So, it's almost time for bed, but you're suddenly hungry... what would you like to snack on before bed? We often stuff ourselves with completely wrong foods before going to bed, mistakenly believing that there is no difference, and then we wonder why we can’t fall asleep. Well, believe it or not, what you eat before bed has a direct impact on how well you'll sleep, and possibly whether you'll be able to sleep at all. Yes, falling asleep with an empty stomach can be very, very difficult, and there is nothing wrong with the fact that you decide to have a snack before going to bed, but you must choose the right food for a snack, and in no case overeat . Your snack should not exceed 200 calories and should not contain caffeine. Below you will find a list of foods that you definitely shouldn’t eat before bed - learn to avoid them, unless, of course, you want to gain excess weight, have insomnia and at the same time ruin your health.
So, the worst thing you can eat before bed is...
Red meat
I don't recommend you eat any meat before bed because it takes too long to digest. Well, red meat, especially canned meat, is a really bad choice for a late-night snack. Red meat is, figuratively speaking, packed to the brim with fats and proteins, which actually isn't that bad—if you eat it during the day. By eating red meat before bed, you give your body a lot of work to do for the whole night - instead of resting, it will be busy digesting, giving you a gurgling stomach, discomfort, and even indigestion. So, if you don’t want to toss and turn half the night, listening to the churning in your stomach, spare your body - eat healthy food at night. In addition, red meat increases insulin production, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, so it is better not to eat it at all in the evenings. If you want to eat something filling at night, eat a hard-boiled egg. It is much healthier than red meat.
Alcohol
I don’t know where the myth that large amounts of alcohol promotes good sleep came into our society, but a myth is a myth. Yes, alcohol makes us sleepy and “slow,” but it does not make our sleep stronger or better. Alcohol contributes to dehydration and reduces the restorative effect of sleep. After drinking a large dose of alcohol before bed, you may well wake up in the middle of the night and not fall back to sleep until the morning. Therefore, if you want your sleep to be sound and refreshing, avoid drinking alcohol just before bed. Otherwise, after you wake up in the morning, bags under your eyes and fumes from your mouth will remind you that you shouldn’t have drunk before bed. And if you suffer from periodic or chronic insomnia, be aware that systematic alcohol consumption can aggravate its symptoms.
Sweet bars
Yes, sometimes it is so difficult to resist a tempting bar - full of nougat and caramel, covered in chocolate... but still try to restrain yourself, especially if you are about to go to bed. Recent research has shown that 7 out of 10 people who eat junk food like candy bars before bed are much more likely to have nightmares instead of normal dreams that night. The sugar contained in sweet bars is food for our brain, and a completely overheated brain at night invariably slides into nightmares. One day, as an experiment, I decided to snack on sweets at night. The first night I didn't notice anything special, but after I continued doing this the next day, the next night was the worst I've experienced in a very, very long time. At first my sleep was filled with terrible nightmares, and then, scared, I woke up and could not sleep until the morning. Naturally, in the morning I was in such a state that I had to take time off from work and try to take a nap during the day. The same thing happened the next night. To be honest, at first I couldn’t believe that all this happened because of some candy, but as soon as I started eating healthy food in the evenings again, all my nightmares disappeared, as if they had never existed. Of course, what you eat before bed is up to you, but if your hand reaches for a sweet bar... it’s better not to.
Is it possible for nursing mothers to eat black bread? Black bread for children
- Unfortunately, like any other product, black bread has contraindications - due to the fermented milk starter in its composition, the product is not recommended for people with increased stomach acidity, gastritis and peptic ulcers
- Nursing mothers, if they do not have the above contraindications, are recommended to eat rye bread. It does not ferment in the stomach and will not cause colic in an infant
- But rye flour products should be introduced into the diet of young children with great caution. Before a child turns three years old, his digestive system goes through a process of formation. The baby does not yet have enough enzymes capable of processing the carbohydrates that make up black bread
Ice cream
I am more than sure that most of my readers love ice cream. Yes, I adore him myself. However, unfortunately, ice cream, like medals, has two sides. Ice cream perfectly calms us down and can quickly cheer us up even on the darkest day, but if it occurs to you to eat ice cream before bed, you should know that the thought that came into your head is clearly not the best. Eating ice cream before bed is a bad idea even if you want to gain weight. Any ice cream is chock-full of fats, which, like all fats, are digested rather slowly, and there is also a lot of sugar, which, as you already know, causes nightmares and can keep you up all night. Yes, the taste of ice cream is simply super, but the consequences of eating it at night are absolutely terrible. If you want something milky for the night, forget about ice cream. Instead, drink a glass of regular unsweetened milk. Yes, it is not nearly as tasty as ice cream, but it is much healthier and healthier.
