What Is the Healthiest Dinner You Can Have?

If you want to eat a healthy diet, then you’ll also want a low-calorie dinner, which will also help prevent any digestion problems overnight.

We often promise to have a more balanced diet but we don’t always do it. Every meal of the day is important, but there is one that especially stands out because it really influences liver problems, insomnia, and obesity: dinner. If you’re looking for ideas for healthy meals, then check out this article, as we’ll explain a few of the healthiest dinner options below!

Benefits and Risks of Dinner

Dinner is the last meal of the day. You should never go to bed with your stomach empty or too full, because it will be difficult to rest. Since you don’t consume much energy or burn many calories at night,  it is important to have dinner early or serve a light meal.

If you eat a big dinner too late or choose unhealthy foods, you will note some of the following effects on your health:

• Insomnia, sleep loss, and fatigue in the morning
• Puffy eyes or dull appearance of your face
• Fluid retention
• Constipation
• Mucus when you wake up
• Liver problems, poor digestion, acidity, flatulence etc.
• In the long run, obesity or weight loss

When to Eat Dinner

Once you lay down to sleep, your body starts to relax and allow the cells in your body to regenerate. According to traditional Chinese medicine, an organ regenerates every hour:

• 11 to 1am: the gallbladder
• 1 to 3 am: liver
• 3 to 5 am: lungs
• 5 to 7 am the large intestine
• 7 to 9 am: the stomach

If you respect the biological clock of your body, you should be finished with the digestion of your dinner at 11 o’clock, taking into account that digestion tends to last between 2 to 3 hours. This is why the best time to eat dinner is before eight at night.

What Should The Healthiest Dinner Include?

A balanced dinner should contain the following:

• One part vegetables, preferably cooked. Although if you digest vegetables well, it can also be raw (salads, for example), especially when it is hot outside.
• One part low fat proteins: eggs, fish, legumes, fresh cheese, yogurt, nuts, mushrooms.
• One small part starch or grains (optional): wheat bread on the side, pasta, brown rice, potatoes, banana.
• One small part healthy fats: vegetable oils, dried fruits, egg yolk, yogurt, avocado.

What Shouldn’t The Healthiest Dinner Include?

• Excess starches or grains, because they give you too much energy
• Sugars
• Sweet fruits because they cause you to gain weight if you eat them mixed with dinner
• Citrus fruits like oranges or mandarins because they make sleeping harder
• Summer fruit rich in water, like watermelon or melon, because they slow down digestion
• Saturated fat (margarine, pastries, fried food, red meat etc.) because they overwork your liver and bladder
• Excess salt, which causes fluid retention
• Stimulants like coffee, tea, Coke etc.

Examples of Healthy Dinners

• Vegetable purée, a little bit of oatmeal, and one hard boiled egg
• Sautéed vegetables with mushrooms and whole wheat toast
• Natural yogurt with half a banana and a handful of walnuts
• Vegetables and noodle soup and grilled fish
• Vegetable smoothie or gazpacho and an omelette
• Legume cream and baked pears
• Vegetables with a little bit of potato and baked chicken
• Green salad with fresh cheese and seeds
• Corn tortillas with guacamole
• Lentils, grated carrot, and a little bit of mayonnaise salad

One Last Comment Regarding The Healthiest Dinner

If you eat dinner earlier or are going to do something before bed, you can increase your amount of starches and grains and allow yourself to have a whole wheat vegetable and mushroom pizza or a lettuce, tomato, and cheese sandwich.

If you take care of your dinner during the week, you can make an exception on the weekend, although you will always notice the next morning if your dinner has been healthy or not according to the mood and energy you wake up with.

Images courtesy of cobalt123, robbplusjessie, and David-Robert-Wright