Dinner plays a vital role in our daily life. The last meal of the day is essential for us to have a healthy body. It also plays a vital role in our social and family life. A good dinner time can give us a healthy life and memorable moments on our own.
Dinner helps us to enjoy our healthy life in many ways. It helps our organs to keep functioning. A healthy dinner protects us from many health issues.
Importance of dinner in our daily life
A healthy breakfast is an important start to the day and key to maintaining weight loss. Lunch and dinner are important equally, keeping the metabolism up and keeping us from becoming famished.
Our body is consistently working, even at night when we are sleeping. Our heart is pumping for 24 hours. Breathing through the lungs is a continuous process. All these functions remain for 24 hours. So, it is essential to fuel our body even at night assuring enough capability of organs to perform their works.
Here are some more benefits of eating dinner and not skipping eat:
1. Keeps our metabolism under control
Dinner improves the way our body functions. A healthy and wholesome dinner can promote better metabolic functions promoting greater success in our weight loss efforts. Good dinner has the power to balance the endocrine system and blood sugar levels.
2. Keeps our blood sugar in check
Waking up during the night is caused by a fall in our blood sugar level. Then the body has to release amounts of glucose that has been stored, which can often make it difficult to get back to sleep. To ensure that this does not happen, it’s important to have dinner.
3. Fuels our body
During sleep, our body does not get the required fuels for the next few hours. So, it is better to get all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients from our dinner.
We should keep in our mind that the food we take at dinner, fuels our body till breakfast time.
4. Helps in the growth of muscles
The meal can help us to improve our muscles. A study in the Journal of Nutrition suggests consuming 40 grams of protein at dinner time.
5. Is important for family attachments
Dinner is as important for our family and social life as it is important to have a healthy life.
After-school activities, late workdays, long commutes — it’s no wonder few families eat dinner together. Yet studies show that the family dinner hour is an important part of healthy living.
When families dine together, they tend to eat more vegetables and fruits — and fewer fried foods, soda, and foods with trans fats, research shows.
When younger kids frequently eat dinner with their families, they are less likely to be overweight than other children. That tends to change in the teenage years when they’re less likely to eat at home.
6. Gives us the chance to sit together
In our busy life, dinner time is the only time when we can sit together with our family. It is the time when we can share what is happening in our life with the other members of our family.
It is also a very important time for our children as they can share their thoughts, views, and activities like how they spend their time in school with their classmates and with their teachers. They can express their liking and dislikes at dinner time and gradually they start to feel they are part of the family.
7. Refreshes our heart, mind, and soul
At the end of a long day, sitting down calmly at the table is the best part of one’s life. There is something pretty special about being surrounded by the ones we love while sharing a meal.
Skipping dinner
Sometimes we skip our dinner for some unreasonable reasons. We must be aware that, skipping dinner is not the solution. This practice is not good for us. It may harm us in many ways.
When going for more than hours without having anything, our blood sugar level drops and our body becomes unable to supply glucose to our brain. It may cause impaired concentration, fatigue, dizziness, and irritability.
Also, there is a large gap between our last meal and our first meal of the next day if we are going to skip our dinner. This gap can cause of starving, acidity, nausea, and disturbance of sleep.
What is a healthy dinner?
We can consider a healthy meal or dinner to provide balanced nutrients and it should contain a minimal amount of processed food.
But the point is that this nutrition is very individual. As everybody is different, our needs are not the same. So we can say having a well-balanced food that is required for our body can be considered a healthy dinner.
According to dietitians and Nutritionists, our dinner should be around 500-550 calories. It should contain a good amount of fiber and protein as well as some healthy fat. Our dinner should include at least three food groups, and it should be limited to saturated fats and simple sugars.
For preparing a healthy dinner we do not need to take any extra effort. If we are conscious and careful about our foods, we can have a healthy dinner with less effort.
We need to know the proper quantity of the food as per our body requirements to have a healthy dinner. Our dinner plate should contain ¼ protein, ¼ grain, and ½ vegetable. We also can have a glass of milk to fulfill our calcium needs.
Here are some tricks to make our dinner healthy.
1. Vegetables and fruits
The nutritional value of foods and vegetables is immense. So, we have to choose fruits and vegetables for our dinner.
2. Whole grains
Whole grain is more nutritious than refined grains. So, try to use whole grains to prepare your meal.
3. Use lean protein
Protein is a very important food element for us. But we should not take high protein food daily. We need to choose lean proteins such as lean beef, pork, and chicken for our dinner.
4. Dairy food
Try to have a cup of fat-free milk. Fat-free milk provides the same amount of calcium and other nutrients as whole milk provides. At the same time, fat-free milk provides low calories. Low–fat yogurt can be included.
Some ideas for a healthy dinner:
The following 7 foods offer some of the biggest nutritional benefits you can get.
1. Salmon
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend eating two to three servings of fish per week, and one of the healthiest options is salmon. Eating salmon is also linked to better heart health, and “fish like salmon may have a positive impact on sleep quality,” says Lauren Manaker M.S., RDN.
2. Sweet potato
While both white and sweet potatoes can be part of a healthy diet, traditional orange sweet potatoes do have a bit of a leg up, offering almost 270 percent of your daily vitamin A needs and 6 grams of fiber per cup
They can be enjoyed in so many ways—baked, roasted, mashed, or even stuffed. They can also be used in soups, curry, casseroles, pasta dishes, and more.
3. Lentils
Lentils may be tiny, but they sure are mighty. Packed with plant-based protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, they offer several health benefits including promoting heart health and reducing the risk of diabetes and certain cancers. They are also a good source of iron, which is especially important if you don’t eat much meat.
4. Dark leafy greens
Kale isn’t the only super green. Dark leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard, collard greens, mustard greens, and beet greens are all packed with vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that support health. While each offers a slightly different nutrient profile you can count on adding fiber, iron, folate, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and K to your diet when you eat dark leafy greens.
5. Olive Oil
If you make one change to the way you cook, let it be using olive oil more often than other fats. Beyond its many cardiovascular benefits, it’s also full of antioxidants and may reduce inflammation. Olive oil can be used both in cooking and for finishing a dish.
6. Tomatoes
Along with important vitamins and minerals, tomatoes provide a big dose of lycopene, a phytonutrient that is linked to lower cholesterol, reduced risk of stroke, reduced risk of cancer, and even possible protection from sunburns. Cooked tomatoes may provide more lycopene than raw tomatoes, but both offer valuable nutrients, so enjoy whichever you prefer.
7. Cabbage
This humble vegetable offers a surprising number of health benefits. Eating cruciferous vegetables may reduce inflammation, improve gut health, and purple cabbage in particular, which contains flavonoids, may be good for your heart.
To conclude, you just need to keep in your mind that having dinner does not mean you need to have a lavish dinner. You need a wholesome healthy dinner to keep your body fit and healthy. You need to set your mind to having healthy food at dinner time. Then it can be easier for you now to choose a healthy menu for your dinner time leaving behind the thought of skipping dinner.