Suhur is an important moment to keep you fit during fasting from Fajr until Maghrib azan. When fast breaking, you also need to be selective on consuming foods. Read the following tips to make you stay fit during fasting!
1. Rich in Fiber & High Protein Menu in Suhur
Consume high fiber foods such as fruit and vegetables during suhur. The food rich in magnesium and potassium like banana, orange, avocado, and almond can also help your body to produce energy so you can be more powerful to do your activity. Also consume more proteins rather than carbohydrates for suhur, such as tempeh, tofu, beans, egg, fish, and meat.
2. Choose Complex Carbohydrates
Complex carbs such as brown rice and wheat bread will be digested longer than the simple ones like white rice and white bread. Because the fiber in complex carbohydrate is higher, it will give you satiety longer too. This will also make your blood glucose level more stable during fasting.
3. Avoid Fried and High Fatty Foods
Fried foods or the ones containing high fats such as innards, chicken skin, and food cooked with coconut milk will be heavier to digest in your body. It can make you drowsier during the day. Fast breaking with a lot of high fatty foods will also ‘surprise’ your digestive system. So it’s better to consume the food little by little, yup?
4. Limit Spicy Food
For you the spicy food lovers, you should resist on enjoying your favorite spicy dish when suhur and fast breaking. Spicy food can increase gastric acid and disturb your digestive system during fasting. You surely don’t want to fail your fast because of indigestion, right?
5. Fulfill the Iron Needs
Iron functions to carry oxygen to all parts of your body. During fasting, the iron in your body will decrease so the oxygen transfer will also lower. In order to stay fit and not limp because of the lack of oxygen, you have to include iron source foods into your suhur menu, such as red meat, spinach, kale, soybean, or apricot.
6. Drink a Lot of Water
This is the most important thing to avoid dehydration while fasting. If the serving suggestion for water intake is 8 glasses per day, make sure you keep in that track in this holy month. Besides to make you to stay fit, enough water will keep you concentrated on your activity.
7. Break the Fast as Soon as Possible
When the fast breaking time comes, don’t ever delay the food or pray Maghrib first. Because it is the time to break the fast, of course it is better for you to do that first besides this is also Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad SAW.
8. Don’t Overeating When Breakfasting
After holding your hunger and thirst for a day, doesn’t mean you can ‘invade’ all the food when Maghrib azan comes. Starting with dates and mineral water, and then eat step by step. Begin with light meals and consume sweets sufficiently so your blood glucose level will not drastically increase.