What to eat before bed?

You don't know what to eat before bed? Then pay attention to the tips from nutritionist Ana Isabel Monteiro.

Each meal of the day should be seen as an opportunity to nourish ourselves and take good care of our bodies, and supper, even though it is the last of these meals, is still important.

When deciding what to eat, You need to think about the goals you want to achieve: do you want to increase muscle mass? Do you want to sleep better? Do you want to lose weight?

For all purposes, there are more and less recommended foods, but let's take it one step at a time.

What to eat before bed to increase muscle mass

Increasing muscle mass depends largely on, in addition to training, protein intake. Protein intake should be distributed throughout the day and in quantities adjusted to each person's needs.

Those who train at the end of the day should have dinner with a good amount of excellent quality protein, such as skinless chicken breast or lean beef steak, extending protein intake into supper.

At this point, it is important to ingest a slow-absorption protein, such as casein, which mitigates the effects of muscle catabolism (muscle degradation).

This source of casein can also be combined with a source of healthy fats. Some examples:

• Low-fat fresh cheese with avocado;
• Quark cheese 0% with natural peanut butter;
• Low-fat cheese roll with nuts.

What to eat before bed for a more peaceful sleep

Yes, what we eat before bed has an influence on our sleep. Insomnia is a problem that affects around 301,000 people worldwide (2014 data) and can be improved, in part, through diet.

Here are some foods that can help*:

• Litter;
• Barley grass;
• Lettuce;
• Cherry or sour cherry juice;
• Walnut;
• Kiwi;

What to eat before bed to avoid gaining weight

For those who are in a phase of weight loss or maintenance, there are foods that we do not recommend eating before bed, especially those rich in simple carbohydrates, such as white bread, biscuits, or even fruit.

In these cases, you can choose to:

• Low-fat fresh cheese with peanut butter;
• Quark cheese with gelatin (sweetened with stevia and not with common sweeteners);
• Nuts (walnuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts);
• Skimmed milk;
• Plain/light Greek yogurt with maca;
• Egg whites with cinnamon.

In short, these are some foods that you can eat before going to bed, but be careful, eating these foods before going to bed, by itself, will not work miracles.

Casein sources do not increase muscle mass if you do not eat well and train well throughout the day; just as a glass of milk does not help you sleep if you drink alcohol and are under stress throughout the day.

Listen to your body and learn what works best for you!

* Zeng Y et al., Strategies of Functional Foods Promote Sleep in Human Being, Bentham Science Publishers, 2014