Eat at the Right Time of Day

[Guest guest]

Eat at the Right Time of Day

 

by Felicia Drury Kliment

 

One to two hours after eating dinner at 6:30 in the

evening, Bob and Amy Gerahty used to come down with

acid indigestion. Although they didn't go to bed until

11:00 P.M., the symptoms lingered, preventing them

from getting to sleep. They blamed their indigestion

and insomnia on the food they ate for dinner. Their

typical evening meal consisted of red meat, mashed

potatoes with butter, salad, and a vegetable. Having

heard so much about the harm a diet heavy in red meat

and saturated fat can do to the heart and arteries,

they became convinced that the food they had for

dinner was at the root of their digestive problems. So

they switched to chicken, fish, and polyunsaturated

oils, but it didn't ease their indigestion. No matter

what they ate for dinner they got acid reflux

afterward. The years passed and they continued to lie

awake at night with painful esophageal and stomach

problems.

 

Finally it dawned on Amy that because they could eat

just about anything for breakfast and lunch without

experiencing any indigestion, maybe it wasn't what

they ate for dinner but what time they had dinner that

was the cause of their indigestion. So she moved their

dinner back three and a half hours to three o'clock in

the afternoon. They haven't had acid reflux since;

their weight problems have also vanished.

 

Why is it that Bob and Amy have no trouble digesting a

big dinner in the middle of the afternoon, but the

same meal eaten three and a half hours later at 6:30

P.M. gave them indigestion? This is not unusual. Acid

indigestion is far more common in the evening after

dinner than at any other time of the day. It is quite

likely that the cause is depressed energy levels. This

is nature's way of preparing the body for sleep. With

less than normal energy, fewer digestive enzymes are

generated. The result is that in some individuals, the

evening meal remains undigested and gives rise to a

whole range of symptoms -- including the most common,

acid reflux. Amy and Bob have no gastric problems now

that they eat their last meal of the day in the

midafternoon, because it falls within the time period

-- between ten in the morning and five thirty in the

afternoon -- when the body's energy level is highest,

indicated by a body temperature of 98.6 degrees

Fahrenheit. When energy production in the body goes

up, more digestive enzymes are produced.

 

Amy and Bob's story points out the fact that for many

individuals food is more easily digested at lunchtime

than at any other time of the day. If you want to

continue eating foods that you are allergic or

sensitive to, you're less likely to react to them

between twelve and three o'clock in the afternoon.

This is when the thyroid is at its most active and

enzyme levels are highest. Enzyme levels are low in

the morning because thyroid function is sluggish then,

and they level off in the evening when thyroid

function again begins to slow down.

 

" If you want to continue eating foods that you are

allergic or sensitive to, you're less likely to react

to them between twelve and three o'clock in the

afternoon. "

 

If it were possible for everyone to eat the last meal

at three o'clock in the afternoon -- which amounts to

a partial fast -- many health problems, including

obesity, would disappear. I recommended to an elderly

couple, both of whom were very ill with cancer, that

they have dinner in midafternoon and not eat anything

else for the rest of the day. Although at the time I

made the recommendation their doctor had told them

that neither would live more than one year, they are

still alive and enjoying life -- ten years after they

began eating dinner at three o'clock in the afternoon.

 

An offense to good health is eating badly at dinner,

but even worse is eating unhealthy snacks late at

night. Not only have digestive enzyme and thyroid

function slowed to a crawl by then, when you sleep

they slow down even more. People are most likely to

get acid indigestion in the evening because at the end

of the day hydrochloric acid, bile, and enzyme levels

fall.

 

Remember, high acid waste levels in the body lead to

weight gain. That's one good reason why liquids that

become acidic in the digestive tract shouldn't be

drunk in the morning on an empty stomach. Even if

coffee and/or tea don't give you acid reflux, don't

drink them before breakfast. When there is no food in

the stomach, coffee and tea acidify. On the other

hand, the best time of the day to eat fruit or drink

fruit juice is in the morning when the stomach is

empty, because fruit has an alkalinizing effect when

the stomach is empty. When fruit is eaten later in the

day when the stomach is full, it has an acidifying

effect.

 

2006 Felicia Drury Kliment

 

The above is an excerpt from the book Eat Right for

Your Metabolism by Felicia Drury Kliment

Published by McGraw-Hill; April

2006;$16.95US/$22.95CAN; 0-07-146015-2

 

__________________

 

Felicia Drury Kliment is a nutritional consultant in

private practice and the author of the acclaimed book

The Acid-Alkaline Balance Diet. Visit her website at

www.eatrightforyourmetabolism.com.