Can You Eat Pasta And Rice At Night?
A widespread belief in terms of nutrition is that eating pasta or rice at night is counterproductive, either because it makes you gain weight or because it is bad for your health. The truth of all is that these foods can be consumed at any time of the day, but you have to do it efficiently.
The first thing to keep in mind is that these products are fundamentally energetic. Therefore, its function is to provide energy or help the body recover after an effort. So, if possible, they should be used for this purpose, leaving aside their flavor.
When if you can eat pasta and rice at night?
If you ate a low amount of carbohydrates during the day and exercised (especially in the afternoon), at night is a good time to consume these foods. Its main function will be recuperative. This will help replenish muscle and liver glycogen, according to research published in the journal Current Molecular Medicine .
If not, and if the next morning you are going to practice strenuous exercise again, the risk of muscle injury increases. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that the levels of circulating glucose and muscle glycogen are adequate before a high intensity exercise.
However, if the idea is to reduce weight, a possible solution may be to eliminate carbohydrates from dinner and exercise on an empty stomach. But if this strategy is carried out, the morning exercise should be of low intensity to minimize risks.
Eating pasta or rice at night has an energetic function and is aimed, above all, at anaerobic athletes. These types of individuals will benefit greatly from the consumption of these foods and, in fact, they will be a fundamental part of improving their performance.
It is even necessary to carry out large carbohydrate intakes when carrying out a glycogen load prior to a competition. In these situations, the muscular and hepatic deposits are emptied first during 24-48 hours to, later, supersaturate the reserves and take advantage of the availability of these nutrients in physical activity. This is stated by an article published in Nutrition Today magazine .
These strategies are typical of strength sports, weight category sports, or anaerobic endurance sports. In addition, they involve the consumption of rice and pasta in large quantities, also at dinner.
When should you not eat pasta and rice at night?
In the case of sedentary people who do not exercise regularly, carbohydrates at night are usually not very functional. Perhaps they have a greater sense in the first meals of the day, especially with a view to reducing appetite.
However, when night comes, it is better to avoid them and resort to protein-type foods and vegetables. Dishes with volume and low energy density that allow you to go to bed without appetite and get adequate rest, but that do not provide glucose that is not going to be used or stored in the form of glycogen.
In this way, and according to research carried out in the Nutrients magazine , eating early and light is an effective strategy to promote weight loss.
As the years progress, carbohydrates become less and less necessary. Rather, they begin to increase protein demands to prevent muscle damage and destruction.
For this reason, pasta and rice, both at night and at any time of the day, become secondary or residual foods in the diet, behind proteins and fats.
What about diabetics?
In this case, it is necessary to differentiate type 1 from type 2. In the case of the former, it is necessary to resort to a nightly carbohydrate ration to control the glucose curve.
However, in the case of the latter, it can be positive to remove carbohydrates from dinner and even perform certain fasts. In this way, body weight will be reduced and glucose control will be improved, which will result in a symptomatic improvement of the disease and a reduction in associated complications.
You can eat pasta and rice at night
You can eat pasta and rice at night as long as the object of this intake is related to sports practice. In the case of sedentary people or individuals who want to lose weight , it is best to reduce carbohydrate intake as much as possible.
The simplest thing in these cases is not to eat them at night since it is less likely to have an appetite while sleeping and, therefore, the caloric reduction will be more bearable. Keep that in mind!
