What should you eat for midnight snack? Check out these 5 mistakes you've made.

This summer, the country has been experiencing high temperatures, and restaurants are very popular, especially the late-night snacks. In the past two days, the media has come to interview people on the question of "how to eat late-night snacks", so I'd like to share with you some of the little troubles of eating late-night snacks.

The first thing to say is that it’s not that you can’t eat midnight snacks.

In the summer, the body's appetite decreases during the day, the digestive ability weakens, and the body often does not sleep well at night, which consumes more energy and makes it easier to lose muscle. Therefore, if you really can't go to bed early, it's okay to supplement food appropriately at night.

Unless you have special medical advice, don't go against your body's feelings. After all, we often lose when we fight against our biological instincts.

For those who are losing weight and diabetic patients, although it is often said that they should eat less at dinner, they should not starve themselves at night.

The best way is to go to bed early and rest before hunger sets in. If you go to bed too late and don’t eat, then once your blood sugar level drops too low, you will not only not sleep well at night, but you will also find that your fasting blood sugar level will rise reflexively the next morning, and your appetite will rebound in retaliation.

However, taking midnight snacks for granted and being too willful can easily lead to some troubles. Here are some common misunderstandings about midnight snacks.

Myth 1: Drinking some wine while having a midnight snack will help you fall asleep at night.

Of course it is not good. Drinking is bad for health. Alcohol is a carcinogen and it also reduces the liver's detoxification ability. Long-term drinking can also promote fatty liver and increase blood lipids. I am already very tired at night, so there is no need to burden the liver with alcohol.

Drinking alcohol at night may help you fall asleep faster, but it does not make you sleep well. This is because alcohol reduces the time of deep sleep, reduces the quality of sleep, and makes you wake up easily at night. Therefore, never drink alcohol during midnight snacks under the pretext of "wanting to sleep well".

Myth 2: Eating indulgent foods such as crayfish and kebabs for a midnight snack.

Eating a lot of crayfish does not necessarily lead to problems like "rhabdomyolysis" for everyone, and eating grilled skewers does not necessarily cause colon cancer problems, but at least they are not good for preventing these diseases, nor are they good for nighttime rest.

In the hot summer, eating too much protein food can easily make people feel hot and thirsty. In addition, adding a lot of salt, MSG and other seasonings during cooking can make people thirsty and irritable. This is not good for preventing heatstroke in summer. A large amount of protein increases the burden on gastrointestinal digestion, increases the workload of the liver and kidneys, and is also not good for the quality of sleep at night.

Therefore, it is recommended not to eat a lot of heavy high-protein food for midnight snacks. If you really want to eat it, it is recommended to eat it at lunch or dinner, or just eat a little at midnight snack.

Misconception 3: Being extremely hungry right before going to bed, eating a large midnight snack and then going to bed right away.

It is a good thing to go to bed earlier. We have all heard that limiting the eating window to less than 12 hours is more conducive to preventing obesity and chronic diseases. However, if you really need to go to bed late at night, it is not good to be too hungry to sleep, so you can have a midnight snack.

But the best time for a midnight snack is not right before going to bed, but two hours before going to bed. For example, if you finish eating at 7 o'clock and go to bed at 12 o'clock, you will feel hungry at 11 o'clock, so you can have a midnight snack at 9-10 o'clock.

There are three benefits of eating a midnight snack early.

One benefit is that it is not easy to gain weight. Because if you eat a midnight snack before you are hungry, a small amount of food can prevent hunger and let you fall asleep peacefully at 12 o'clock. If you eat when you are already very hungry, how can a small amount of food extinguish the fire of hunger? Then you will inevitably eat more food and consume more calories, which will naturally make you gain weight.

Another benefit is that it reduces the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. When you eat a small amount of food, the gastrointestinal tract can easily process it, and the body will feel comfortable when you rest at night. If you eat late, it is inevitable that you will eat too much food, and the gastrointestinal tract, liver and kidneys will be busy working, and the quality of sleep will decrease.

The third benefit is that it causes less rise in blood sugar and blood lipids. When eating early and late night snacks, because you can use a small amount of food to prevent hunger, the rise in blood sugar and blood lipids will not be too much. On the contrary, if you eat more food, the rise in blood sugar and blood lipids will be large, and even remain high all night.

Research on circadian rhythms has found that compared with daytime, the body's ability to metabolize food is reduced at night, and eating the same food can easily cause blood lipids and blood sugar to soar. These indicators are naturally not conducive to weight loss and the prevention of chronic diseases.

Myth 4: Eat less or nothing in the morning and save your portion for a midnight snack.

Since people go to bed late at night and get up late in the morning, many people simply skip breakfast and save the breakfast portion for midnight snacks. This practice is not good for health.

The importance of breakfast cannot be overstated. Studies have found that eating more breakfast can lead to greater energy release, and the appetite before lunch and dinner is relatively low, which is beneficial for preventing obesity. Other studies have found that eating more breakfast can help stabilize blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity. Other studies have found that the later you start eating in a day, the higher your body fat percentage is likely to be.

Even recent studies on time-restricted eating have found that concentrating eating in the first half of the day has more health benefits, while the effectiveness of time-restricted eating, which involves not eating in the morning and eating more at night, is greatly reduced.

An epidemiological survey found that if you don’t eat a good breakfast and have a greasy snack, your risk of coronary heart disease will increase by 55%.

Misconception 5: Eat less or only eat fruits at night, leaving more food for midnight snacks.