Simple bread... no, not golden - night bread!
The products are the simplest... Nothing interesting, really. And the recipe is incredibly simple, but I still decided to share this disgrace. Add the same yeast, salt and sugar to the water, which must be warm, very warm (but suitable for yeast). Stir the whole thing and add sunflower oil, stir again.
Add about 2 cups of previously sifted flour to the liquid and mix everything with a spoon. Add flour again and mix with a spoon. At one point, it will become difficult to mix the dough with a spoon, then we put it on the flour, right on the table, and start kneading... Well, well, well, wait, as Larisa says (laralaram) (Laris, forgive me if I’m wrong), no need to score flour dough. Wow! So, we don’t beat our dough with flour, we knead it long and tediously, add flour, knead again, add flour, but only if there is really a need to add it. When kneaded, such dough tends to thicken on its own, without excess flour. I don’t make thick, heavy dough; it should be soft and elastic, but not stick ungodly to your hands. Sorry that I can’t give the exact amount of flour, since we are from different countries, and the quality of flour varies greatly, so some may need more flour, some less, you need to proceed from its properties.
The dough is ready, it's time to leave it alone all night! While we sleep, it should grow and gain strength. I put it in the same bucket that I originally started the dough in. I cover it tightly with a plastic bag so that it doesn’t think of getting out. Overnight, a test fungus grows in a bucket (I have a small one), so I never cover it with a towel. I don’t recommend leaving it in a hot room, it will peroxidize.
We wake up, finish our morning chores and go to the test. We knead it again, divide it into 4 equal parts (as in my case) and form them into even balls. Sometimes I don't divide the dough, or divide it in half.
We place the cones in a baking sheet with high edges, not very close to each other, so that there is room for “distribution”. If desired, sprinkle with sesame seeds, after moistening the tops of the koloboks a little with water, and send them to proof in a warm place, for about 30-40 minutes, but this depends on the temperature in the room. When the bread has risen, as in the photo, put it in a cold oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes over low heat, then add heat and bake until done over a stronger (but not high!) heat. You can put the bread in a preheated (over low heat) oven, the main thing is that there is not too much heat right away so that the bread can still rise and not immediately become crusty. Be sure to make sure that the bread is not overdried or underbaked. All!
Chips
Perhaps now I will say a very obvious thing, but... do not eat chips before bed, especially if your plans do not include gaining an extra couple of kilograms. Chips are one of those delicious foods that are very difficult to stop eating once you start. So if you decide to spend the evening sitting in front of the TV or computer, beware of chips like fire - because it is in such situations that you can eat several packs without even noticing it. When you are distracted by something, it is not easy, but very easy, to lose control of how much you have eaten and binge eat. If you really want to munch on something on the couch in front of the TV, cut yourself some carrots or bell peppers or pour a handful of peeled almonds into your cup. You'll have something to crunch on, and the fiber in the veggies and almonds will fill you up much faster than chips. In addition, vegetables and almonds are much healthier than chips and soda, which will only give your body extra calories.
Peanut butter
Almond butter, peanut butter, or any other nut butter that becomes your favorite bedtime snack may well contribute to weight gain. Yes, there are studies showing that peanut butter promotes weight loss, but many more researchers believe that it and other nut butters may be responsible for weight gain. When I suffered from bulimia, I ate nut butter almost every evening, only coming to my senses when I gained five kilograms. I must tell you, it was not only a bad habit, but also a shameful one. So if you're craving a snack before bed, put the nut butters aside and drink a big glass of unsweetened almond milk. Almond milk is rich in calcium, makes you feel full, calms your nerves and promotes healthy sleep. You can sweeten it slightly with stevia or cinnamon for the perfect bedtime snack! No, if you still want to eat peanut butter, you can, but exercise moderation and try not to make it a habit.
