Marillyn Hewson
New Member
By eating salad for dinner every night, you can minimize digestion discomfort at night, especially if you normally eat dinner very close to bedtime and also don't have any physical activity between dinnertime and bedtime. An after-dinner walk would help you digest a big meal, but if you don't like to walk at night, then have a small meal and make it a salad. When making a salad, pick foods that have a soporific effect and can help improve the quality and amount of your sleep. The goal is to ensure that you get the essential vitamins and minerals that you need for a good night's sleep, and that your pre-sleep food and drink are easy to digest.
You can also add fruit to your salad, so you won't crave anything sweet after dinner. You'll feel satisfied, yet light. The right ingredients will mean no burps, no acid reflux, no gas or bloating — in short, no side effects of eating salad at night. Another upside is, that when you have salad for lunch, you might end up overeating at dinner time, but if you have relatively hearty foods during the day, (for instance, bean and veggie soups with homemade sourdough bread, or rice and beans with steamed broccoli and carrots) and salad for dinner, you can easily digest the foods during the day with all the activity, and also feel energized and focused.
If you cook for the family, making salad at night would mean also getting in more veggies for the rest of the family, even if it's only a small bowl for each member. You can always get creative with toppings that will keep even the kids interested. Many vegetables and some fruits that go into your salad have high water content. They hydrate your body. Salads also retain the goodness of vitamins, minerals and some enzymes that are lost while cooking. Some raw vegetables contain important live enzymes that can help the process of digestion. Some fibrous veggies like broccoli and dark leafy greens can help clean your gut and bowels and flush your system well first thing in the morning. Benefits of eating salad at night
Dark green leafy vegetables, such as kale and spinach, are great to eat in the evening because they contain glycine, a mild sedative and nerve and muscle relaxant. Leafy greens are rich in sleep-inducing magnesium as well as calcium, which can help boost melatonin and keep your circadian rhythm on track. Nuts like walnuts, pistachios, and almonds have high melatonin, which controls the sleep/wake cycle of your body. They also increase the blood levels of the hormones that help you to have sound sleep through the night. Pumpkin seeds are a natural source of tryptophan that promotes sleep. The zinc, copper, and selenium in pumpkin seeds can also affect sleep duration and quality. Honey is a natural sweetener that helps transfer tryptophan to the brain to aid sleep.
You can also add fruit to your salad, so you won't crave anything sweet after dinner. You'll feel satisfied, yet light. The right ingredients will mean no burps, no acid reflux, no gas or bloating — in short, no side effects of eating salad at night. Another upside is, that when you have salad for lunch, you might end up overeating at dinner time, but if you have relatively hearty foods during the day, (for instance, bean and veggie soups with homemade sourdough bread, or rice and beans with steamed broccoli and carrots) and salad for dinner, you can easily digest the foods during the day with all the activity, and also feel energized and focused.
If you cook for the family, making salad at night would mean also getting in more veggies for the rest of the family, even if it's only a small bowl for each member. You can always get creative with toppings that will keep even the kids interested. Many vegetables and some fruits that go into your salad have high water content. They hydrate your body. Salads also retain the goodness of vitamins, minerals and some enzymes that are lost while cooking. Some raw vegetables contain important live enzymes that can help the process of digestion. Some fibrous veggies like broccoli and dark leafy greens can help clean your gut and bowels and flush your system well first thing in the morning. Benefits of eating salad at night
Dark green leafy vegetables, such as kale and spinach, are great to eat in the evening because they contain glycine, a mild sedative and nerve and muscle relaxant. Leafy greens are rich in sleep-inducing magnesium as well as calcium, which can help boost melatonin and keep your circadian rhythm on track. Nuts like walnuts, pistachios, and almonds have high melatonin, which controls the sleep/wake cycle of your body. They also increase the blood levels of the hormones that help you to have sound sleep through the night. Pumpkin seeds are a natural source of tryptophan that promotes sleep. The zinc, copper, and selenium in pumpkin seeds can also affect sleep duration and quality. Honey is a natural sweetener that helps transfer tryptophan to the brain to aid sleep.