As the saying goes, "Eat a hearty breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner like a blade of grass." This actually illustrates the role of each meal for a person. Although it says to eat dinner like a blade of grass, it doesn't mean dinner is unimportant and can be ignored! However, if a woman wants to focus on health and wellness, she really needs to pay close attention to her dinner.
Dinner: Not Too Full
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "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 this overworked digestive system will be sent to the brain, leading to insomnia, dreams, and over time, can easily cause diseases like neurasthenia. If middle-aged people consistently eat too much for dinner, it repeatedly stimulates a large secretion of insulin, often加重 the burden on pancreatic B-cells, leading to their exhaustion, and thus inducing 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 can produce toxic substances. Furthermore, intestinal motility slows down during sleep, relatively extending the time these substances stay in the intestines, which can potentially lead to colorectal cancer.
Dinner: Not Too Greasy
Medical research has found that people who often eat greasy food for dinner have blood lipid levels three to four times higher than those who often eat vegetarian food. For people with high blood lipids or hypertension, eating a greasy dinner is like "adding fuel to the fire." Frequently eating greasy food for dinner will increase the body's cholesterol content. Excess cholesterol will then accumulate on the walls of blood vessels, and over time, can induce arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
Dinner: Not Too Sweet
It is not advisable to often eat sweets for dinner or after dinner. Sugar, upon digestion, breaks down into fructose and glucose, which are absorbed by the body and converted into energy and fat, respectively. Since physical activity decreases after dinner, and exercise inhibits the conversion of sugar into 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, eat dinner very late and go to bed shortly after. In a sleep state, blood flow slows down, and urination也随之减少. The calcium salts from food, after being absorbed by the body, must be excreted through urine. According to measurements, the peak time for urination is generally four to five hours after a meal. If dinner is too late, the urination peak will be delayed until midnight or even the early morning. By then, a person is in a deep sleep and often won't wake up to urinate. This causes highly concentrated calcium salts and urine to stagnate in the urethra, combining 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 as early as possible to advance the peak of excretion after a meal. It is best to urinate once more before going to sleep.