<b>After sunset</b>

Most urban Indians reach home to a snack with tea or drinks between 6-8 pm during weekdays. According to diet recalls, most people report peak hunger at this time, consume unhealthy food and extra calories, ending up creating dietary disasters.
This is largely due to easy availability of oily, starchy and processed snacks and poor planning. So extreme is the need to eat, that many grab the first thing they can reach out for. Typical snacks include fried namkeens, chips, biscuits, samosas, kachoris, pakoras, pizzas, noodles and sandwiches. Worse still, this may be followed by a round of alcoholic drinks and snacks ending with a hearty dinner and rounded off with a favourite dessert close to midnight.

Evening is certainly the time when hunger strikes the hardest and self-control is at its weakest. Whether it is physiological or psychological is hard to distinguish. Perhaps, it is both. Irrespective of the amount eaten at lunch, this time coincides with the greatest need to eat, when the day’s stress and pressure eases (whether at home or at work). Food certainly is great comfort and perfect partner to de-stress with, thereby, also becoming an internal stimulus to eat.
Eating inappropriate snacks in the evening and pushing dinner late into the night compounds the dietary mess. Not only does it increase the caloric intake, it also loads up the system at the wrong time. No wonder almost every other urbanite complains of hyper-acidity, gastritis, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), fatigue, sleeping disturbances and expanding waistlines. Unchecked, this eventually results in dyslipidemia (high cholesterol), high blood pressure, increased uric acid, diabetes and even cardio-vascular disease.

According to research, eating late into the night can disturb hormonal balance and predispose to developing obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. Circadian rhythms are regular mental and physical changes that occur in course of a day and influence hormones including insulin and leptin associated with diabetes and obesity. Disturbed circadian rhythms also adversely affect blood pressure, gastro-intestinal function, immunity, mental alertness and concentration. According to recent studies, even the obesity gene exhibits day-night variation, increasing during night after eating.
Coupled with altered circadian rhythms, consuming high calorie, Oil laden, high salt & sugar and dangerous trans-fats along with sedentary lifestyles and stress is a lethal cocktail.

Why is it that we cannot change our snack time into meal-time? For those at home, this should be a simple solution. Those who cannot because of work constraints, eating healthy snacks only requires a bit of planning ahead. People who consume alcohol regularly, an option could be to pre-pone drinking or else learn to do it as it is done globally — drink after meals. For those who work until late, breaking up the meal and dividing calories — between office and home would help prevent loading up calories late at night.
Even according to traditional Indian wisdom and principles of Ayurveda, eating large meals after sun-down is undesirable.
Changing meal time and eating the last meal 3-4 hours before bed-time helps improving energy levels and resolving several digestive complaints. When you dine out, eating a light home-cooked meal or snack with vegetables, yoghurt, nuts, seeds, dal or salad before leaving for a party can prevent excessive hunger as you reach the party. Decrease your food intake as you progress into night.
Simply eating a healthy meal when you are hungriest will do great service not only to your waistline and your gut, but also prevent several serious degenerative diseases.

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