As mentioned earlier, due to the influence of circadian rhythm, blood sugar and blood lipids tend to soar when eating at night. However, if you eat dinner earlier, such as at 5 or 6 pm, the situation will be much better, and the blood sugar rise may even be smaller than that at noon.

Therefore, if a large amount of carbohydrates is reserved for dinner, it is obviously not conducive to controlling blood sugar fluctuations at night. If a large amount of protein is placed in the midnight snack, it is easy to cause the body temperature to rise and the body to become excited during dinner.

The reasonable way is to eat dinner earlier and then have a small amount of food one or two hours before going to bed. Do not replace dinner with a midnight snack, and do not expand the amount of a midnight snack to the level of a full meal.

At this point, many people may mutter: As long as I like to do something that feels good, there will always be experts who say: This is unhealthy, that is unhealthy...

Well, if you are still young and healthy, have good gastrointestinal function, have plenty of energy and good sleep quality, then you can still be willful for the time being. However, if you are no longer so young, have declining energy, poor sleep, or even have some health indicators that are flashing red, then you really need to be careful.

Some people should especially avoid eating a lot of late-night snacks, such as patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, people with gastroesophageal reflux, people with indigestion, patients with gallbladder disease, gout, and diabetes.

Eating midnight snacks can easily aggravate the condition of esophageal reflux, and the mouth will feel sour when sleeping, which is quite painful. It is best not to eat within three hours before going to bed. If you have to go to bed late due to work, then you must eat midnight snacks early as mentioned above.

Eating greasy supper at night will cause a large amount of bile secretion at night, which will put a heavy burden on the liver and gallbladder and affect the quality of night rest. If you eat less or no breakfast, the bile retention will easily form stones, which will bring the risk of acute attacks to patients with gallstones and cholecystitis.

In addition, many people find that after eating a full meal at night, they cannot sleep well at night, and they are more likely to feel hungry and have a bad taste in their mouth the next morning. This may be because the insulin level is higher at night, which reduces the melatonin level and also causes the blood sugar level to drop in the morning, making the body feel hungry.

So, what kind of food is suitable for late night snacks? These foods need to meet several requirements.

First of all, it must be easy to digest, not add burden to the gastrointestinal tract, and not affect post-meal work.

Secondly, you need to have an appropriate volume and a high sense of fullness to avoid hunger before going to bed.

Third, it should be lower in calories and higher in nutritional value.

Fourth, it should not cause physical excitement and it is best to facilitate falling asleep later.

Finally, it should be quick and easy to eat. After all, no one wants to start cooking at 10 o'clock.

It is recommended to prepare some of the following foods as a home-cooked midnight snack:

——Hot milk. You can also add a little yam powder, grain powder, etc. to increase the feeling of fullness.

——Whole-grain soy milk. Whole grains + soybeans or black beans can provide a very good sense of fullness at low energy levels, relieve hunger in a timely manner, and not cause energy excess problems. Now there are small soy milk machines suitable for singles, which can make one or two cups at a time. After dinner, you can make a cup and put it in the refrigerator, which is very convenient as a midnight snack. If you really don’t have these devices, you can make a cup of soy milk powder.

——Oatmeal porridge, brown rice porridge, millet porridge, etc. For example, brown rice, oats, lotus seeds, millet, lily and other ingredients are traditional midnight snack ingredients, with high nutritional value of vitamins and minerals. Carbohydrate foods can increase the level of serotonin in the body, which is beneficial for calming the mind. Brown rice is rich in gamma-aminobutyric acid, and millet is rich in tryptophan, which are both beneficial for emotional stability. Foreign studies have also found that oatmeal foods are beneficial for sleep.

You can buy an electric pressure cooker and set a timer before going out to work. When you get off work in the afternoon, the porridge will be ready and you can eat it directly as the main food for dinner. At the same time, keep some in the refrigerator as a midnight snack.

——Put a small amount of thin noodles in hot soup or other high-moisture noodles, add beaten eggs, green leaves, shredded radish, etc., and cook until soft, which is also a good choice for midnight snacks. For example, egg and vegetable leaves longxu noodles (need to be cooked fresh).

——The paste made from powdered cereals, beans, nuts, etc. only needs to be stirred with hot water. It is very convenient to eat, has high nutritional value, is rich in B vitamins, and also provides a good sense of fullness.

——Other bagged powdery foods, such as lotus root powder, almond powder, mung bean powder, sesame powder, etc., can be eaten as midnight snacks. Adding some milk powder can increase the nutritional value, such as lotus root powder and milk soup (mix lotus root powder with hot water and then mix with yogurt or milk powder). It is important to note that you should pay attention when buying these products. It is recommended to buy products that do not contain a large amount of dextrin, syrup or white sugar.

——You can eat a small amount of fruit as a midnight snack, but it is not recommended to eat a lot, and you must eat it before you feel hungry, otherwise you will feel even hungrier after eating the fruit. Some fruits have a diuretic effect. Eating too much will cause you to get up at night to urinate, which will also affect your sleep.

Don't eat chocolate or drink milk tea because they contain caffeine, which is not conducive to sleep.

You can try out several different midnight snacks to feel their satiety effects and their impact on sleep, and then decide which one you always have on hand based on the convenience of your work and life.

For young people, if you occasionally have a party with friends and eat a little more for a midnight snack, you don’t have to blame yourself too much. What you need to pay more attention to is to choose a reliable store to ensure the food safety and quality of the midnight snack. Remember to wash your hands before eating a midnight snack, and brush your teeth after eating.

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