Indian Food: Healthy Options

I agree - we seem to be obsessed with scoffing down as much food as we can in a short period of time. Take you time with food, you'll enjoy it more and you won't get indigestion. :-)

There is definitely a difference between "authentic" Indian food and that perverted (sorry, lack of a better word) to accomodate American tastes. Having traveled to the sub-continent and spoiled with the "real" thing, it's frustrating here in the US to get decent Indian food!

The breads are typically, and supposed to be made from whole-wheat flour or flours from barley, millet, chickpea - if you're going to an establishment using white flour, they're cutting corners for cost saving. It's also unheard of to eat both the bread and rice with the meal - it's one or the other, not both.

Vegetables, from my experience, are always part of the traditional Indian meal - they're either incorporated into the main dish or within a selection of side dishes with spinach, eggplant, onions, carrots and peas featured prominently. Most restaurants in the US offer them as side dishes, a la carte - but they are supposed to be part of the meal!

Lastly, and very important to highlight, is that even those dishes that are cream-sauce/ghee based are powerhouses nutritionally - the spices especially boost the nutrient-density of almost any Indian main dish. I have one chicken dish recipe I got while overseas, and when I ran it through a nutrient calculator, I was shocked it provided almost all nutrients for a day in one serving....and yes, it has cream, full-fat yogurt and butter in it. This is something I've noted in many of the recipes I have that are "authentic" Indian - they're rich with nutrients and that's often from the spices and natural fats used in copious amounts!

It's definitely time consuming, but in almost any good Indian/Pakistani restaurant you can get your food prepared traditionally....you just have to ask for it to be authentic, as they'd eat it. But, you also have to like it spicy - because that's what you're going to get!

In my experience, the vegetarian options at Indian restaurants are not only probably healthier than the meat options, but they taste better, as well. Of course, this probably varies from city to city and restaurant to restaurant.
I always get a spinach and mushroom dosa, eat half, and take the other half home. It comes with lentil soup too. Lots of veggies, no meat...it's very good!

Since I only eat Indian a few times a year (unless I make it at home and control it, and then it's more *modified* Indian) and it's my favorite food, I just disregard Calories and such for then and go buckwild.

It's my enjoyment food--- everything else, I will *ALWAYS* track. Indian, no way, love it and the variations too much.

You should see me grilling the people if I go to a Thai restaurant, etc. It's so hard to get nutritional data on ethnic food, that you're almost restricted to cheap chains when you're eating... just so you know exactly what and how much you're eating. Which sucks for me, since I'd give up Chili's or Applebees for Poonas or Thai Down any day. =/

Most people's experience of Indian is in the noisy food court at the local mall. The noise alone is enough to give me indigestion.

I love Indian food. There are some exceptions, but I think authentic version is always healthier than what we get here.

For instance, professional cooks from China, when they arrive in US, often go to a school so that they can learn to cook all over again - "sweet and sour pork" is not found in authentic Chinese cuisine.

Indian food is a great alternative especially when eaten in the right context - meaning Indians are mostly vegetarian.

You can visit my own Interactive Fast Food browser to compare fast foods to each other.

Jim,

That's very little food for a night of dining out, wow! :-)

I think it's important to mention yogurt as a staple in Indian cuisine; many of the sauces and dips are made from yogurt. Also the health benefits of many spices (such as turmeric and coriander) are important to consider. There is nothing wrong with curries and rice as long as they're prepared authentically and consumed in moderation.

If you want authentic food of any type you have to go to a source that cooks and serves it in the ways of that region or country.

Trying to keep to Montignac diet stage 1, not mixing oils with carbs. Would you cook vegetables without oil if you are making a bean curry? I can't avoid frying onions or chillies in oil first, can you?

Tandoori selections are often good choices for Indian as they are made with a yogurt base and then baked.

As for making curries without frying the chilis or spices in oil... try toasting them. You can do this in a toaster oven or in a frying pan without oil. Then once toasted, add directly to your curries or grind them if desired in a coffee grinder used strickly for spices. The flavor is just as intense as frying your spices.

As for your onions, you can use a light spray or a tiny bit of oil mixed with broth. It does not take much before the onions release their own juices.