Bread
If you're trying to gain a few pounds, you can eat as much bread as you want at night. But if you're on a diet and want to lose weight, stay away from it, especially before bed. My friend wanted to gain some weight. In just a month, she gained as much as 5 kilograms, and all she did for this was eat a sandwich every day for a month before bed. Bread is almost entirely carbohydrates and contains yeast, which means it not only causes your body to gain weight, but also leaves you hungry - meaning you may well get up in the middle of the night and make another raid on the fridge. But even if you are trying to gain weight, you should not stuff yourself with sandwiches from morning to evening. There are plenty of healthy ways to gain weight, and eating bread is not one of them. Instead of making yourself another sandwich, make yourself some oatmeal. Oatmeal is also a source of carbohydrates, but unlike sandwiches, it won't make you puff up like a balloon.
Overnight bread without kneading
To prepare the dough, pour flour into a bowl, add salt and dry yeast.
Next, we will need to pour water into the flour with salt and yeast. The water should not be warm, but cool - this is important!
Then mix our dough with a spoon for a few seconds, mixing all the ingredients together.
We continue kneading with our hands, kneading lasts no more than 30 seconds, as soon as all the ingredients are mixed together, stop kneading the dough.
Cover our bowl with the dough with film and leave it for 12-15 hours at room temperature (I leave the dough overnight and knead it at approximately six in the evening).
After 12-15 hours, remove the film from the dough; during proofing, the dough will increase in volume 2-3 times and become large-porous.
Next, we will prepare a place for shaping the bread. Place the parchment on the table and sprinkle it generously with flour.
Place the dough from the bowl onto the flour, making sure that the bottom of the dough is on top.
Next, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour and fold it in half (fold to the left in the photo).
Then fold it in half again, only in the other direction (in the photo we fold it to the right).
Since I will bake bread in a round form (in a thick-walled pan), I give our homemade bread a round shape by folding the dough.
Turn the loaf seam side down.
Leave the bread to proof for 2 hours in a warm place, covering the bread with a towel. The bread will rise and increase in size.
When the bread is almost ready, take a pan with a thick bottom (you can take a duck casserole or a casserole with a lid), this moment is very important and cannot be missed (!), you cannot use dishes with thin walls. I took a double-walled Zepter pan, unscrewed the plastic parts from its handles and removed the plastic handle from the lid. Place an empty (!) pan in the oven, covered with a lid, and turn on the oven at 230-250 degrees for 25 minutes. This way we heat up our baking dish.
Place the appropriate bread into the preheated pan along with the parchment paper and cover the pan with the dough with a lid.
Reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and bake the bread covered for 40 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake the bread without a lid for 20 minutes. Our bread will brown and look very beautiful.
Remove the bread from the mold and let it cool for at least 1-1.5 hours, covering with a towel. At first the crust of the bread will be very hard, but don’t let this scare you; when the bread starts to cool, it will become soft and crispy.
And this is what the bread looks like in size. The bread turns out to be large-pored, when pressed it quickly restores its shape, with a soft crumb and a crispy crust, well, real homemade bread! Prepare overnight bread without kneading using this recipe, you will certainly be pleased with the result. This bread turns out very tasty and is perfect for lunch, dinner or breakfast for the whole family!
Bon appetit to you, friends!
Pizza
Of course, if you want to eat a slice of your favorite pizza at night, it's not the end of the world... but are you sure you can limit yourself to just one slice? Yes, pizza is delicious and quite easy to prepare, but each bite is a kind of calorie bomb, fraught with unsightly fat deposits on the sides, especially if you eat pizza at night. The tomato sauce that's on your pizza is highly acidic and can cause acid reflux, and the fatty toppings are a surefire recipe for heartburn. In general, if you want to be guaranteed to wake up in the middle of the night and never fall back to sleep, eat pizza before bed - as much as you want. But if you want not just to fall asleep, but to get enough sleep, forget about it, at least for the evening. And if you really want to treat yourself to pizza before bed, try baking a vegetable pizza with carrots and bell peppers, but without a thick layer of tomato sauce and without other unhealthy additives.
