This enterprising and adventurous community loves its food. The result is that every meal packs in quite a diverse spread. Apart from the usual rotis, vegetables, dal, and rice, the Gujarati thali is a veritable smorgasbord of papads, pickles, ganthias, puris, theplas, bhakris and other delights. Dessert comprising of a variety of ghee-fried sweets such as halwas, jalebis, and laddoos, is washed down with milky, sugary tea. In fact, the Gujarati penchant for sweet calls for a dash of sugar even in regular dal and vegetable dishes.

8 tips to feel full

Concerns: With its combination of vegetables, dal, and grains, Gujarati food can be quite wholesome. The excessive use of oil, ghee, and sugar, however, can be hazardous to your health. The community is known to suffer from a high incidence of food related diseases including high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, and heart disease.

Health tips

• Move over deep-fried snacks such as pakodas and bhajias for steamed ones such as dhoklas, khaman, or khandvi.
  
• Have rotis instead of puris and skip the ghee.
  
• Cook using minimum quantity of healthy oil; oils high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, including canola, rice bran, peanut, or sesame, are ideal.
  
• Go slow on the papads, pickles and chutneys.
  
• Cut down on sweets; kheer, fruit custard and gourd (dudhi) or carrot halwa cooked in jaggery are preferable to barfis or jalebis.