How to Choose Healthy Snacks for Breaking the Fast, Must Be Noticed

For Indonesian people, market snacks and the month of Ramadan are two inseparable things. Typical Ramadan snacks are usually the choice because of their affordable prices and delicious taste. However, are all these snacks healthy?

Tips for Choosing Healthy Snacks for Breaking the Fast

The mistake of choosing snacks for breaking the fast is generally caused by excessive hunger so that you want to eat foods that are currently popular. The following are several ways to choose iftar snacks to keep you healthy, including:

1. Avoid snacks that are too sweet

Although sweet foods or drinks can replace the energy lost during a day of fasting, they can also increase blood sugar levels drastically. Excessive sugar intake on an ongoing basis will lead to the risk of diabetes.

Breaking the fast is synonymous with eating sweet foods, but that doesn’t mean all food and drinks have to be sweet when breaking the fast. Choose one, whether it’s food or drink.

2. Avoid Fried Food

It is undeniable that most of the fast-breaking snacks that are sold in the market are fried and have additional spices which are high in salt content.

Unfortunately, this is not recommended especially if the snacks are consumed immediately when breaking the fast. The reason is because it can cause the body’s metabolism to become heavier because oil in snacks will cause excessive fat intake so that it is slowly digested by the body.

In addition, energy in the body cannot be replaced quickly by fat, so the body’s nutritional needs that should be replaced immediately cannot be met quickly.

Choose snacks that are processed by steaming, baking or grilling with the addition of natural herbs.

Also Read: 11 Fruits for a Fasting Diet that Make You Full Longer!

3. Choose One Type of Food

Eye hunger (wanting to eat but actually not hungry) can no longer be avoided, especially when breaking the fast. This is what causes the choice of snacks to have too many types or the portions are too large.

This condition is actually okay to do, as long as you can adjust the portion and frequency of consumption. If not, you will eat too much, both in terms of type and portion. This makes the body full only from snacks that tend to be nutritionally incomplete.

Furthermore, nutritional intake in the body for one day may not be met because appetite has decreased, even though nutritional intake should be more complete than the main meal.

So, try to enjoy 1-2 servings of iftar snacks in small to medium sizes.

During fasting, the main food at breaking the fast and dawn contributes 70-80% of daily needs, the rest we can get from snacks, takjil or drinks.

The portion of snacks is important so that they don’t exceed your daily energy needs, so make sure you eat snacks with small to moderate portions.

Also Read: 10 Effective Ways to Overcome Thirst During Ramadan Fasting

4. Snacks made from fruit, vegetables and protein

Nutrient-dense foods that are good for consumption during the fasting month are those made from fruit, vegetables, and animal or vegetable protein.

There are quite a number of snacks made from these ingredients, for example, fruit salad, fruit pudding with natural sugar, vegetable and meat kebabs, red bean ice, or green bean porridge. This food is very dense in nutrition, easy to obtain, healthy, and still delicious.

If the snacks you choose are nutrient-dense, then of course several types of daily nutritional needs can be met, even though the portions consumed are not large. Usually the recommended portion of snacks is 70-100 grams in one serving.

Don’t forget, keep limiting how much you can consume snacks. You can consume 2-3 servings of healthy snacks in one day during the fasting month.

5. Ensure Hygiene of Snacks

Selection of snacks that are less hygienic has the risk of causing digestive disorders, one of which is diarrhea. Make sure the cleanliness of the place to the tools used to process the snacks you want to consume.

DoctorHealthy | © 2023 PT Media Kesehatan Indonesia. Copyright Protected