Diwali 2025: Diwali is not complete without homes filled with boxes of sweets, which include classic dishes like soan papdi, kaju katli, besan or motichoor laddu. Similarly, namkeens like chakli, murukku and mathri also made their way into gift boxes. After Diwali, namkeen and sweets are consumed for days and weeks, and mindless snacks are made. But it is important to maintain caution as favorite festive dishes come with serious health risks. To understand more about these risks of popular sweeteners, HT Lifestyle contacted experts to learn about their nutritional deficiencies and what may be hiding on the label.
unhealthy nutritional value
Dr. Reshma Aleem, senior clinical dietitian, Raila Hospital, Chennai, told us that these sweets and salty snacks should not be consumed in excess. Often, this is a natural instinct when one is presented with such a wide range of tasty snacks, but dietitians urge that control must be maintained.
“Popular festive sweets like soan papdi, kaju katli, laddu and namkeen often contain hidden sugars, fats, artificial flavors and preservatives. They may also be made using palm oil, which can harm your health if consumed in excess. Moreover, many traditional snacks that we usually bring home contain high sodium, which can increase blood pressure, especially for senior citizens,” Dr. Asleem said while highlighting the harmful. The ingredients that make up your favorite Diwali snacks.
The dietitian warned about health problems like sugar spikes, bloating and indigestion. This is risky for people with diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
healthy option
In this festive season, you can enjoy snacks to your heart’s content. The dietitian reminded that moderation is the key to keeping all your consumption healthy.
Revealing some safer options, Dr Aleem shared, “Choosing homemade or freshly prepared sweets with low or moderate amounts of sugar and better ingredients can reduce the risk. Eating baked snacks instead of fried snacks and keeping your body hydrated can aid digestion.”
Not all sweets are of equal quality; Some may be made from low-quality materials. The dietitian highlighted how one can identify the real one, “Pure milk solids (khoya), sweets are made from cheap, dangerous mixtures containing starch and detergents. In place of pure ghee, they may use vegetable or even animal fat. Synthetic milk made from urea, caustic soda and shampoo and silver foil used to decorate sweets” are replaced with cheaper alternatives made of aluminium.”
One reason for caution in these snacks is the presence of harmful ingredients and preservatives that can disrupt safe health parameters when consumed regularly.
Be careful of labels
What about healthy sweets? Some sweets come with labels and tags that contain nutritional ingredients. But how true are they?
Dr Saurabh Arora, PhD in Pharmaceutics, MD, Auriga Research, revealed that often people do not read labels and their choice is based on taste and value for money. He shared a big red flag that most seasonal, festive products lack proper nutrition labeling. The most important thing is that this time like Diwali and Bhai Dooj, there is a flood of gift packs in the market, hence there is a lack of verification regarding their content also.
It is important for people to use their discretion as ‘healthy sweets’ may be mislabelled. He said, “One challenge is that when so many new products and varieties are coming up, most companies are blindly copying the nutritional value from someone else’s label. They are not even putting in the effort to test their own product and establish the nutritional value, or even analyze the recipe to come up with some logic. They are just randomly publishing it. I have seen a Jalebi product being labeled as having 70% protein. Labeled.”
This is why it is important not to rely on flashy nutritional claims on seasonal sweet products during the festive season, as these may be more of a marketing ploy than actually being nutritious.
How to read labels?
Dr. Reshma Aleem reveals these two easy steps for checking labels:
- Look for FSSAI certification: Always check for proper FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) certification on packaged sweets.
- What to look for: Check sugar levels, hydrogenated oils, calories, preservatives and expiry dates.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions you may have about a medical condition.
