Introduction: There is an old saying that goes: "Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner like a blade of grass." This actually explains the role of each meal for a person. Although it says to eat like a blade of grass for dinner, it doesn't mean that dinner is unimportant and can be ignored. For women who want to focus on wellness, they really need to pay close attention to their dinner!
4 Principles for a Healthy Dinner:
Principle 1: Don't eat too much for dinner.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "if the stomach is not harmonious, one cannot sleep peacefully."
If dinner is too heavy, 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, dreams, and over time, can easily cause neurasthenia and other diseases.
If middle-aged people eat too much for dinner over a long period, it can stimulate the excessive secretion of insulin, often加重 the burden on pancreatic B cells, leading to their exhaustion, which in turn can induce diabetes.
At the same time, if dinner is too heavy, some protein will not be digested and absorbed. Under the action of intestinal bacteria, it will produce toxic substances. Coupled with the slowing of intestinal peristalsis during sleep, the residence time of these substances in the intestine is relatively prolonged, which may potentially lead to colorectal cancer.
Principle 2: Don't eat too much meat for dinner.
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 and high blood pressure, eating meat for dinner is like "adding fuel to the fire." Frequently eating meat for dinner will increase the cholesterol content in the body, and excess cholesterol will accumulate on the blood vessel walls. Over time, this can induce arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
Principle 3: Don't eat too much sugar for dinner.
It is not advisable to eat sweets often for dinner or after dinner. Sugar, after digestion, is broken 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 for dinner will cause fat to accumulate in the body. Over time, this will lead to weight gain.
Principle 4: Don't eat dinner too late.
Dinner should not be eaten too late, otherwise it is easy to develop urinary tract stones. Many people, due to work, eat dinner very late and go to bed shortly after. During sleep, blood flow slows down, and urination also decreases. The calcium salts from food, except for what is 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 will be delayed to midnight or even early in the morning. At this time, people are in a deep sleep and often do not get up to urinate. This causes high concentrations of calcium salts to remain in the urethra with urine, 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 normally, one should also eat dinner early to advance the excretion peak after a meal. It is best to urinate once before going to bed.