the okra in

same goes for pototoes, eggplants, beans, lol

omg, I totally cook Indian food all of the time.  Pulses, beans and such are pretty good for you as long as you keep the oil down a minimum and use other items like tomato paste for flavor.  I am trying not to put as much oil into the dahl, put more steamed veggies into my dahl, eat roti instead of nan and watch portion sizes. 

Sometimes I cook the dahl and veggies in the pressure cooker, add a tiny bit of oil and spices and then take some out just for myself.  I put the rest of the oil in and feed that to my husband, who is not on a diet.  Seems to work out.

Let's keep chatting!  Share your low-cal Indian recipes here too!!!

I also love Indian cuisine! My mother and I travel about an hour to a resturant that has amazing food. We even try to cook some at home..haha but it never seems to come out as good as we expected :(

~Malakai

Im fascinated by different cultures and cuisine. Please share your recipes I hail from the USA would love to try some out. The only Indian restuarants we have around are at least 2 hours away:(

First of all, you dont have to deep fry everything. The 'tadka' you make can be of olive oil (or sunflower oil), which has low sat fat and is high in monounsaturated fats which are good for health. Also u need only as much oil as to make the tadka and the rest of the veggies can be cooked on water.

The amazing taste and the mouth watering aroma of food doesnt come only from oil or frying. It comes from the wide range of spices n seasonings like cinnamon, pepper, cloves, coriander, cumin seeds, garlic, ginger and diff leaves (dried n powdered).

Matter of factly garlic and onion which are found abundantly in indian food are extremely good for health.

Now agreed that you wud need to use oil with most of the dishes, but then there are ways to minimize oil. The simplest is to use non-stick cookware and u can use bare minimum oil. Another one is use oil-spray instead of using teaspoonfuls or tablespoonsfuls.

Edit (3.00 pm EST) : Another good cooking habbit is to use microwave as much as possible. It's little difficult to start with but not that bad once u get used to it and again i said wherever possible not always.

I have had great success using a crock pot for indian food. The spices have all day to mix in really well so I don't have to use hardly any oil. And the veggie get so tender and soak up all the flavors...mmmmm!

**mouth waters**

i dont think i can post recipes here but u can find out many sites which give detailed recipes of exotic indian foods.

How to make them low-fat

1. Eliminate all the butter or 'pure ghee'. Replace with olive oil as much as possible.

2. Replace deep fry with 'pan fry' or shallow fry.

3. There are hundreds of luscious and mouthwatering dishes (or entrees or items). If you find you can't make something low calorie or low fat, simply strike it off !! You still have plenty of choice for urself.

4. If you need to fry something, use a shallow non-stick skillet with broad base against a tall vessel and keep stirring. This way u can use oil spray effectively and still end up using less than a tablespoon oil for ur entire cooking.

5. All the veggie dishes with gravy can be cooked on water. So only fry the veggies for just a few minutes with as much less oil as possible and then cook on water.

6. No body says u r not allowed to drain off the excessive oil post cooking.

I like pulses a lot, they can be cooked with very little oil. You have so many options here that u can virtually eat pulses 7 days a week.

I am a non-veggie  and i eat chicken/fish 3 times a week. For chicken, as a rule use skinless chicken. If you are not too much bothered about test, then put the chicken in pressure cooker (with water + spices etc) for 10 mins. Then add it in the half cooked gravy and cook together next 10 mins. Marinating the meat upfront greatly reduces cooking time and adds amazing taste. So u dont hv to use too much oil to cook tasty food !!

cupidsvictim : There u go ! crock pot is a sure way of minimizing oil !

Closed lid cooking preserves the aroma and gets the work done in half the time !

Shruti, thanks for starting this thread, we all indians here will benefit from it.

To all Indians who say Indian food is unhealthy - One can very well understand if it comes from a non-indian, but it's really pathetic to hear it from an indian. Either you don't know how to make smart choices or you didn't care to know your food well.

I have lost a total of 22 pounds by eating Indian food mostly, home made and also restaurant. After spending much time and effort in research, we - me and my husband - found that Indian food is the most healthy. Even in restaurants, the calorie contents of 2 tablespoons of yellow curry sauce in thai is equivalent to one whole dish of chicken tikka masala. I do not have other statistics here as I did not save it last year :( For snack, if you have moong dal mixture, although it is high in calories but you are getting protien too. It's not totally unhealthy.

Indian food uses a lot of lentils, poultry and fish which is high in protien. The spices used are high in anioxidants. Agreed, some food have a lot of ghee or cream, but we don't cook it everyday. I had some punjabi friends and they used to make the most healthy and tasty chana masala, kaala chana without using any ghee or cream.

I have stated a thread Healthy Indian Food and Snacks in the Recipes section. Please add on if you know of one, or refer it if you want a recipe. Also, if you want a specific Indian food recipe, ask there, there are lots of people here who will come with a good answer.

lovelin - I am extremely happy to see your reply and i wud soon hop in to recipes section.