Chocolate
Although dark chocolate does not contain excessive amounts of fat and sugar, it does contain something else. Caffeine. And not only that, but chocolate also contains other stimulants, like theobromine, which speeds up your heart rate. This natural chemical cocktail can help you stay awake at night if that's what you're trying to do, but it can also keep you from getting a good night's sleep if you simply eat a chocolate bar by mistake before bed. People who don't get enough sleep regularly tend to have high levels of cortisol, which has a damaging effect on muscle tissue. I really love good dark chocolate, and before I couldn’t even imagine that eating chocolate before bed could guarantee a sleepless night... However, recent scientific research convincingly proves that people who want to get a good night’s sleep are not recommended to eat any chocolate before bed. However, no one forbids us to enjoy it during the day - of course, in moderation.
Diet on kefir and black bread
There are a lot of kefir diets. This digestive-boosting fermented milk product has been proven to help you shed extra pounds. It is even more effective when combined with rye bread.
Kefir and black bread are a great idea for a fasting day.
- The diet on kefir and black bread is quite strict, it is recommended to maintain it for no more than 5 days
- In total, you need to drink 5 glasses of kefir per day: for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dinner and before bed.
- At three main meals you should also eat a slice of slightly toasted rye bread. Water and tea are allowed, and if you have a strong feeling of hunger - 1 green apple per day
- Judging by the reviews of the diet, its result is minus 1 kg per day
Coffee and everything coffee
Coffee, coffee ice cream, coffee candy, and basically anything that contains caffeine is a bad choice for a bedtime snack. If you eat something from this list before bed, you will stay awake at least a little longer, and it will be much more difficult for you to fall asleep. And even if you do fall asleep, caffeine may well wake you up in the middle of the night and leave you feeling terrible the next morning. I know, you can object to me by saying that you are used to drinking a cup of coffee every night before going to bed, and after that you sleep just fine. But how do you feel in the morning after this? Sleepy, tired and without the desire to do anything? You may think that coffee has absolutely nothing to do with it, but I have bad news for you - it very much has to do with it, unless you are sick. So, if you want to get enough sleep and avoid health problems, stay away from coffee. At least before bed.
How to make Swedish overnight bread without kneading
Prepare the necessary products.
Sift the flour and mix with the remaining ingredients. The dough will be very sticky.
Grease a baking dish with vegetable oil. BE SURE to line the bottom of the pan with baking parchment.
Place the dough in the mold, cover with oiled cling film. Place the mold in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
In the morning, place the pan with the dough in a cold oven, turn it on at 220 °C. Bake bread for 1 hour until golden brown and puffy. I have a mold 11 cm high, with a bottom width of 7 cm. The wider the mold, the faster the bread will bake: from 40 minutes to 1 hour. Be guided by your oven.
Cool the finished bread a little in the pan, and then under a cotton towel on a wire rack.
Have fun in the kitchen!
Pasta
Eating pasta at night, even without meat, vegetables and sauces, is a bad idea. Yes, they are easy to prepare, and almost anyone who decides to have a quick snack can do it, but if you are hungry before bed, it’s better not to do this. Pasta is high in carbohydrates and quite high in calories—and all of those calories are likely to end up on your waistline. In addition, eating a bowl of pasta before bed will spike your blood insulin levels and reduce the production of human growth hormone. The latter is a very bad sign, since about 80% of this fat-burning and muscle-building hormone is released during sleep. Avoid this effect by eating carbohydrate-rich foods, such as pasta, in the afternoon rather than in the evening.
