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Eat for Your Best Sleep!

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The foods you eat effect every aspect of your health and your overall life. Food choice affects way more than just your weight – food choice has been seen to effect mood and even your ability to sleep! Getting enough quality sleep is important to your health. It is important that you are eating foods that promote healthy sleep. There are some foods that are known to disturb healthy sleep – as well as foods that promote better sleep! In this blog we will bring you through both – letting you know which foods you should be avoiding before bed and which foods you should be eating for optimal snoozing!

First, some food are known to disturb sleep – these should be avoided before bed!

  1. Coffee – the caffeine in coffee can significantly disrupt sleep. You should stop consuming coffee 6 hours before your bedtime. Also, coffee flavored treats should also be avoided for optimal sleep – yes that includes coffee flavored ice cream!
  2. Dark chocolate – this also contains caffeine that can disrupt sleep.
  3. Alcohol – although alcohol puts you to sleep – it can affect your second half of sleep.
  4. High fat foods – foods that are high in fat can disrupt sleep and make you feel uncomfortable during the night.
  5. Spicy foods – laying down after eating spicy food can cause heartburn,
  6. Grapefruit – citrus fruits should be avoided before bed because they increase stomach acid.
  7. Cauliflower – this takes time to digest – which means your body needs time to work on it.
  8. Water – water or fruits with high water content can cause you to need to use the bathroom more than you should during the night. This can be disruptive for your sleep.

So you may be wondering, what should I eat before bed? Glad you asked! Here are some foods that are known to promote healthy sleep:

  • Chickpeas
  • Boiled and cooled potatoes
  • Seeds
  • Tart cherry juice
  • Dark leafy greens
  • Nutritional yeast
  • Mushrooms
  • Eggs
  • Red peppers
  • Salmon
  • Bone Broth

Try combining these food in your dinner meal. For example, mix up some dark leafy greens with chickpeas, potatoes, red peppers, mushrooms, and salmon. Sprinkle some nutritional yeast on top!

Sugar before bed is known to disrupt sleep – but luckily there are healthy dessert options that won’t disturb sleep. Ice cream is a night time favorite - but the high sugar and fat contents both lend to poor sleeping. Late-night snacking on sugar can also increase your insulin and cortisol levels. Healthy ice cream alternatives have become a major trend recently. Although these healthy ice cream options are low in calorie they are still high in sugar, sucralose and caffeine. These can cause reflux and indigestion which can affect your ability to sleep optimally. Luckily we have found a healthy ice cream option now available that promotes healthy sleep!

Night Food is a new ice cream alternative that is made for eating before bed and has been approved by sleep experts! According to these sleep experts, several ingredients in this ice cream have synergistic effects on sleep. Such as; glycine, magnesium, digestive enzymes, protein, fiber and reduced sugar.

Pick up a pint and give it a try – or whip up one of these sleep friendly dessert combos:

  • Take Β½ cup of sorbet and Β½ cup dices fruit
  • 1 chocolate pudding and 1 TBSP of whipped cream
  • Β½ toasted English muffin and 1 tsp honey
  • 1 small banana and 1 TBSP jam
  • 1 cup cottage cheese and 1 cup sliced strawberries
  • 1 slice of bread and 1 TBSP hazelnut chocolate spread
  • 1 small pear and 1 TBSP almond butter
  • 1 whole wheat waffle and 1 TBSP raspberry preserve

We hope you can start incorporating these healthy sleep foods into your diet. Share this blog with your friends and family so they can get their best sleep too.

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