Personally i wont give much thought to the argument 'Indian food is the healthiest in the world' cos first of all i dont know what diff cuisines are there in the entire world and i hvn't tried all of even those that i can eat in restaurant. Every cuisine will have a mix of healthy and fatty food. And as u've mentioned, u have to make smart choices to eat healthy and that is what matters.

Yes - fish,  eggs, chicken even pulses are high in protein. You can make a bad choice by eating egg-yolks as they are full of cholesterol, assuming all of the egg is protein and wont even know u r eating bad food. This cant be dumped on the type of cuisine u r having.

Ok, I'm going to South India for 2 weeks.  Of course, other people are cooking, the food is going to be pure veg.  What the heck can I ask that they cook so I don't bloat up and undo my little tiny bit of progress made so far!  Ah, I'm so worried!!!  The last time I was there I did not gain any weight, but I was walking around a lot more than I will be this time, especially with it being monsoon season and all. 

Help! 

Hi all :-)

Im 34/male from new delhi in india and started my weight loss regimen in march this year and have come down from 285 lbs to 242 lbs, but seem to have lost all motivation over the last month or so and haven't been exercising/eating sensibly in this period. Thankfully I haven't added anymore weight in the interim.I'm glad I stumbled on this forum and I know this is going to provide me the motivation I need!!My eventual Goal weight is 170 lbs.

With regards to Indian food, I'm of the opinion that it's relatively easier to incorporate into a healthy diet cuz it offers a huge amount of vegetarian alternatives that are not bland. I was a huge meat (esp red) eater but have delved into so many awesome veggie/lentils/low fat poultry recipes in the past few months that I longer crave meat and that makes weight loss a lot easier.

'Tadka' can be a culprit, and one needs to eliminate ghee ( rarefied butter) from the paste. I use extra virgin olive oil and that too in very limited amounts. In fact I now do most of my cooking with a tomato n onion base ( negligible oil) and use the spices and the turmeric, garlic and ginger quite liberally and trust me, it more than compensates for the lack of ghee/cream etc. Also Tandoori cooking practically eliminates the use of oil and tastes pretty awesome.Just make sure you marinate the poultry/cottage cheese in low fat yogurt,masala n green chilli pepper (if you like it spicy) and leave for a few hours before bbq/grilling it.

I agree with inci vinci @ making healthier choices, though I disagree with the egg yolks theory.Not only have studies shown that eggs do not significantly affect cholesterol levels in most individuals, but the latest research suggests that eating whole eggs may actually result in significant improvement in one's blood lipids (cholesterol) profile-even in persons whose cholesterol levels rise when eating cholesterol-rich foods.

This information is supported by a statistical analysis of 224 dietary studies carried out over the past 25 years that investigated the relationship between diet and blood cholesterol levels in over 8,000 subjects. What investigators in this study found was that saturated fat in the diet, not dietary cholesterol, is what influences blood cholesterol levels the most.

A really interesting source of information, if someone likes to read about nutrition ... http://whfoods.org/foodstoc.php

Happy weight loss to all!

I love cooking Indian food!  I have several cookbooks by Madhur Jaffrey.  Her instructions are very clear and the recipes are from all over India.  Also, the illustrations are wonderful

There was another thread like this one, not too long ago.  I'm trying to fnd it.  If anybody knows the one I'm talking about, please post a link here!

links about recipes and all is fine here ~ i gather this group is all about managing your weight and focusing on eating the traditional Indian cuisine ~ so if it's both, it's ok in the weight loss forum.  If it's really only about food, send a mod a personal message and we can move this to the foods forum for you :)  It's up to you all, though.  Cheers, 

Not Indian, but also an Indian food lover.

I think you can make a lot of the same changes as any other foods. Brown basmati rice is to white basmati rice as whole wheat pasta is to white pasta :)

I'd like to second chix123- good recipes are always welcome.

Hi, I'm an Indian,

Its tough knowing calories etc in indian food, but if your making it yourself at least you know your making it as healthy as possible. We use small amounts of olive oil instead of sunflower oil and when eat i eat enjoy my food and eat it slowely, when i'm satisfied i stop, that way you'll find when its time to eat again you'll be feeling hungry!

Hey, I use olive oil for cooking too. Its a fabulous substitute to the other fatty oils in the market. Also I stopped eating rice and I eat chappatis instead. I sometimes binge on rice during my cheat days. I make sure I don't go over my sodium limits as they bloat you up big time. But now my parents are here and I am not counting calories, but I exercise. :-)

wow!!! i wasn't expecting my post to gather so many replies so soon... but i'm happy that you people are so enthu about it.... i'm myself trying to count the calories... i once ate sabudana khichadi and spent 2 days looking for the calorie count.... i guess all the calories must have evaporated in tht effort... anyways... i hope to find some help from tarla dalal and my dietician here.... will post it as soon as i can... c ya guys...