Late night or midnight snacking tends to be associated with stress eating, which leads to overindulging in high-fat comfort calories. Attempting to catch shuteye when your stomach is making unnerving growling sounds isn’t a smart idea, either. As a result, your sleep quality suffers, and you end up feeling drained and hungry next morning—both of which can lead you to overdo it and mess up your healthy-eating plans. Solution?

Just by adding healthy simple-to- digest low-calorie foods to your diet menu for a midnight snack can keep you from adding useless calories.

1. Snack bars

Snack bars are low calorie. How should you choose a snack bar? The answer is take time and read the ingredient chart. Eat snack bars that are made with low glycaemic foods and are rich in dietary fibre and minerals. A good rule of thumb is to select snacks that comprise all natural ingredients such as whole grains, millets, nuts and seeds, dried fruit. These foods tend to rely on the inherent sweetness and are rich in dietary fiber.

2. Cereal

Have a bowl of cereals with a little milk for that extra protein. Consuming Protein at night is always a good option when you’re trying to lose weight. Consider the whole-grain, complex carb kind (like oatmeal or corn flakes).

3. Yogurt

Yogurt calms your stomach. Natural foods are generally absorbed and metabolized slowly into the body leading to prolonged presence of nutrients in body so you’re less likely to wake up with heartburn or indigestion and instead can score a good night’s rest.

4. Bananas

Eating bananas at night can also give a boost of vitamin B6, which is a coenzyme used in metabolism. The rich source of satiating fiber and relaxing tryptophan (for only about 100 calories) makes a good midnight snacking option.

By Nikita Upadhyay