Night-time Food Temptations that Hamper Your Health

When the clock strikes 9, there raise head the ghost of our cravings. The stress hormones which are at the peak at night time, cleverly dupe us into thinking that junk food tastes great. Sure, it does! But, everyone knows it’s not healthy; especially in the night when we store all the fats and go to sleep without giving our body a chance to digest or burn out the piled-up calories. Let’s recognize the 10 night-time food temptations that could hamper your health and dieting efforts.

A research published online by American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that those who regularly ate ice cream needed more and more to replicate the 'high' they first experienced. Ice-cream cravings are similar to desires experienced by drug addicts.

Most of us empty a whole bag of chips within minutes due to mindless eating while watching TV or playing on computer. Ads can make food look very good and lead to over-consumption. We readily binge on chips even when we are not hungry.

Chocolates have chemicals present in them that are related to the THC found in marijuana and theobromine- a compound similar to the caffeine that gets people addicted to coffee. In total, chocolate is a brew of 380 chemicals, a bunch of which affect your mood. No wonder it helps the blues!

Just because alcohol is liquid, it is not any better than a cheeseburger or fries. A calorie is a calorie. A beer still adds pounds to the weighing scale and cholesterol to your arteries.

Low serotonin and/or blood sugar levels and stress cause you to crave for cookies. And the craving can occur up to 24 hours post stress response.

A craving for red meat is often a sign that you’re lacking iron and/or conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid that helps your body burn stored fat.

A pasta craving bizarrely usually indicates a lack of sugar. When your sugar levels are far too low, your body enters a state called hypoglycaemia, which causes you to crave carbohydrates. So craving pasta and bread usually means you need to find something sugary, such as fruit, fast!

When you plan a cosy movie night with your partner, it is incomplete without popcorn. So is watching late night series of your favourite show; and that craving for popcorn is difficult to subside. Stress hormone fluctuations are responsible for salty, buttery popcorn craving.

Craving for cheese at night is sign of essential Fatty Acids and Calcium-phosphorus deficiency. To combat this, you must eat fatty-acid-rich foods.