There's different types of Indian cooking. There's North Indian cooking and South Indian cooking. The north indian cooking comes from people who live in the northern part of India. And the south Indian cooking comes from people who live in the southern part of India. North India is colder. South India is hotter. North Indian cooking consists of more fattening foods. South Indian cooking is less fattening, I think. But both use oils which make it fattening. But i think south indian cooking uses much less oil than north indian cooking. North Indian cooking is just drenched in alot of fat. NOt south indian cooking, because the climate is hotter. South Indian cooking does not use ghee or cream and is spicier. And they eat more rice based foods. They also like fish. And the south eats more meat. People think south indians don't eat vegetables as often, which is not true. They always incorporate vegetables on the side. But I think they cook the vegetables in a way which kills the nutrients.

Oh and South Indians do incorporate yogurt into their food. But they don't cook WITH the yogurt. The yogurt is usually on the side. And they make different types of yogurt. There's the more liquid type yogurt which has mustard and spices.

The north indian one has a green kind of liquid yogurt which has cilantro in it, which is my favorite.

That's another thing. Most of these ethnic foods you find in restaurants aren't always the kind eaten at home by these people. The Chinese restaurants, for example, make alot of foods that they usually only eat during celebrations.

Thai cooking is also similar to Indian cooking, and I find Thai personally more healthy.

Hi Interesting blog there!
I'm Indian, live in Bombay. Have lived in the US for a while and I know restaurant Indian food isn't real Indian food. India has over 25 states and each state having several styles of cooking. The traditional styles always followed ayurvedic principles, thereby, they were extremely balanced, healthy, minimum flavouring, maintaining the true taste of the food. Sadly, the world sees only the CURRIED Indian version.
I do admit that our traditional cuisine is surely one of the healthiest cuisines around, sadly people don't get to taste it outside of our homes :)

Hmmmm. Looks nice. Gotta try this also

I'm an indian girl and i'm from North India. Anyone who says that all indian cooking is the same is WAY off. North indian cooking uses more wheat products (like the naan and roti)and also uses more meaty items (like chicken). South Indian cooking uses more rice in it than North Indian and is also more vegetarian style. So if you love food but want to eat healthy vegetarian food, i highly recommend South Indian cooking.

I'm a real indianamerican. obviously, noone has been to india. This stuff in the restaraunts...has been toned down about 555 TIMES. (they have to, non indians cant eat very spicy) Real indian food is way more spicy. Especially andhra and karnataka. And no, not all south indians eat fish. only in kerala and andhrapradesh do they eat fish. karnataka is southern, and its ALL VEGETARIAN. and you say the food is fattening? well in any restaraunt you go to, they dont exactly serve healthy food. and uh, rachel raw? youre kinda dumb. "The north indian one has a green kind of liquid yogurt which has cilantro in it, which is my favorite"

"The north indian one has a green kind of liquid yogurt which has cilantro in it, which is my favorite." "The north indian one has a green kind of liquid yogurt which has cilantro in it, which is my favorite."

please let me know how to reduce weight in a healthy manner.

i am desperate now

i want to know perfect callaries food per day how much we have to take no bady has not given cerrect answer i am veg

what to eat and what to not eat to be healty

Lakshmi, women usually burn nine calories per pound. So, a 100 pound (45.5 kilo) woman needs only 900 calories per day [just to breathe, beat your heart, etc.]. Obviously, this woman would be extremely malnourished (though thin) unless she planned her daily menus very closely indeed. Any exercise that you do burns more calories, so you can eat more. If you get the recommended 30 minutes a day, you can add somewhat to your ration, and not gain weight. Anyway, get a healthy body weight range for yourself from this website:

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/obesity/bmi_tbl.htm

then multiply the middle number of the range by 9.

Men, unfairly, can generally burn 11 calories per pound per day, just to breathe. But, did God create them to love chocolate? No, it was given to us!

My friends owned a Indian restaurant in Philly. I used to wait for them some time. You learn a lot when you work at a place right :).

Many Indian resturants add Heavy Cream in curries.. believe me its heavy (Calorie/Fat wise http://www.recipezaar.com/library/getentry.zsp?id=361). Makes the dish tasty. If you want to contain calories, ask them for dishes with out cream or if they can cook your dish with out cream.
When getting rice as a side, ask for non buttered/oiled rice.
Choose Chapati/Roti instead of Nan/Paratha
If getting lassi, ask them if it is a by product of low fat milk
When ordering a curry, ask them to put as much less oil as possible.

