Expert of this article: Liu Jingjing, Ph.D. in Food Biotechnology, China Agricultural University
According to Popular Science China, it’s dinner time! Friends, are you going to have a delicious dinner with your family at this time?
Xiao Zhang: I want to eat, I want to eat, I’m so hungry if I don’t eat a meal! Eat enough to be satisfied…
Liu: I’m losing weight, I don’t eat dinner, stick to it! Day 35!
Xiao Wang: I have to exercise at night, so I will eat less.
Which of the above types do you belong to? Does dinner really matter? What will happen if you don’t eat? Is it ok to use snacks instead of dinner? What snacks do you recommend? Let’s see together.
What happens if you skip dinner for a long time?
The “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents” recommends that the energy ratio of three meals a day is 3:4:3, which means that dinner is as important as breakfast and lunch, and both can provide energy for the human body.
Some scholars have studied the relationship between dinner time and the risk of hemorrhagic stroke, coronary heart disease and cardiovascular death: The volunteers participating in the study were divided into three groups, including the group eating dinner before 8 o’clock, and the group eating dinner after 8 o’clock. In the 19-year follow-up group, the dinner group and the irregular dinner group (that is, not eating or eating at an irregular time), the researchers found that the group who ate an irregular dinner had a greater risk of developing such diseases.
In addition, if you do not eat dinner for a long time, bile and gastric acid will also be secreted in the body, but there is no food for decomposition in the stomach. Over time, bile and gastric acid will flow back and damage the gastric mucosa; and the human body will automatically adjust according to the eating situation. When it comes to dinner time, the body is in an empty stomach for a long time, which will enhance the absorption rate of the gastrointestinal tract for breakfast and lunch food, reduce the basal metabolic rate, and convert more energy into fat.
What is the right way to eat dinner?
1. Eat less dinner The “Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents” points out that the three-meal pattern is: breakfast is nutritious, lunch should be good, and dinner should be moderate. If you eat too much dinner for a long time, it will stimulate the pancreatic islets to secrete insulin, increase the burden on the human pancreatic islets, and induce diabetes; it will also force the human digestive system to continue to work, keeping the brain in a state of excitement all the time, easily causing insomnia and dreaming, and then triggering neurological disorders. weak.
2. The best time to have breakfast and dinner for dinner is 6-7 pm, and try not to exceed 8 pm. Studies have shown that people who eat the same amount of dinner later have higher blood sugar levels and burn less fat. This effect is more pronounced in people who are obese or diabetic. 3. If you eat full dinner for dinner, you can supplement it with reference to the types of meals for breakfast and lunch. If you eat enough meat, eggs, and milk during the day, you can eat green leafy vegetables for dinner, and the staple food is multigrain rice or multigrain pasta.
What are some good after-dinner snacks?
At the end of a busy day, many people like to have a snack after dinner to unwind. At this time, choose a moderate amount of sleep-friendly snacks such as bananas, milk, and nuts. Bananas are rich in vitamin B6, the mineral magnesium and tryptophan; alpha-milk protein in milk is rich in active substances such as tryptophan; nuts are rich in magnesium. These are the raw materials for the production of serotonin in the human body. Serotonin can inhibit the excitability of the central nervous system and make the human body feel sleepy; at the same time, serotonin in the human body can be converted into melatonin, which has sedative and sleep-inducing effects. In addition, avoid excessive consumption of energy drinks, alcoholic and caffeinated beverages.
Important reminder: Most modern people have free time in the evening, but choosing not to eat dinner to exercise is very harmful.
If you don’t eat dinner, the blood sugar concentration in the body will be low. Exercise at this time will accelerate the consumption of blood sugar, resulting in insufficient energy supply to the brain, which will lead to dizziness, fatigue, and even coma. Moreover, the stomach is in a resting state when fasting, and exercise will force the stomach to start work, causing disease. Studies have shown that exercising in the afternoon or evening is more effective in preventing coronary heart disease. Therefore, after eating some dinner in moderation, take a short rest before exercising, which is more conducive to fat consumption and achieve healthy exercise.