As the saying goes, "Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner like grass." This actually illustrates the role of each meal for a person. Although it says to eat dinner like grass, it doesn't mean dinner is unimportant! It shouldn't be neglected. However, if a woman wants to focus on wellness, she really needs to pay close attention to her dinner.
The "Four No's" for Dinner
Dinner: Not Too Full
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, "If the stomach is not harmonious, one cannot sleep peacefully." If dinner is too full, it will inevitably加重 the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. The continuous signals from its overwork will be sent to the brain, leading to insomnia and dreams. Over time, this can easily cause diseases like neurasthenia. For middle-aged people, a long-term habit of eating a very full dinner repeatedly stimulates a large secretion of insulin, often leading to an overburdening and subsequent exhaustion of the pancreatic B cells, which in turn can trigger diabetes. At the same time, a dinner that is too full means some protein cannot be digested and absorbed. Under the action of intestinal bacteria, this produces toxic substances. Furthermore, intestinal motility slows down during sleep, relatively extending the time these substances stay in the intestine, which could potentially lead to colorectal cancer.
Dinner: Not Too Meaty
Medical research has found that people who often eat meat for dinner have blood lipid levels three to four times higher than those who often eat a vegetarian diet. For people with high blood lipids or high blood pressure, eating meat for dinner is like "adding fuel to the fire." Frequently eating meat for dinner increases the body's cholesterol content. Excess cholesterol then accumulates on the blood vessel walls, and over time, this can induce arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
Dinner: Not Too Sweet
It is not advisable to eat sweets frequently for dinner or after dinner. Sugar, through digestion, breaks down into fructose and glucose, which are absorbed by the body and converted into energy and fat respectively. Since a person's activity level decreases after dinner, and exercise inhibits the conversion of sugar to fat, consuming too many sweets at dinner will cause fat to accumulate in the body. Over time, this will lead to weight gain.
Dinner: Not Too Late
Dinner should not be eaten too late, as it can easily lead to urinary tract stones. Many people, due to work, have dinner very late and go to bed shortly after. In a sleep state, blood flow slows down, and urination decreases accordingly. The calcium salts from food, after being absorbed by the body, must be excreted in urine. It is measured that the peak of human urination is generally four to five hours after a meal. If dinner is too late, the urination peak is pushed to midnight or even the early morning. At this time, people are sound asleep and often do not get up to urinate. This causes high concentrations of calcium salts to remain in the urethra, where they combine with uric acid to form calcium oxalate. When the concentration of calcium oxalate is high, it can crystallize, precipitate, and accumulate at normal body temperature, forming stones. Therefore, in addition to drinking plenty of water daily, one should also eat dinner early to advance the peak of excretion after eating. It is best to urinate once more before going to bed.