Very interesting discussion, especially the several reductionist comments about what is a very multi-faceted, varied and culturally nuanced cuisine.

Most 'Indian' food served outside India is mughlai. The chicken curries made in butter/ ghee/ cream, as well as tandoori (tandoor = an open oven) chicken and naans are mughlai in origin.

North and South Indian food varies widely within itself from state to state, and region to region. Many of the spices used are the same but their use varies widely creating subtle tastes. Both use a lot of lentils of different kinds as well as vegetables, although it is true that 'rotis' (and variants of unleavened bread) are more common in the North than in the South. It also depends on where you stop defining North! West Bengal is technically 'north' compared to Madras, but they eat rice and fish predominantly.. In short, generalisations will always mean disagreements.

Both North and South Indian foods can be unhealthy in their own right: North Indians may have butter, but a lot of South Indian food is cooked in coconut oils (mostly sat fats; Proof? it freezes within minutes in a fridge)

Desi girl: I must disagree with you on the 'vegetarian-ness' of South Indian food. Keralite cooking as well as Chettinad cuisine feature plenty of meats and seafoods.

In short, if you are all really so keen on Indian food and want it healthy, then I am afraid you need a bit more research and a little less reductionism based on very limited experiences which the comments here betray. And besides the best way to control what you eat is of course, to cook it..

Madhur Jaffrey and Atul Kochar have written pretty good books about North Indian cooking. Most South Indian cooking I know I learnt from my South Indian friends' mothers but I am sure some books exist.

And as for chinese food: may I recommend Center of Science in the Public Interest's publication (very well-researched and comprehensive) 'Restaurant Confidential'. Thanks.

I am an expat Indian and I have lived all over the world. The best South Indian food (health wise) comes from Kerala and Karnataka. Foods from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are more tastier (not necessarily healthier) than their bordering neighbors. That's probably because of their liberal use of meats and oils.

North Indian food is somewhat similar to the food you get in the Indian restaurants in the US, although not 100% authentic. Indian food in general contains a lot of healthy ingredients like garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, coriander so on and so forth. Along with that, come the fatty substances like dahi (yoghurt), makhan (ghee) etc. They make foods tasty, but a there's a tendency to gain weight. You will see fat people everywhere in India, once they reach 40. Although, there is a health craze in India lately, the foods habits still remain bad and there's a lot of emphasis on sweets. Even chai comes with atleast 2 / 3 teaspoons of sugar.

The best asian cuisine is Korean and Japanese. Most of their dishes include a generous portion of vegetables, seaweed, fish, boiled rice and very less sodium. In fact, salt is not even used in Thai cooking. They use fish sauce instead. Again, chinese food is the not the same in the US as it is in provincial China. There is no concept of "Sweet and sour" crap, that's ubiquitous all over Chinese menus.

Moral of the Story :
Whatever you eat, eat in moderation. Drink some alchohol once in a while, include fresh fruits and vegetables in your every day diet. Eat anything "Steamed". Stay away from anything "fried". Stay away from "sweets" and marry a good looking Asian woman who can cook.

Shea Verpucci wrote:

Whatever you eat, eat in moderation. Drink some alchohol once in a while, include fresh fruits and vegetables in your every day diet. Eat anything "Steamed". Stay away from anything "fried". Stay away from "sweets" and marry a good looking Asian woman who can cook.

I think Thai fish sauce is very high in sodium.

Quito said:
I think Thai fish sauce is very high in sodium.
[...]

Asian food in general does have lots of sodium, compared to say, Mediterranean food. But since I have low blood pressure, I love it. Bring on the fish sauce, the soy sauce, the bonito flakes...

