Everyone knows that dinners should be light and mostly based on foods such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seed or legumes. Despite this general consensus, a large part of the population continues without attaching the necessary importance to this meal of the day. “Dinner to get out of trouble.” This is the mindset of many people. Red meat, sausages, chocolate, carbohydrates … Everything is valid for the night, in the hours before break?
Red meat
In principle, it is not advisable to take red meat with you for dinner. “It is a type of food that may be present in our diet, but given the information we get from studies linking high meat consumption to some pathologies,” it must not be a food to recommend to the population”, Indicates Giuseppe Russolillo, president of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
However, the expert makes it clear that this does not mean that eating meat is harmful to our health. “It means that the population is currently eating amounts of red meat that are far in excess of their needs and what a healthy diet. For this reason it is advisable to reduce consumption ”.
Fruit
As already mentioned, fruit they are a very important part of what is meant by healthy eating. In fact, many people end the day with just fruit. In this sense, Can its excessive consumption be counterproductive?
“There is no contraindication to taking five or six per day. A healthy person can take as many as they want. It is a food that should increase its consumption in the diet ”, Russolillo responds. People who would have a problem with these foods are the ones with diabetes and that they take large amounts of fruit on an empty stomach, although, as the dietitian confirms, “they would be specific and isolated cases”.
Dietary Supplements
Dietary supplements such as C vitamin, better in the morning than at night. What’s true there? The expert warns that it is not good to take multivitamin supplements: “It has been seen that unless a deficiency is diagnosed in a blood test, the regimen and supplementation of these supplements are not warranted.” Thus, the nutritionist emphasizes the importance of following a varied diet of plant foods that provide the necessary micronutrients for the body, such as vitamins.
Embedded
As with red meat, it is not recommended to include sausages such as salami, chorizo or fuet in this meal of the day (or any other). It is better to be careful with these types of products. Russolillo says, for example, you can eat cold cuts for dinner once a week or two. Yes, in a total moderate amount.
Carbohydrates
“¿Carbohydrates during dinner? Never ever ”, that’s always thought. The nutritionist states that it is true that recent research shows that Chronic Diet, according to which, mit makes more sense to eat more energetic foods in the morning, when we need it most for daily physical activity. And leave for the night the nutrients that have a more plastic, regulating and restorative function of our body.
“Carbohydrates and fats mainly have an energetic function and protein, plastic and repairing. For this reason we consumed the first group in the first part of the day; and foods rich in protein, starting in the late evening, ”says Russolillo, adding that this does not mean eliminating carbohydrates from dinners completely. but take them less.
In this sense, it says that “the pasta, rice or boiled potato dish is not included in the dinner, but in the afternoon. In the evening, let’s take the opportunity to have a portion of protein foods, which we can accompany with a small garnish of carbohydrate-rich foods such as peas, potatoes, wholemeal bread… ”.
Chocolate
First of all, you have to distinguish what chocolate it is. “When we talk about the one that is mixed with substitutes and with fat and sugar emulsions, it is not easy to take it because the high consumption of sugar in the population has harmful effectsRussolillo points out.
However, the specialist states that as chocolate it is of high purity (between 75% and 80% pure cocoa), can have positive effects. In this regard, he explains that “high-purity cocoa – which is also very bitter and has nothing to do with the traditional chocolate we know – has been seen to contain a range of substances called plant phytochemicals or bioactive compounds. which have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and beyond arterial hypertension”.
Vegetables
Russolillo says that vegetables can be taken three or four times a week and cook them, especially with vegetables. Only from time to time it is advisable to cook them with food of animal origin. “It’s not the same to eat beans with bacon and chorizo today in 2020 than it was 100 years ago, when people’s physical activity had absolutely nothing to do with today’s. In the past, more calories were consumed, but much more energy was consumed than now, so a plate of legumes and black pudding could be more justified at the time ”.