February 22 2024

9 Amazing Advantages Of Early Dinner You Should Know

The age-old question of ‘when should you eat dinner’ has a surprisingly simple answer!

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”

The advantages of early dinner are undoubtedly going to surprise you. But, most of us follow this quote in reverse, i.e., we breakfast like a pauper, lunch like a prince, and dine like a king. Nowadays, everyone is busy in their life and doesn’t have time to pay attention to health. Because of this, people are suffering from several diseases. However, irregular food consumption timing results in severe health issues, especially for those who take their dinner late at night. Fortunately, if we change our dinner time slightly, we can get magical changes in our health.

Let’s touch upon one aspect of the yogic lifestyle; eat your dinner within half an hour of the sunset! In our yoga teacher training program, we try to incorporate yogic habits; there are individual sections of society in India who have their dinner within half an hour of sunset. Knowingly or unknowingly, they are doing excellent service to themselves. Humans are not nocturnal creatures (For such a topic, we must have a separate discussion). They should ideally wake up within half an hour of sunrise and prepare for sleep after sunset. Assume that we eat dinner between 7 and 7.30 p.m. and go to bed by 10 p.m.

Early Dinner Is the Secret to a Healthier Lifestyle

Let’s explore the 9 Amazing Advantages Of Early Dinner:

1. Better Sleep Quality

One of the first early dinner benefits is Sleep quality will be much better. Since there is a gap of 2-2.5 hours between our last meal and sleep, the primary digestion has already taken place, and the digestive system won’t work overtime during sleep. Hence, the digestive system gets much-required rest. Moreover, this practice also reduces oversleeping. The bodily systems work less, get the required rest, and thus need less time to recuperate and work more efficiently

2. Weight Loss

There have been several studies that have proven the above-stated fact. This practice helps reduce weight loss and triggers the metabolism. This practice automatically leads to Intermittent Fasting. During Fasting, the body fulfills its energy demands from the stored body fat instead of the glucose in the fed state. Therefore, metabolism is triggered, which leads to better weight management. Additionally, diabetic individuals have found it to be beneficial. A stronger immune system and improved cellular regeneration and repair are just a couple of the many advantages that intermittent Fasting has been shown to offer.

3. Relief from Constipation

An adequately rested digestive system leads to a much healthier excretory system. If you suffer from constipation, this practice should significantly improve your chances of a better dump. This practice would also help people fighting with flatulence.

4. Feel Energetic

You feel lighter and more energetic in the morning. There is less trouble waking up. You wake up early and utilize the most productive time of the day. Your workout session or your yoga practice; all activities will be more fruitful and productive. Additionally, you become more flexible too.

5. Better Appetite

You will not skip the most important meal of the day, i.e., breakfast. Moreover, your overall appetite becomes more balanced. As stated earlier, the age-old proverb says to breakfast like a king, have lunch like a commoner and dine like a pauper. This advice is an excellent one for healthy dietary habits.

6. Relief from acid reflux

Eating just before bedtime can trigger acid reflux, i.e., a burning sensation near the chest region. Research proves that people who take their dinner 3 hours before sleep have the least possible of this problem.

7. Minimize the risk of heart attack

Minimizing the risk of heart attack is a crucial one of the advantages of early dinner. Eating early (3 hours before bed) decreases the risk of heart attack significantly. In general, when we sleep, our blood pressure is reduced by nearly 10%, which allows our body to rest. In the morning, before we wake up, it begins to increase. This pattern repeats daily. This pattern gets disturbed when we eat dinner before bedtime and impacts our blood pressure. As blood pressure remains high, there are more chances of a heart attack.

8. Lower the Risk of Diabetes

Diabetes can occur when our bodies cannot use insulin properly. When we eat 2-3 hours before sleep, our body utilizes insulin properly by converting food to glucose. Hence, by maintaining proper insulin levels, the risk of diabetes decreases. Having early dinner can lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

9. Decrease the Risk of Cancer

People who take their dinner just before bedtime had a 15% more chance of prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. That means you can reduce cancer risk by 15% by just eating dinner earlier.

So these are the 9 Amazing Advantage Of Early Dinner; follow these.

Implementation

If you can’t manage an early dinner, is it okay to skip it altogether?

Regardless of the vast health benefits of the above practice, it might not be practical for many people because of work-related issues, etc. For those who struggle to eat dinner early, there’s another approach. They can still benefit by focusing on eating light dinner. They should avoid carbohydrates after sunset; this would also be highly beneficial. Excess carbs in the diet lead to many problems, including early aging and wrinkles. Consequently, alternatives to carbs at dinner are seasonal vegetables and fruits, soups, lentils, buttermilk, etc. While it takes a little bit of doing in the initial days, this practice is worth it. However, most of us do not eat when hungry but when we think we are hungry.

In addition to eating a light dinner, aiming for the right timing between dinner and breakfast can further optimize your health benefits. Ideally, you should leave a gap of at least 2-3 hours between dinner and bedtime to allow for proper digestion before sleep. This will also indirectly contribute to creating a 12-14 hour window between dinner and breakfast, which is recommended for promoting better weight management and a healthy metabolism.

There has been a lot of research on this subject in many western and eastern countries. Most results show this practice in a very favorable light. It seems like yogis of yore knew about the benefits and hence propagated this practice. Moreover, it also constitutes a part of the preparation for other detoxification techniques like Laghu Shankhaprakshalana or intestinal wash. We encourage you to incorporate this yogic practice at our Yoga Retreats and 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training India at Arohan Yoga School.