Skipping dinner regularly causes an empty stomach, leading to gas formation that causes symptoms of diarrhea, constipation, fatigue, and insomnia.
Dinner plays an important role in maintaining a healthy digestive system, stable bowel function, and preventing digestive problems.
Dr. Vu Truong Khanh, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Tam Anh General Hospital, Hanoi, said that many people have the habit of skipping dinner due to the need to diet and lose weight. Going to bed on an empty stomach can affect your health, especially your digestive system. Below are some of the harmful effects that can occur if you skip this meal regularly.
Digestive problems
Regularly skipping dinner causes the stomach to be empty, forming gas due to the effects of hydrochloric acid, easily causing indigestion, stomach irritation, gastric reflux, increasing the risk of nausea, diarrhea or constipation. People who skip meals regularly are prone to eating disorders such as anorexia and binge eating.
According to Dr. Khanh, instead of skipping meals, you should adjust the time between meals appropriately, choose light dishes that are good for your physical and mental health. Do not choose dishes that are difficult to digest and eat dinner too late or close to bedtime.
Fried rice with a lot of oil can cause indigestion and bloating if eaten at night. Photo: Linh Nguyen
Nutritional Deficiency
Regularly skipping dinner can lead to nutritional deficiencies such as magnesium, vitamin B12, vitamin D3. These micronutrients are essential for daily activities. Prolonged deficiency increases the risk of malnutrition.
Tired
An empty stomach is bad for your mental health, overall brain function, and decision-making ability. The brain runs on glucose, and people who skip dinner are more likely to experience hypoglycemia. Large swings in blood sugar can cause health complications, especially at night.
Insomnia
Skipping dinner also affects sleep cycles, causing insomnia and restlessness. Lack of sleep can negatively impact the body's immunity, mood, energy and metabolism. Prolonged lack of sleep seriously affects mental health.
Weight gain
An empty stomach leads to weight gain because the body is hungry, tends to crave food and eat more at the next meal. Skipping meals makes you lose control of your eating, increases your appetite more than usual, negatively affects your metabolism, and makes you gain weight easily.
Muscle loss
A slowing metabolism also affects the body's ability to gain muscle. When you sleep, your body goes into repair and recovery mode, which includes building muscle mass, converting protein into muscle, and repairing damaged tissue. If your body doesn't get enough nutrients and protein for repair and recovery, it can easily lead to muscle loss while you sleep.
Dr. Khanh advises everyone to eat a balanced diet, divided into small meals from 6am to 7pm. Dinner should be finished two hours before bedtime. This is enough time for the body to digest and absorb nutrients. Adults should do light exercise to help reduce calories and metabolize food faster.
Foods for this meal should be easy to digest, limit foods that produce a lot of gas during digestion such as corn, sweet potatoes, green beans... Foods that stimulate the digestive tract should be avoided such as chili, garlic, onions, high in fat, and should not eat a lot of meat.
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