Even though it's well-known that eating too late at night is not only bad for maintaining your figure but also for your stomach, many people can't help but eat late at night while sighing, "There's nothing I can do." So, is there a way for late-night eaters to eat healthier? When eating late at night, can you selectively choose healthy foods or avoid unhealthy ones?
I. Five Foods to Avoid When Eating Late at Night
1. Large amounts of milk or herbal tea
Most research reports suggest that the calcium and tryptophan in milk have a sedative effect, and herbal teas can also aid sleep. However, becoming overly dependent on these sleep-inducing foods can lead to excessive consumption. Drinking too much milk or herbal tea can not only cause you to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night, disrupting your sleep, but it can also create anxiety about whether you'll wake up to use the restroom, thereby affecting your sleep quality.
2. Heavily seasoned foods
Heavily seasoned foods are typically those high in salt. It's important to control your salt intake when eating at night. Since late-night eating is close to bedtime, consuming too much salt can easily increase the concentration of sodium in your blood, leading to water loss from cells and increased urination—similar to drinking a large amount of water right before bed. This can cause you to wake up to use the bathroom during sleep, affecting your sleep quality.
3. Sweets
Eating sweets at night is a major taboo for weight loss. If you eat sweets before bed, the energy that would otherwise be consumed is converted into fat for storage since your body is in sleep mode and cannot burn it off. Additionally, eating sweets before bed raises blood sugar levels, and maintaining high blood sugar for an extended period can damage your kidneys and nerve endings. Sweets can also affect the secretion of growth hormone, which promotes muscle and bone growth and fat breakdown. If this hormone secretion is hindered, not only is fat storage easier, but your body's growth and development can also be impaired.
4. Greasy foods
Greasy foods contain a lot of fat and calories, and they take a long time to digest, potentially keeping your blood sugar levels high for an extended period. Therefore, eating greasy foods before bed might leave you with a burning sensation in your stomach the next morning, so it's best to limit your intake of such foods before sleeping.
5. Alcohol
As is well-known, drinking alcohol before bed can lead to light sleep, which is caused by the inhibitory effect of alcohol on the central nervous system. After drinking, people may feel excited, but their nervous system is actually shutting down, which can make them feel drowsy. However, alcohol is not an anesthetic, and this inhibitory effect wears off quickly. After that, people often enter a state of excitement, which disrupts sleep and leads to light sleep.
II. What else should you pay attention to when eating late at night?
1. Chew your food slowly
On one hand, chewing your food more thoroughly can make you feel full faster, thereby reducing your food and calorie intake. To increase your chewing count, you can try choosing chewy foods like konjac, squid, or octopus, or foods rich in dietary fiber like bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and seaweed. It's best to eat boiled food at night.
2. Choose foods that are easy to digest
If you choose easily digestible foods before bed, your blood sugar levels are less likely to fluctuate dramatically, and you won't have to worry about indigestion. In general, congee or soft, boiled noodles are good choices.