Skipping dinner regularly makes the stomach empty, leading to gas formation, causing symptoms of diarrhea, constipation, fatigue, and insomnia.
Dinner plays an important role in helping maintain 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 in Hanoi, said many people have the habit of skipping dinner due to the need to diet to lose weight. Going to bed on an empty stomach can affect your health, especially your digestive system. Below are some harmful effects that can occur if you skip this meal regularly.
Digestive problems
Frequently skipping dinner makes the stomach empty, forming gas due to the impact of hydrochloric acid, easily causing indigestion, stomach irritation, gastric reflux, increasing the risk of nausea, diarrhea or constipation. People who skip meals frequently are susceptible to eating disorders such as anorexia and binge eating.
According to Dr. Khanh, instead of skipping meals, you should adjust the reasonable time between meals and choose light dishes that are good for your physical and mental health. Do not choose foods 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 in the evening. Image: Linh Nguyen
Nutritional deficiencies
Regularly not eating dinner can lead to nutritional deficiencies such as magnesium, vitamin B12, and vitamin D3. These micronutrients are necessary for daily activities. Prolonged malnutrition increases the risk of malnutrition.
Tired
An empty stomach is harmful to your psychological health, general brain function, and decision-making ability. The brain operates on glucose, people who skip dinner are susceptible to low blood sugar. Large swings in blood sugar can cause health complications, especially at night.
Insomnia
Skipping dinner also affects your sleep cycle, 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 over your eating, increase your appetite more than usual, negatively affect your metabolism, and easily gain weight.
Muscle loss
Slowing metabolism also affects the body’s ability to gain muscle. During sleep, the body goes into repair and recovery mode, which includes building muscle mass, converting protein into muscle, and repairing injured tissue. If the body is not provided with enough nutrients and protein to repair and recover, it can easily lead to loss of muscle mass while sleeping.
Dr. Khanh advises people to eat a balanced diet, divided into small meals from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dinner should end two hours before bedtime. This is enough time for the body to digest and absorb nutrients. Adults should exercise gently to help reduce calories and metabolize food faster.
Foods for this meal should be chosen that are easy to digest, limiting 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, don’t eat a lot of meat.