Diet on sauerkraut with black bread
Sauerkraut is a useful product in many ways. It is chosen quite often for a diet because:
- sauerkraut fills the stomach, takes a long time to digest and relieves a person of hunger
- the product contains a large number of beneficial bacteria, normalizes intestinal microflora, helps get rid of constipation
- sauerkraut contains a significant amount of vitamin C, which helps strengthen the immune system
- The product helps normalize blood sugar levels
- low-calorie sauerkraut – no more than 25 kcal per 100 g
One of the sauerkraut diet options also involves eating fresh black bread or in the form of crackers. Its amount per day, again, should not exceed 200g.
In addition to sauerkraut and rye bread, on a diet you can eat:
- low-fat cottage cheese, yogurt and kefir
- boiled chicken breast
- cucumbers
- low-fat cheese
- green apples
- oranges
3 liters of water per day are mandatory.
As a rule, people stay on such a diet from 4 days to 1 week.
IMPORTANT: Any version of the black bread diet is not suitable for people with erosive gastrointestinal diseases and high acidity. You should consult your doctor before riding them.
Baking and sweets
I hope you are not in the habit of keeping a stock of cookies, cakes, muffins and puff pastries at home. Because if you do this, then you are more likely to eat them at night. You come home from work tired and irritable, and you can't help yourself - you just need to eat something sweet to at least slightly lift your mood and energy level. However, in reality, if you are really tired, you need something else. Sleep well, immediately. So, unless you want to gain a few pounds a week and wake up in the middle of the night with low blood sugar, forget about sweets and baked goods at night. If you're really hungry before bed and want a snack, choose healthy foods like Greek yogurt with frozen berries or whole grain crackers with hummus.
Description of preparation:
I am sharing with you a very simple recipe on how to make Swedish overnight bread without kneading.
All ingredients are measured in ML, not grams! It is important! The baking pan should be greased and covered with baking parchment, otherwise the finished bread may stick to the bottom. The rest is all just outrageous! In the evening they mixed everything and put it to proof, and in the morning they baked delicious bread. Thin crispy crust, very tender crumb! Cook with pleasure! Main ingredient: Dough / Yeast dough Dish: Baking / Bread Geography of cuisine: Swedish / European
Celery
Yes, I myself was surprised at one time when I learned that celery is on the list of foods that you should not eat before bed, but if you want your sleep to be deep and uninterrupted, do not eat foods with celery. Well, I mean, there's nothing really wrong with it, but celery is a natural diuretic that increases the frequency of your urination. And this, in turn, means that a full bladder will certainly wake you up in the middle of the night, or more than once. So I advise you to either limit yourself to a small amount of celery before bed, or give it up completely. Better eat a carrot. It is rich in vitamin A, good for skin and vision, and will not disturb your sleep. My favorite bedtime snack is carrots, bell peppers, and a dash of celery with homemade hummus. A vegetable smoothie is also a pretty good option.
About cold fermentation (based on your questions)
Friends, hello! Today I want to tell you about cold proofing and fermentation for wheat bread: what they are used for and what they want to get using this method, how cold temperatures affect the taste and aroma of bread, why cold fermentation is not the same as cold fermentation and much more. . I'll take your questions as a basis.
What does cold do to dough?
As many have already noticed, cold fermentation of dough greatly affects the bread as a whole: the taste, the aroma, and the pores of the crumb. Bread that has either been left to rest or has fermented after kneading in the cold has a noble wheat taste and aroma, practically devoid of leaven sourness, and its pores often have a more open, larger structure. The reason is simple: at low temperatures, acids in the dough accumulate very slowly and in relatively small quantities, while yeast and flour enzymes are more active and it turns out that the dough slowly loosens and matures without noticeably accumulating acids.
This is one of the main reasons, the second is timing, managing the dough fermentation schedule. This can be very convenient at home if you don’t have time to fuss with bread, or if you are busy at work. The schedule for working with the dough is then very simplified: you spend five minutes to put the leaven for bread, after 8-10 hours you knead the dough, put it in the refrigerator for another 10-12 hours, then shape it and, depending on your plans, put it again for 10-12 hours in the cold for proofing, or leave it warm. This is very general and just one of the possible schedules for working with cold fermentation. For the same reasons, cold fermentation is often used in bakeries and even allows you to work without night shifts and have freshly baked baguettes at 8-9 am!
