In order to maintain your health and nutritional balance during Ramadan, it is recommended to break your fast with fruit juice and drink milk during Sehar. “It is particularly beneficial to drink milk at Sehar due to its ability to provide a feeling of fullness, which lasts for up to 5 hours,” advises Nousheen Aziz, consultant dietician working with Tetra Pak. She recommends drinking a glass of fruit juice at Iftar, as juice increases one’s blood sugar, which tends to drop during the long hours of fasting. Nousheen Aziz drew attention to mistakes made during Ramadan and made suggestions for healthy nutrition.
She said “Milk is a high-protein food, which helps us feel full for a longer period of time and satisfies our body’s need for fluid. Lactose, the milk sugar; supports the glycogen storage the body uses during times of hunger and helps meet our energy requirments. On the other hand, the fat ingredient of milk helps sustain the feeling of fullness and also fulfills our need for minerals; particularly calcium and vitamins which are lost due to perspiration during hot weather. These beneficial properties of milk make it an ideal nutritional component of our Sehar diet.” Pointing out to the phenomenon of weight gain during Ramadan, Nosheen commented, “Traditional Ramadan cuisine includes sweet desserts, which increase blood sugar after long hours of fasting and slow down the Basal Metabolic Rate, resulting in weight gain during Ramadan.
If additional dessert is to be consumed it should be either in the form of milk puddings or desserts with milk containing small amounts of sugar, to meet our calcium need and reduce the energy intake to prevent excessive weight gain.”