What comes to mind when I talk about Indian cuisine? To me a lot of spices, meat or legume curries, quite elaborate and spicy dishes or fried sweet foods rich in syrup (and spices). Yet from Indian cuisine we can learn a lot , a lot, to lose weight. In fact, there are some good rules that we can make our own, even if they do not strictly belong to our culture, because they are recognized globally as good rules for maintaining a healthy body weight.
Indian cuisine in fact blends its foundations on Ayurvedic medicine .

Doing an Ayurvedic diet is not actually complicated, that is, it means eating to bring well-being to your body and in line with your constitution.

Let’s see in detail some rules that we can adopt to lose weight and which are typical of traditional Indian cuisine.
– Do not mix meat and fish with dairy products (except yogurt)
– Do not eat legumes with nuts or oil seeds (can cause intestinal fermentation)
– Take care of your “digestive fire”
– Start the day with two glasses of lukewarm water with juice lemon
– Prefer a single plate for lunch and dinner , or a single dish. This allows us to balance nutrients. In India, the single dish par excellence is the thali.
– Use spices to flavor dishes,give flavor, reducing the consumption of salt: spices now known as turmeric, curry, ginger powder, chilli or paprika and, for sweet dishes, cinnamon, cloves, are now also recognized at a nutraceutical level as substances useful for our well-being . Curry, cloves and cinnamon have a hypoglycemic function. Ginger and turmeric are anti-inflammatory substances.
– Use cumin seed, aniseed or fennel tea to reduce intestinal swelling.

A weight loss plan based on these rules can be this, providing us with about 1400 calories and helping us to deflate the belly and improve intestinal health by reducing blood sugar spikes.

THE INDIAN DIET
Breakfast : two glasses of water acidulated with lemon juice.
A cup of tea or coffee with skim or soy milk. A slice of wholemeal bread or a small fruit. A low-fat yogurt. A spoonful of honey, malt or fruit compote. Or: savory breakfast with coffee or tea, a slice of toasted bread with a teaspoon of oil and a little tomato, an egg or 4 slices of defatted ham or 100 grams of skimmed milk flakes.

Snack: 200 ml of fruit juice with no added sugar, for example citrus or apple juice + 5 almonds or a 150 gram fruit + 5 almonds.

Lunch: carbohydrate single plate. 
A portion of: basmati rice, pasta, polenta (50 g) or a packet of crackers or 60 grams of bread or half a flatbread. A small portion of raw vegetables (also at the beginning of the meal), one of cooked vegetables, a teaspoon of oil and: a level ladle of legumes or 4-5 slices of bresaola or a handful of meat or fish (for example chicken, low-fat cheese , shrimp, clams, mussels) or half a handful of tofu / tempeh or an egg + a spoonful of parmesan (for the preparation of the dishes).
A small fruit or a quarter of a larger fruit.

Snack two hours after lunch : a decoction with caraway or anise seeds to deflate the belly, without sugar. If we suffer from heartburn, we add a piece of fresh ginger.

Snack: 2 walnuts or 10 grams of dark chocolate + a glass of turmeric milk  (if it’s winter) or lassi (if it’s summer) for intestinal health or alternatively 125 grams of low-fat yogurt with stevia and cinnamon.

Dinner: protein single plate.
A portion of vegetable soup (minestrone light) or a salad (if it’s summer). A palm of hand of grilled meat or fish or flavored with yogurt and spices (put the meat in the yogurt and spices, add citrus juice of your choice, leave to marinate and then bake in the oven). A 25 g slice of bread or 100 g of potatoes. A portion of steamed or boiled vegetables. A teaspoon of vegetable oil.

After dinner : half an apple or pear or peach baked or cooked in a saucepan with a teaspoon of water and a final sprinkling of cinnamon or cloves.