Adopt healthy food habits for Holi

With truckloads of deep fried food items and sweets in front of you, it is difficult to lose weight during festivals like Holi, which is on Friday this year. If you cannot lose weight, at least try not to put on extra pounds, says an expert.

Harsh Kapoor, director, gastroenterology, Primus Super Specialty Hospital, shares a few tips on monitoring and controlling festive diets:

* Avoid overeating: It's not just about the quantity of food you are eating, but the intake of calories. Thus, during the festive season, be careful about the consumption of calories to avoid weight gain.

* What not to eat: Avoid eating oily and too much of spicy food besides restricting the sugar intake in sweets. Plan your meal in such a way that one special meal of the day should most likely be lunch so that day activities and movements can burn the extra amount of calories. And, try keeping your breakfast light and healthy, while dinner should be as light as possible to manage the intake of calories.

* Freshness: Pick the freshest food and keep an eye on expiry dates of the food products you are consuming. The possibility of food contamination with bacteria is very high when it comes to high temperature eating items. Bacteria can cause severe diarrhea which can lead to dehydration, nausea and vomiting, thus, most of the foods and sweets should be refrigerated. Intake of ample amount of fluids and appropriate usage of salt help to prevent dehydration.