Eat light at night

Heavy dinner will ruin the sleep

The dinner is supposed to be the lightest meal of the day that do not cause flatulence indigestion or heart burn and helps in giving good sleep. Having a heavy dinner will ruin the sleep and the sleep cycle. It could delay the sleep and even cause lethargy.

An early dinner would also aid in avoiding the above. Therefore it is very important to avoid foods that cause any of the above.

But it still needs a balance of vegetables, grains (rice, roti), proteins in the form of dal with light spices or fish that are easy to digest cooked with minimum oil.

Instead, have normal dinner – not too heavy, and not too light. Eating an excessively light dinner will not keep your sustained for the night. What’s worse than a heavy dinner is post-dinner snacking. Therefore, have a regular meal at dinner.

Avoid spicy or fatty dinners as well as whole pulses such as chickpeas, kidney beans, white beans. Also avoid vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and cucumber as these tend to cause a lot of flatulence, indigestion, burping, which can keep you awake at night. Basically, maximum digestion of your entire food intake for the day happens at night when your body is at rest, so if you eat light and early there will be better digestion.

Healthy Dinner Options

• Onion salad + Tomato soup +white gourd grated in whole wheat rotis + Yellow moong dal
• Salad + rawa dosa (oil free) with onion tomato capsicum, carrot vegetable and Sambhar with lots of veggies + green chutney
• Tomato Beetroot salad + Pumpkin soup + savory pancakes of moong dal (chilla) grate a lot of white gourd and grated spinach in it.
• Salad + soup + veg + whole wheat pasta with double the quantity of vegetable than pasta in arrabitta sauce with a side of sauté mushrooms
• Salad + rasam /sambhar with vegetables + vegetable rawa uttappa with lots of veggies like onion, tomato, capsicum in it.
• Soup + salad of lettuce and tomato + Frankie with paneer and lots of veggies in it and a salsa
• Soup + salad of leafy greens + sauté veggies + mushrooms + veggie open sandwich
• Salad + soup + broken whole wheat khichdi or rice and moong dal khichdi with lots of veggies in it + buttermilk.
• Salad + soup + jowar roti + brinjals bharta + Bhindi Dahi kadhi.
• Salad + soup + oats uttappa with onion, tomato, capsicum, carrots + tomato chutney + Sambhar with vegetables
• Salad + soup + Tomato Sindhi curry with less besan + rice + fenugreek/ methi with onion, tomato vegetable
• Salad + soup + Veg patties/ cutlet + green chutney + stir fry veggies
• Salad + soup + Fish curry with lots of veggies + rice
• Salad + soup + stir fry veggies + steamed prawns + rice
• Salad + soup + rice noodles with lots of vegetables + mushrooms and chicken with soya sauce and balsamic vinegar
• Salad + clear soup /lemon grass/tom yum soup + Sautéed veg + lettuce wraps + saute veggies with mushrooms or fish +steam rice / sticky rice /jasmine rice
• Salad + clear soup + sauted spinach + tandoori fish or steamed fish

By:Naini Setalvad