If you're trying to lose weight, one of the things you're probably aiming for is eating dinner as early as possible. If you go to bed later at night, however, you're just as likely to get hungry and struggle to fall asleep on an empty stomach.
Eating late at night makes you feel guilty. So you prefer to grit your teeth and try to sleep. However, going to bed on an empty stomach is a problem that can not only make you unable to sleep, but can also be a harmful habit.
What to do then? Do you eat something before bed or go to bed hungry? Which is more harmful?
What are the harms of eating before bed?
Eating late at night, especially with a hearty meal and especially with the addition of a favorite dessert at the end, is a recipe for weight gain, poor he alth and a number of problems that arise from it. You don't need to be a doctor to know that this evening ritual is harmful to he alth and figure.
Certainly, the traditional late-night snacking in front of the TV is something you should definitely refrain from. This applies to all packaged treats, desserts, pastas, and high-calorie foods with added saturated fats and sugars. They bring completely unnecessary calories to the body and interfere with the implementation of important processes in the body before and during sleep.
These foods also affect appetite the next day. This means that if you have consumed them late at night, the probability that you will enjoy them the next day is high. Thus, you add even more unnecessary calories and substances to your diet, which are the causes of overweight and related diseases.
What are the harms of going to bed hungry?
Going to bed hungry is also painful for the body, as is overeating harmful foods late at night. A rumbling stomach can leave you staring at the ceiling all night. Difficulty falling asleep may make you get up and go to the fridge.
Lying on an empty stomach is also a prerequisite for the appearance of heartburn, which from the empty stomach enters back into the esophagus, preventing you from falling asleep.
If you are too hungry before sleep, it can also prevent the secretion of certain hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters that the brain normally releases before sleep and during sleep. That's why there's no need to feel guilty about eating something before bed. However, it is important what it is.
Suitable snacks before bed late at night are dried fruit, a piece of toasted whole grain bread with seeds, a spoonful of natural peanut butter without sweeteners and sugars, a few spoonfuls of yogurt, a glass of warm fresh milk (has a soporific and soothing effect), a piece of cheese, sugar-free whole grain crackers, 2-3 spoons of vegetable hummus, boiled egg, roasted vegetables.
