The holy month of Ramadan is here again, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and a time when many Muslims across the world fast during daylight.

Ramadan is an opportunity to cultivate good eating habits that will stay with us after the fasting month ends. Having a balanced sahur (predawn meal) and iftar is important, as they are the meals that replenish our energy stores and help sustain our fast the following day.

While iftar is an enjoyable experience, it can be daunting for people trying to maintain good eating habits during this holy month and a bit of a challenge for those at home, who have the duty to prepare a savory and appetizing meal.

Traditionally, Muslims break the fast with dates because they are a nutritious burst of natural sugar that fuels our body with much-needed energy. We are also advised to eat sweet food first, and in Indonesia we are lucky to have so many options for sweet food to break the fast.

We usually grab fruits and drinks first for the iftar, and popular drinks and liquid snacks include cendol (silky green rice-flour jelly served in coconut milk and palm sugar), kolak (sugary snacks and drinks consumed to break the fast), bubur sumsum (rice porridge), bubur kacang hijau (mung bean porridge), es buah (iced fruit cocktail), es blewah (iced cantaloupe cocktail), es campur (fruit served with shaved ice and syrup), fruit juices or smoothies, etc.

The list of iftar food options is long, but some people advise us not to consume ice first, along with soda drinks, because they are unhealthy.

Next, a bowl of soup is an indispensable dish in the Ramadan meal, since it prepares the stomach to receive the rest of the meal and helps replenish some of the body fluids lost during the day.

We can prepare many variations of soups: beef, mutton, chicken, sea food, or a traditional soto (broth), coto (beef soup), sop konro (rib soup from South Sulawesi), rawon (strong, rich traditional Indonesian beef black soup), sop buntut (oxtail soup), lontong sayur (rice cake served with coconut milk soup), sayur bening (clear soup), etc.

Also, we can reach for tomato or vegetable soup, since vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals and fiber, and provide many nutrients with few calories.

As another healthy dish we can choose salad. The more colorful our salad, the more health benefits it has. It also provides a sense of fullness, ensuring we eat less for our main dish. Indonesian salads are varied and very scrumptious, like gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce), pecel sayur (traditional Javanese salad consisting of mixed vegetables in peanut sauce dressing, usually served with steamed rice or sometimes with lontong or ketupat compressed rice cake), karedok (raw lotek or raw gado-gado), lotek (raw vegetable salad served with spicy sauce), ketoprak (vegetarian dish comprising tofu, vegetables and rice cake, rice vermicelli served in peanut sauce), rujak cingur (one of several variants of rujak, a traditional fruit or vegetable salad with sauce. This rujak has meat in it, cow lips, and some vegetables and fruits), urab (salad dish of steamed vegetables mixed with seasoned and spiced grated coconut), etc.

Luckily, we now live in the internet era, should you want to know any recipe for the Indonesian dishes mentioned above, Google is your friend.

Our iftar meal should contain a source of complex carbohydrates that provide a more stable and sustainable source of energy in addition to fiber and minerals. And we should aim to eat high quality beef, milk, eggs, fish and poultry which are all complete high-quality proteins.

We shouldn’t be in a hurry to finish our meal. After being deprived of eating for an entire day, overloading on food may lead to indigestion and other gastric problems. Have a light iftar that includes reasonable portions. Controlling the size of our portion is essential to staying healthy and preventing weight gain. Don’t exceed amounts we would have for a typical lunch or dinner.

We need to avoid foods high in fat, salt and sugar, and stay away from heavy meals for iftar that have too much unhealthy fats and added sugar. When cooking, make recipes healthier by stewing, baking, roasting, steaming or grilling and avoid frying.

The month of Ramadan is the most rewarding time of the year and breaking our fast with the right food is important to ensuring we have enough energy for our evening prayers.

While iftar meals are often a time of celebration, with families and friends coming together to break the fast, it’s important not to go overboard when eating during Ramadan.

Consuming a lot of deep-fried, creamy and sweet food may actually cause us to gain weight during Ramadan. Ramadan can be a good time to make changes to improve the balance of our diet that we can sustain in the longer term.

If we are overweight and would like to lose weight and keep it off, then making plans to maintain a healthy diet and getting active when Ramadan is finished may help us sustain any weight loss.

For sahur, we need to drink plenty of fluids, choose fluid-rich foods to make sure we are well hydrated for the day ahead and choose high-fiber foods where possible, as this tends to be digested more slowly.

To anticipate waking up late for sahur, when there is no time to cook, we can prepare food that can be eaten for many days with ease, such as dendeng (beef jerky), rendang (slow-cooked meat in coconut milk and spices), ikan asin goreng (fried salted fish), telor asin (salted egg), serundeng (fried chicken with shredded coconut), etc.

We can also make delicious drinks by simply adding water to bottled syrups or dried syrups in sachets.

The holy month of Ramadan, when done right, also comes with tangible physical benefits. Combining healthy food with fasting resets our metabolism and can help us shed a few pounds and lower our cholesterol.

Even though we are eager to please our family during fasting we should keep choice to a minimum to help avoid over-eating. Accompany your dates with one snack item at iftar and then eat a simple evening meal, with one meat dish and one vegetable dish or salad accompanied by rice.

To keep meals healthy, limit the use of oil and opt for steaming, grilling or baking, and by the time the fasting month ends, we will feel healthier.

What we eat, or choose not to eat, during Ramadan makes a big difference to our energy levels. After fasting all day, there is often a temptation to overeat and load up on sugary beverages during iftar and sahur, but it would be doing us a disservice. The key is to remember that Ramadan is a month to reap rewards and benefits and increase our spiritual connection.

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