You may have heard that it is dangerous or unhealthy to eat after a certain hour in the evening. While this is not necessarily true, binging on a heavy meal or a large, unhealthy snack may affect your sleep, your waistline and your blood sugar levels. Avoid the pitfalls of eating too much at night by spreading out your caloric intake throughout the day, not skipping meals and choosing healthful foods if you are hungry in the evening.

Interrupted Sleep

A heavy meal or fatty snack right before bed can cause discomfort and indigestion. This in turn can affect your sleep. To avoid interrupted sleep, do not eat a large snack or meal or drink too much within two hours of bedtime.

Heartburn

If you eat certain foods shortly before dozing off, you may develop heartburn, also called acid reflux. Symptoms include a burning feeling in your chest and tasting stomach acid in the back of your throat. Eating too much can cause acid reflux. Food that is known to trigger the condition include, greasy fatty foods and spicy foods. To avoid acid reflux, stop eating two to three hours before bedtime. Does using baking soda help in alleviating symptoms of heartburn or acid reflux? Let’s get the facts here.

High Blood Sugar

Raising your morning blood sugar is a concern if you have diabetes. Eating a big snack late at night, especially if it is full of carbohydrates, can not only put you over your calorie allowance for the day, but can cause a high blood sugar reading the next morning.

Weight Gain

Eating too much at any time of day can cause weight gain, which may lead to being overweight or obese. Even if you are not eating much during the day, binging on high-calorie foods at night will add to your waistline because post sunset your physical activity levels also start to drop gradually. If you want to have a small to moderate snack at night, choose healthful, low-calorie foods such as low-fat yogurt, fruit or baby carrots, cucumbers sticks, nuts etc.

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