What To Eat And When

Open any Pakistani lunch box and you can guess the family by what is inside. A paratha rolled around aloo. Daal chawal in a steel tiffin. A sandwich with cheese slice and a small bottle of cold drink. None of these are wrong, but some plates carry your body further than others. Today we will not tell you to stop eating biryani. We will teach you what a balanced plate looks like, and then your tongue can decide.

Roti math, the easy version. One medium roti is roughly 80 grams of carbohydrates. A growing student needs two to three roti at one meal, not five. The trick is not to count perfectly. The trick is to eat slowly. Your tummy takes about fifteen minutes to tell your brain it is full. Most of us eat the fourth roti before that signal arrives. Put your hand on the next roti and wait one Hadiqa Kiani song. If you still want it, take it. If you do not, your body just told you the truth.

When matters too. Your body is happiest when it eats at the same time every day. Breakfast within an hour of waking up, even if it is just a paratha and a glass of doodh. Lunch around one or two. Dinner before nine, ideally before sunset prayers in winter when sunset is early. Late night eating is the easiest way to wake up tired. If you must snack at night, choose a fruit or a handful of almonds, not Lays or Prince biscuits. Your tomorrow morning will say thank you.