Foods that should be strictly avoided for dinner

Hello friends! Are you all excited to know that some foods are healthy for your body but should not be taken as dinner?

Yes ! Here I will share 5 foods that you must avoid for dinner and their best alternatives.

Dinner is the most sensitive meal of the whole day . One should not consume unhealthy food in the day but eating the wrong food at dinner can affect your health goals seriously. Junk food may cause indigestion but eating the wrong food at dinner can cause weight gain, sleep disturbances, loss of skin glow, hair fall as well as many chronic problems. 

Here are 5 foods that you must avoid in dinner

1. Leafy vegetables-

Leafy vegetables are rich in calcium, magnesium, iron, vitamin k, vitamin c etc. 

Being very nutrient dense food, they are not so easy to digest after sunset and that is why Ayurveda suggests that they best be avoided in dinner.

Shocked?

Well, a food can be superfood but if taken in the wrong way or at the wrong time, it can harm you. 

Taking green leafy vegetables or curries for dinner can lead to bloating and sleep disturbances. It can also cause indigestion, headache and diarrhoea. Even if you want green leafy curry for dinner, Make sure that they are not raw and cooked well. Secondly, You can take less of it. For example you can add leafy vegetables to the dough and make chapattis. 

Similarly you can consume them by putting them into pulses, soups or rice pulao etc. Just avoid them as a main course curry. 

Foods like Palak paneer, saag and aloo methi are better to consume in lunch. By doing it your digestion system would not be overloaded and you will get maximum benefit out of the leafy vegetables.

2. Salads

Did you ever get the advice to eat salad for dinner? But the truth is that salad is not ideal food for dinner, even if it works just opposite if taken in dinner. Salads are cold in nature and the body requires a lot of heat to digest it which is compromised after sunset. If taken salad for dinner, one may feel gas, bloating and other digestive disorders. 

In case you can not do without having some salad for dinner, firstly keep the quantity low. secondly avoid cold watery vegetables like cucumber, radish and beetroot ,rather prefer hot natured vegetables like tomato, capsicum and turnips . Also do not forget to add more heat to these vegetables by adding the spices like black pepper powder and ginger powder to it. It will help you to produce more heat to digest the vegetables you ate. 

You can also take vegetables as the form of soup during dinner. Soups are the most wise way to take vegetables for dinner. Soups are easy to digest, tasty as well as packed with many nutrients. Soups like tomato soup. corn soup and mix veg soups are not just tasty but also filling.

Similarly one should not take sprouts for dinner . They are not only raw but also heavy to digest. No doubt sprouts are rich in many nutrients like magnesium, vitamin k, calcium, phosphorus etc but if you take it in dinner, you are doing more harm than good. This is the reason Ayurveda describes a lot about the right way to take food. So, you must keep sprouts limited till lunch time.

3. Curd

No doubt, curd is a storehouse of protein and essential micronutrients but it never means that it can be consumed every time you want. According to the Ayurveda one should not take curd after sunset. It is because after the sunset, the temperature of our body naturally decreases. Curd is cold in nature and this is the reason why curd should not be taken in dinner. If one consumes curd for dinner ,it causes cough , runny nose, fever, sore throat, sinus and constipation. 

If on any certain occasion you can not do without curd, do not forget to add spices to it to increase its heat. You can add black pepper powder or ginger powder to it. You can also consume it as buttermilk by adding jeera, black pepper, salt etc and it can serve the purpose well. You can also add lemon to the curries to fulfil your craving for curd. 

4. Fruits

Fruits are the most nutritious food for the body and our mind but however, not for dinner . Fruits being raw, can give a tough time to the stomach to digest. According to the Ayurveda mucus forming fruits like bananas, watery fruits like watermelon, citrus fruits like orange and cold natured fruits like guava  are strictly prohibited after sunset. It is good to consume fruits before 5 PM.

In case you can not do without taking fruits for dinner sometime, prefer low quantity of hot natured fruits like papaya, mango, litchi, muskmelon and pineapple. Also remember that you can consume before the meal and not after the meal. Some people use fruits to take after meals as sweet dessert but it can cause many digestive problems. Mango is an exception in this situation because of its hot nature. Fruit juices are even worse in dinner a s they are less nutritious and more cold in nature.

5. Heavy food

Heavy food does not always mean outsider food. Yes, lunch time is always good if you want to eat something outside but there are many food combinations like rice with chapati and banana with milk that are so heavy that you should not take in dinner. Overeating healthy food can also cause any trouble, especially after sunset. 

There are certain foods and food combinations that are intrinsically heavy to digest . Three such food are-

a) Beans

It is highly recommended to avoid chickpeas, Chana, kidney beans in the dinner. You can prefer lentils instead. Khichdi, made with equal amounts of rice and Moong daal with added ghee is the best food to eat at dinner. Yes rice can be taken at night , just make sure you add curry leaf and black pepper into it while cooking. 

b) Chapati and rice together

Do you ever take rice and chapati together for dinner?

It is too heavy for dinner and should not be taken. It is an ideal food combination to gain weight but it should be limited till lunch time. 

c) Combination of two dense protein foods

Combining two protein dense foods together like lentils and paneer is like tripling on a bike. It is too heavy to digest and you might have to pay for it later.

So these were some tips that you need to follow for a better way to consume food at dinner.

Conclusion 

1. Dinner should be light that can digest easily.
2. Dal with rice, dal with roti, seasonal curries with chapati, soups and khichdi are ideal options for dinner .
3. Food should be cooked well and spiced well to make it easy to digest. 
4. Most importantly,  dinner should not be taken after 7 PM as our body temperature starts falling.
5. One can have one glass of milk half an hour before sleeping. 
6. However, if you have a heavy dinner sometimes, Don't regret it. Just start the meal with ginger pickle and drink about 50 ml of tea hot water sip by sip after 30 minutes of your dinner and then go for a walk.  It will give heat to your body and make digestion easier.
7. Ayurveda describes how having the right dinner can improve your lifestyle. It will improve your sleep quality, improves hair, digestion, as well as makes you more attentive and active.