Eating dinner early is a healthy practice recommended by medical experts. Studies have shown that having dinner early can significantly reduce the incidence of urinary tract stones.
I. Avoid eating dinner too late
The peak time for calcium excretion in the human body is typically 4 to 5 hours after a meal. If dinner is too late, when the peak calcium excretion period arrives, the person is already asleep. The urine then stagnates in the urinary tract, such as the ureter, bladder, and urethra, and cannot be expelled in time. This causes calcium in the urine to continuously increase, making it easy to deposit and form small crystals, which gradually grow into stones over time. Therefore, having dinner around 6 p.m. is more appropriate.
II. Avoid dinner being too rich in meat
Dinner should be primarily vegetarian, with a focus on foods rich in carbohydrates, and the less protein and fat consumed, the better.
However, in real life, because most families have ample time to prepare dinner and eat more elaborately, this is detrimental to health. According to scientific research, consuming large amounts of high-protein foods like meat, eggs, and dairy at dinner can increase the amount of calcium in the urine. On one hand, this reduces the body's calcium stores, inducing rickets in children, myopia in adolescents, and osteoporosis in the middle-aged and elderly. On the other hand, high calcium concentration in the urine greatly increases the likelihood of developing urinary tract stones. Furthermore, excessive protein intake that the body cannot absorb will remain in the intestines, where it can spoil and produce toxins like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, irritating the intestinal wall and inducing cancer.
If too much fat is consumed, it can lead to elevated blood lipids. Research data indicates that people who often eat meat for dinner have 2 to 3 times higher blood lipids than vegetarians. Carbohydrates can produce more serotonin in the body, which has a calming and sedative effect, and is particularly beneficial for those with insomnia.
III. Avoid eating too much for dinner
Compared to breakfast and lunch, dinner should be lighter.
In the evening, with no other activities or a late mealtime, eating too much for dinner can cause cholesterol levels to rise, stimulating the liver to produce more low-density and very-low-density lipoproteins, which can lead to atherosclerosis. Long-term overeating for dinner repeatedly triggers large secretions of insulin, which can often cause premature failure of insulin beta cells, thus laying the groundwork for diabetes.
In addition, an overly full dinner can cause the stomach to expand, putting pressure on surrounding organs. The intense work of the stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas after the meal sends signals to the brain, causing it to become active and spread to other areas of the cerebral cortex, inducing insomnia.