Читать книгу The Secret Ingredient: Family Cookbook - Sally Bee - Страница 10

While you are planning your meals, it is really essential that you listen to your body and take note of what it’s telling you. Do you have trouble sleeping? Is this because you have a large meal too late at night or because you haven’t eaten enough throughout the day and are actually hungry?

The general rule is to have your last meal of the day no later than 7pm. If we treat 10pm as a usual bedtime, this gives your system three hours to break down the food you’ve eaten, and allow you to sleep well. However, you may not be such an early bird and you might stay up until 11pm or midnight, in which case, you will probably become peckish before bed. DO NOT hit the biscuit tin or the Pringles pot, instead have a slice of brown toast, with a little butter or low-fat hummus about 20 minutes before you go to bed. This will take away any hunger pangs and will give you a sedative effect to help you sleep. Because your body has to step up its metabolism to break down the bread, it will make you sleepy. This is especially true if you’ve been following a low-carbohydrate diet. These diets are good for giving you energy, but they can make you a bit ‘fizzy’ and unable to sleep, so taking a slice of bread at this time will definitely help you enter the land of nod!