We Indians have been following a routine of an early dinner before or around sunset for ages and few follow it with religious beliefs as well. But due to work and lifestyle changes, people are moving to late night dinners and that’s why almost everyone nowadays is facing digestion issues. Early meals are good for the body and after having an early dinner, break the fast the next morning only when you feel hungry to get aligned with your circadian rhythm. When you start following an early dinner routine, for the first two to three days you may feel hungry late at night which is normal as the body feels the need to fuel to keep it going if not sleeping early. But after a couple of days, the body adapts to this pattern with ease and you will notice that the hunger pangs get reduced. Let’s look at the benefits of having an early dinner for people who still haven’t started following it yet:
■ When one follows an early dinner routine, every bit of it is digested well before sleeping. So you go to bed with an almost empty stomach. With digestion complete, your body utilises all the energy for healing, recovery and repair. Thus we wake up feeling fresh. In the case of a heavy dinner and sleeping immediately after that, the body is still in the breakdown process and generating energy because of this. The quality of one’s sleep is hampered and we wake up feeling cranky the next morning. So to get better sleep, it’s important to have an early meal.
■ After sunset, the body starts releasing melatonin which signals our gut to lower the digestive enzymes, thus reducing the digestion process. Melatonin starts preparing the body for healing and detoxification at these hours. But a heavy meal late at night leads to indigestion, sluggishness, acidity, bloating and poor sleep issues.
■ With an early dinner you have better digestion, fewer bouts of acidity and constipation which is very common these days due to late night dinners. A well rested and recovered digestive system helps in eliminating toxins well.
■ Having late night meals means high intake of salt which also does not get digested well. Too much of salt then causes water retention leading to puffiness, a swollen face and bloating in the morning. This apart, it can also lead to the alarming risk of high blood pressure and cardiac issues as well. Having an early dinner, on the other hand, leads to proper digestion which controls the retention, regulates proper BP and improves heart health as well.
All of these benefits result in upping the body’s immunity, which will take care of your health. Now if it’s not possible to have early dinner — for those with odd working hours — at least try to have your last meal two to three hours before you sleep. It’s very important that we feed our body with wholesome and balanced food at the right timings. If you make the right choices, you will not need to make any extra efforts to follow any diet. We need more simplicity in this world now instead of complicating things with fads. The worst thing for our body is late night heavy meals as this leads to both sleep deprivation and indigestion. Let’s try following an early dinner from now on and reap its benefits to the fullest.