Typically, an average person takes 2-5 meals per day. Yet, often you can feel hungry late at night when it’s time to sleep, not to eat. It happens if your meals were imbalanced, or you ate too early for the last time. Although, sometimes, night hunger can occur without a reason as a result of stress or anxiety. How to cope with it? We have a couple of ideas about it.

Why Eating Late at Night Is Banned by Nutritionists

Almost all diets and HLS meal schedules prohibit night eating as it is not healthy at all. There are two main reasons for that.

  • Typically, if you eat regularly during the day, you gain the necessary amount of calories. If you have no weight gain issues, that’s OK and you won’t imbalance your weight. For people who struggle with extra weight, eating fewer calories than their body needs is a must. When you decide to eat something late at night, you can easily overeat. Moreover, our concentration drops at night as we feel tired and sleepy, so we can easily eat more than our body needs. And that leads to weight gain. The results of the research proved that.
  • Digestion does not turn off during sleep but only slows down. For example, the production of biocatalysts (enzymes) decreases. If you eat at night, the body will be forced to spend a significant part of its energy on digesting food. Thus, it won’t restore its energy levels and in the morning, you may feel sleepy, tired, and upset. That’s why most nutritionists warn their customers that the last meal intake should be finished at least 2-3 hours before they go to sleep. Yet, unfortunately, sometimes it is totally impossible due to the lifestyle, extra work, no time, etc. So, how to cope with hunger at night, and which meals to select for this?

Healthy Meals for Late-Night Consumption: Do They Exist?

The first main tip you can use when you suddenly feel that you are hungry as a wolf and it’s already midnight is to substitute meals with water. Often, a glass of water or herbal tea can calm down the feeling of hunger, and it won’t bother you anymore. Just remember, that it’s better to avoid sweet beverages because they provide you with too much sugar, namely fast carbs your body doesn’t need. The best ideas are: a glass of fresh water, or water with a slice of lemon, light herbal tea (especially, camomile tea that helps better sleep), or green tea.

Healthy Meals for Late-Night Consumption

In case you don’t feel content with this trick, follow our ideas on how to eat healthy at night.

  • Avoid meals rich in fats and carbs. Even if you have a slice of pizza or lasagna in your fridge, you better delay tasting it until morning.
  • Too hot and intense spicy meals are also not good, as they increase blood pressure and can break your sleep.
  • Sweets and pastries are also a bad idea. No need to say they are rich in carbs and heavy for digestion.
  • No snacks! They are either calorie bombshells or energy boosters. Nothing of that is good for relaxation at night.

5 Ideas How to Eat Healthy Late at Night

Yet, what to eat late at night? We have 5 ideas about the safest late-night meals you can take.

  • A glass of yogurt or other dairy products. Just use low-fat and natural yogurt with no sugar or fruit additives.
  • A pinch of nuts also can nourish you with no extra load on digestion.
  • Chia pudding is also good as it is not heavy, and it is enough to take 1-2 tablespoons of it to feel satisfied.
  • A piece of extra-dark chocolate is a salvation for a sweet tooth. It helps to tame hunger and it is not too harmful for your body. Yet, a piece is not a whole bar!
  • A couple of berries or an apple can also be good to eat at night. Or some dry fruits like apple chips or figs.

As you can see, eating late at night is not a good idea but it is not a total catastrophe. Just choose the most healthy ideas and try to control your meal portions. By the way, you can easily get some healthy meals in your fridge to pick them up at the moment of sudden night hunger. 95 Nutrition can help you with it! We provide freshly prepared meals and freeze them to help store them in your fridge for 2-3 days, so you can take them and ensure you are eating healthy and your meals are the freshest ones.