Healthy Foods You Can Eat During Navratri Fasting

Fruits:

All kinds of fruits are allowed during Navratri fast. You can either eat individual fruits or combine many fruits and consume a fruit salad. This could be the best food for your fasting causing no side effects and at the same time keeping you full.

Sweet Potatoes:

Sweet potatoes are the perfect snack for Navratri. You can just steam or boil the sweet potatoes and eat them as is. If you wish to make a savoury snack, make patties or tikkis out of them. You can add a dash of lemon juice if you want to combat the sweetness of these sweet potatoes.

Cucumber:

Cucumber is a great food to be consumed during fasting. It has a lot of water content that can keep you hydrated. You can also consume this at any time and it will help to keep you full for quite some time. If you do not want to consume cucumber as is, include a few more veggies, make a salad, sprinkle some salt, pepper and cumin powder and enjoy!!

Sabudana:

Sabudana or sago is nothing but tapioca pearls. It is widely used in fasting, with potatoes. Both sabudana and potatoes are rich in carbohydrates; hence, it is good if you can accompany this with fibrous vegetables like spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, capsicum, bottle gourd, etc.
Also, it would be a great idea if you could bake, roast or grill the vegetables rather than deep-frying them. You can consume sago in the form of khichdi, vada, kheer or payasam.

Dry Fruits:

All kinds of dry fruits such as almonds, kishmish, pistachios, cashew nuts, walnuts, fig and apricot are eaten during the fast. This can keep you full for a little longer time.

Milk Products:

All milk products are safe to be consumed during Navratri fasting. You can consume milk directly or in the form of yogurt or buttermilk. During your fasting, it is important that you keep yourself well hydrated; hence, buttermilk can help a lot.

If you want to enhance your taste buds and are frustrated of eating fruits as is, beat them along with milk and have a fantastic milkshake. If you are planning to lose some weight during your Navratri fasting, then you must make sure that you avoid sugar in your milkshakes or keep the sugar quantity very less.

Butter, khoya, ghee, paneer and condensed milk are also fine to be consumed. If you are worried about weight gain, try and use skimmed milk instead of full cream milk.

Cumin:

Cumin helps a lot during fasting. It helps you in digestion and eliminates gastric problems. You can include as much cumin possible in your diet. During fasting, it is good if you boil some water with cumin, cool it and keep consuming it in place of regular water.

Honey & Jaggery:

You can substitute honey or jaggery in place of sugar, wherever possible. This will keep you away from worrying about weight gain. You will also feel energetic.

Fruit Juice:

Similar to milkshakes, fruits can also be consumed in the form of juices. Again, ensure that you either avoid sugar completely or keep it minimal. Fruit juices can help to keep you hydrated as well.

To make your fasting healthier, eat small meals and do not completely starve yourself. This will help to maintain your blood glucose levels. As much as possible, keep yourself hydrated with natural drinks like coconut water, green tea, lemon water and buttermilk.