Late supper is not healthy
For many people, their supper can only be eaten at a late hour. By this, I’m referring to times like 7pm or later. The reasons why this is so are very obvious. They get home late from work.
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A few people are also just habitual late eaters even though they might have the opportunity to eat earlier in the evening. For some men too, they must eat their wife’s food regardless of the time they arrive back home if they want peace.
There are also those who eat early supper, say by 6pm and still feel hungry later at night, say at 10.00pm. The fact is they eat; refusal to eat simply means they cannot find a good night sleep.
Late meals, especially if the meals are heavy will make food and food energy available to the body of the consumer. This energy is not used since most people soon go to bed after eating them.
Even if you are not asleep, spontaneous physical activity is low at night, compared to day time. At night, you are either asleep or sitting down watching TV or working on the computer. There is no real chance to walk.
Having excess food that remains un-used means an increased affinity to fat storage in the body. This leads to overweight and obesity. Once this sets in; there is an increased possibility of developing diabetes, cholesterol, hypertension, cancer, stroke, among others.
It is therefore in the interest of everyone not to load up on energy dense foods late at night. This is a way of preventing lifestyle diseases.
In a bid to avoid these late meals, some people have resorted to eating only two times in a day. They eat breakfast a bit late, somewhere around 10am and then a second meal at 4pm thereabout. They do so because they know they will only get back home at a late hour. This is not good too.
There are also those who simply avoid or skip their supper anytime they get home late. This might seem as a simply solution to the challenge of late meals but it must not be encouraged.
Skipping supper unduly increases the length of time between meals. For example; if you had lunch at 1pm and no supper, your next meal which will be the next day’s breakfast might be taken around 8am. That is 20hours after your last meal.
This obviously is too long a time to keep the body starved. In this fasting state, the body fends for itself by making the energy it needs. This makes it possible to develop lifestyle diseases in people or even worsen such diseases among sufferers.
Eating at a late hour is not really the problem; eating heavy meals at such late hours is the real problem. So, having fufu and palmnut soup with goat meat at 10.00pm is bad.
The fufu is composed of starch; when digested, the result is glucose or sugar. This will largely remain un-used throughout the night. The result will be its storage as fat.
The soup is also just oil. It will be stored as fat if eaten late at night. If the late-night meal can be in a form that gives very little energy, there will be no problem after having them.
Dry fish or dry meat light soup can do the trick. If it is dry fish, you will see no oil on top of the soup. If you dry up the meat too, the soup has no oil in it; that is perfect for the night.
Just add some vegetables to the soup so you can chew them with a little of the dry fish or dry meat. This fills your tummy and makes it possible for you to sleep. At the same time it has no chance of giving your body excess starch or fat.
Eating vegetable salads late at night is also not bad but they should be without cream. That is what makes the difference; no oil (cream) means less energy. Salads can be taken with tea for example. Prepare the tea also with little sugar and milk.
A lot of people think that taking porridges/koko late at night is alright. They see the porridge as a light meal. Kindly note that the difference between koko and banku is water. The fact that koko is liquid does not mean it is fit as a late night meal.
Even if you eat bread late at night, your body will have energy to store as fat which can be problematic for you.
Choose right when it comes to eating late. It is however far better to plan and eat supper early; anytime between 5.30pm to 6.30pm is just fine.
The writer is a dietician and author of “Eating to prevent and manage lifestyle diseases" and
“Answers for your diet”.
Tel: 0244090262; www.letsabooks.com
