Sleep and digestion: worst bedtime foods
Interrupted sleep, nightmares, night thirst and stomach acid? You are not the only one! All depends on what you ate in the evening and above all when you had dinner. Eating before going to bed is not good for our night rest because our body and our stomach are still busy to digest and assimilate the meal.
The nutritionists agree that it is better to have dinner at least two hours before bed in order to guarantee a quiet and resting sleep. However, if you are too busy or tired to eat earlier, it is better if you avoid some specific foods that can transform your night in a sleepless night!
Pay attention to the dinner to stay in shape!
Some foods and complex dishes (like fried and leavened foods) can slow down the digestion causing dehydration and bloating. It is better to eat them for dinner or at least three hours before bed to allow a complete digestion.
Another side effect is that eating fat and caloric dishes for dinner is a big blow for your shape. When you sleep, in fact, you don’t need to burn calories thus, as a consequence the calories that you have eaten aren’t used rather become fat. The numbers on the scales will increase if you eat, before bed, carbohydrates, sugar, desserts, caloric and fat food that will become fat reserves.
Food and sleep: avoid these foods
• Fried food: too heavy to digest; it would be difficult to sleep and the digestion could disturb you. Moreover, if the fried food was salty it would increase the risk of hydric retention and circulatory problems.
• Red meat: a super Fiorentina for dinner? Better not. Red meat is rich in saturated fats difficult to digest; better if you chose it for lunch and do not exaggerate with the quantity.
• Pizza: the leaven bloats the belly and slows down the digestion disturbing your sleep. Moreover the excess of sodium and salt in pizza cause dehydration and force you to wake up to drink all night long. The seasoning ingredients (mozzarella, cheeses, in oil foods and cold cuts) add further calories and fats that you won’t be able to dispose.
• Pasta and bread: it is better to chose them for lunch or prefer them non leavened, whole and only a few for dinner.
• Too much fruit: fruit contains sugars and eating a lot cause high glycaemic picks, enemies of the shape and of the right regulation of the levels of sugar in the blood. Thus, it is better to do not exaggerate during the evening and prefer them for lunch or breakfast. If you couldn’t turn down prefer apples, red fruit (strawberries, cherries, raspberries) and peaches. Avoid figs, bananas, watermelon or tropical fruit.
• Chocolate and coffee: before bed, you should ban caffeine, no chocolate, coffee and drinks with gas that contain this natural stimulant. Pay also attention to desserts and ice creams.
• Desserts: eating desserts at the end of the dinner, crunching biscuits in front of the TV or taste an ice cream before bad is not recommended for your shape. All the fats and sugars ingested raise the glycaemia and will be the main responsible of the extra kilos!
What should you eat for dinner?
To respect the binomial food and sleep, choose cooked vegetables (salads and raw vegetables can bloat and are rich in water, preferring them for lunch) and food with a low glycaemic index like crustaceans and green vegetables like spinach, chards, celery, cabbages, leeks, lentils and chickpeas.