Iam an indian by roots and visit this beautiful country often. I must admit that theres nothing (Absolutely nothing healthy ) in any indian restaurant. White rice, Chillies, Fried food , White flour, Vanaspati( Hydrogenated oil)White sugar, Refined products and off lately (thanks to globalization) lots of pre processed ingredients go into the making of all food ( irrespective of the geography). The best option in my opinion is to eat Fruits, nuts, dry fruits and yogurt(only fresh yogurt) and plain boiled vegetables while travelling. The yogurt available in most of the eat outs is made from processed milk and apparently a lot of urea and other chemicals go into getting a good texture . I personally believe that it is not the amount of food( quantity) but the quality of food and the late night eating habits that make indians obese .The ghee served in most places is nothing but tons of Vanaspathi . I would also like to make a comment on the famous chicken available all over . Chicken available commercially is fed with lots of hormones (female hormones) to boost their growth . Nowadays a fully mature chicken is available in about 50 days in comparison to a corn fed (organic ) chicken grown in the country side which attains its full maturity in a span of few months . Please note that all the FEMININE HORMONES that goes into the chicken !! algo goes into ones body when that chicken is consumed (god alone help when this chicken is deep fried). Even traditional Indian cooking in most of the cases (IN most of the cases) is no exception. Gone are the days when unpolished rice gruel with pure home made ghee and plain lemon pickle (wihotu chillies of course) are served. And gone are the days when chapathis are made from fresh milled wheat. I was appalled to see some commercial Whole wheat brands mixed with soya flour (Lots of research has been done on the ill effects of soya and there are a lot of people out there giving their testimonials and their bad experiences with soya. Even ayurveda which is the millenary flag ship science of India is no excepttion. The ancient Indian texts clearly mention the definition of a good lifestyle and eating habits. It is shocking to note the amount of chillies (They came from latin america and consumtion of this ingredient causes the depletion of the mucous membrane making a person vulnerable to so many modern health realted problems),refined food (white flour, white rice)that is served in the 'AYURVEDIC' resorts and healing centers.

I guess the only way out is to trace the culinary,cultivation and harvesting skills of the previous age old generations and pick the best of their customs and traditions. ( This is true for any culture )

Above comment's are too good but I wanting to know about nutritional factor's in all vegetabal's.

I like indian food!

I'm a huge Indian food fan, and only recently branched out to try Afghani food. It is somewhat similar to Indian food, but not as spicy, and the naan is completely different. They do have tandoori also though, which is also yummy.

I live in India, have tried various type of Indian food. The best is punjabi food as it includes pulses which are healthy and it is also very tasty. Rajasthanni food does not contain much of oil is very light. Gujrati food usualy have generous quantities of sugar and is sweet. Coming to South India, where right now I am living (I am north indian) is entirely different here good quality wheat is not used and rice used also different in north i.e. Basmati is used which is difficult to digest but in south, rice used is easy to digest and can be eaten in large quantities with Sambhar, Rasam and Kozikhom. The food all over India is healthy if eaten in moderation, and is from authentic Indian and hygenic source.

Authentic Indian food is very very healthy due to the spices (all of which have medicinal properties) and vegetables. The stuff you get served in Indian resturants is nothing like authentic and is loaded with fat. When you order curries they all contain a base sauce which is made in large batches each day. The base sauce is mostly pureed onion, garlic, ginger, and other vegetables in small quantities -- the rest is made from vegetable oil. You shouldn't eat Indian takeaway all that often because it's very bad for you, and it's full of salt. Excuse my spellings.

sup freaks i dont like u guys

I wonder whether Indian food is after all healthy, but any Indian in India they would say it is healthy. The Indian is laced with heavy doze of cooking oil, and flavored with spices. There is some truth that spices are good since they help in various ailments, and help to increase blood circulation. Obesity among Indian community is high,pot belly Indian among Indian community in India is frequent site, with little regard to his health or his longevity. Many Indians would value or champion the virtue of vegetarianism but little do they realize that diet the Indian consumes lacks various amino acids and basic protein. They would assert that they have substitute plant protein is pulses, and vegetables. But the manner of cooking and heat, and subsequent warming of food(this a quite common phenomena) virtually wipes out basic nutrients in the food. Hardly any raw vegetables are consumes for yogurt raita(vegetable salad laced with yogurt. So ask can we really see the health in Indian Food, taking in consideration the life style we lead in fast moving world.

i'm an indian-american who grew up with north indian home cooking, which my mum managed to make very light and healthy. i've grown to love tibetan food, which might be described as the love-child of indian and chinese food. it's got very light, filling recipes, and every tibetan restaurant i've been to has been one which is dedicated to organic eating.

unfortunately, for those of you who want to lose weight or learn the perfect calorie count-- no such formulas. from the ayurvedic perspective, of course, your needs are based on your dosha. and from a western perspective, calories in

on a personal note, when i left mum's cooking for college, i chose to live the dr. andrew weil lifestyle, which was a huge success for me. it's all about self-education and self-awareness. it also focuses on adequate nutrient intake and effectively 'troubleshoots' those nasty chocolate cravings and dining out