Cold and wet dough
Another tricky reason why some bakers prefer to work through cold fermentation is the behavior of the dough and the change in its rheological properties when cold. Simply put, the dough freezes in the cold, hardens, and becomes stronger, despite the fact that it continues to loosen. And, if you want to bake God forgive me, Tartine, then it will be much easier to fashion it from a cold dough than from a warm one. This kind of dough is easier to divide, it does not spread and does not stick to everything, it does not spread into a flat cake when you cut the workpiece, and this captivates and pleases with hope (not always justified))!
As for me, using cold fermentation, because cold dough is easier to work with, is a half-measure; you need to learn how to work with it correctly and understand both cold and warm dough. But let's figure it out! Wet dough can be difficult to work with if:
Too much fruit
Most people think that eating a few fruits before bed is a very correct and good thing to do, and I'm not saying that it's bad - as long as you do it in moderation, of course. But too much fruit means too much sugar, and you already know the consequences of too much sugar at night. In addition, sugar begins to be digested in your gastrointestinal tract first, often releasing gas, which harms your digestion and can be very painful. If you don't want to give up fruit at night, eat a small amount first and see how you feel afterwards. But in any case, it is not recommended to eat more than one cup of fruit at night. It is much healthier and more correct to eat a small amount of fruits or berries at night in combination with some healthy food. For example, my favorite quick snack is Greek yogurt with frozen fruit. And sometimes I eat some fruit and nuts, which is also healthy and does not interfere with sleep.
The benefits of black bread and vitamins. Is black bread good for people with high sugar levels?
Black bread is called bread baked from rye flour. In addition to rye, the product may also contain wheat flour in one ratio or another.
IMPORTANT: If a person wants to lose extra pounds, he should eat pure rye or rye-wheat bread, which contains no more than 25% wheat flour
The most popular types of black bread are:
- round (Ukrainian, polyanytsya)
- "Borodinsky"
- "Darnitsky"
- "Highlight"
- "Princely"
- other
In addition to rye flour, black bread includes the following products:
- leaven
- yeast
- malt
- syrup
- sugar
- salt
- spices (cumin, coriander, others)
The food composition determines the richness of the nutritional composition. Black bread is valuable because it contains (per 100 g of product):
- proteins – almost 7 g
- fats - up to 2 g
- carbohydrates - 33 g.
- fiber – up to 9 g
- starch
- ash
- organic acids
- amino acids (lysine, including)
- vitamins (A, E, PP, B vitamins in significant quantities)
- elements of the periodic table (iron, iodine, potassium, magnesium, sodium, selenium, fluorine, chromium, others)
- enzymes
IMPORTANT: The energy value of 100 g of bread made from rye flour is from 170 to 200 kcal, which is significantly less than that of wheat baked goods
The opinion of nutritionists: in order to feel good and be in optimal shape, you need to eat 2-3 pieces (about 50 g) of rye bread daily. This will allow:
- Get a boost of energy and feel alert throughout the day thanks to the carbohydrates contained in the product
- Normalize the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. The dietary fiber contained in black bread has a powerful cleansing effect on the digestive organs, and therefore on the entire body. The use of this product allows you to solve the problems of constipation, indigestion, and dysbacteriosis. The digestion process improves
- Avoid vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Therefore, it is especially important to use the product at the end of winter and spring.
- Avoid iron deficiency anemia. Magnesium and iron are contained in significant amounts in rye bread, and these elements are known to promote the formation of red blood cells. The product is recommended for use by women during pregnancy
- Stabilize the functioning of many organs and systems. The product has a known beneficial effect on the heart and blood vessels, brain, liver, and organs of the endocrine system.
- Prevent cancer. People who regularly eat black bread are less likely to get cancer
Black bread helps normalize blood sugar levels, which is why people with diabetes are advised to eat it. 30 g of this product is equal to 1 unit of bread. A diabetic can consume up to 20 g of rye bread per day.