What's Best for Dinner Tonight?

Our bodies are influenced by the circadian cycle. Light and darkness impact hormone secretion, the body's systems, and even the digestive system.

Our digestion works well during the day. As darkness falls, it slows down, and at night, digestion is at its weakest. This means food is broken down and absorbed less effectively, and fat is stored more easily after nighttime eating.

At night, we're inactive, so our body doesn't need much energy. Even those active at night shouldn't consume hard-to-digest foods since the system is weak, making absorption and digestion difficult.

Ideally, stop eating before it gets dark.

While meal size matters, dinner is where it counts the most: eating heavily can hinder digestion and disrupt sleep quality. The body struggles to achieve restful sleep when digesting food.

For some, heavy evening meals can cause breathing difficulties, a rapid heartbeat, and stomach discomfort, such as heartburn.

Dinner should be the smallest meal. As Maimonides suggests, eat like a pauper in the evening.

Processed foods aren't healthy anytime, but especially harmful at night when the stomach is weaker. Asking a weakened system to process what is essentially waste is tough and debilitating.

What's recommended for evening eating?

To support digestion, it's best to eat cooked or baked vegetables, like vegetable soup, baked veggies, or even a vegetable quiche.

Raw vegetable salads are not recommended at night. Even with few calories, they're hard to digest raw, and the stomach has to work harder while it's already slower in the evening.

Avoid empty carbohydrates and stimulants that can affect sleep quality, like coffee, tea, and chocolate.

Salty foods and excessive drinking at night can cause increased urination and unnecessary waking, disrupting sleep. If you feel hungry at night, a piece of fruit is a good option, as it doesn't burden digestion. The body can digest fruit in about half an hour.

If you choose to skip a meal, dinner is the one to skip.

Zohara Sharvit is an N.D. naturopath and iris analysis expert with extensive experience in therapy, counseling, and workshop facilitation. For free workshop booking, call 073-2221290