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How long can I eat chocolate before bed?

three hours Here's a tip that will help: don't eat chocolate at least three hours before bedtime. This will ensure that there's enough time to digest your food before you sleep. We already know eating a large meal before bedtime can heavily impact your sleep.

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Most of us love chocolates, don’t we? A good bar of chocolate can solve all the problems in the world, or that’s what we’d like to believe. The urge to have it rises especially at night and most of us are guilty of indulging in it before bedtime. Sounds harmless, doesn’t it? Well, the sad news is it’s exactly the opposite because chocolate before bed can really mess with your sleep. Experts suggest that eating chocolate after 5 pm is a bad idea. We know you’re crying out loud, just like we did when we heard this piece of news. Oh, and dark chocolate is banned too. Yes, this variety of chocolate has a whole lot of health benefits, but reserve it for a small treat post-lunch. You must be wondering why so much drama around chocolate before bedtime? Well, that’s because chocolate contains caffeine, which makes it hard to fall asleep. And when you do not get deep sleep, you don’t feel rested. According to research, your body tries to process caffeine, sugar and fat, all the same time, when it’s time to ideally slow down. Although chocolate has a compound called theobromine that helps to lower your risk of heart disease and insulin resistance, caffeine is the culprit.

What is the best thing to do?

Remember every person’s body is different. For some, having caffeine at night has no impact, while for others, even a small amount can interfere with their shut-eye. So, if you have trouble falling asleep, we suggest you steer clear of it for sure. Here’s a tip that will help: don’t eat chocolate at least three hours before bedtime. This will ensure that there’s enough time to digest your food before you sleep. We already know eating a large meal before bedtime can heavily impact your sleep. Now, we aren’t saying you need to go hungry to bed. So, if those hunger pangs strike, just have a small piece of banana or some peanut butter.

Here are some other foods that will help promote sleep

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Does dark chocolate lift your mood?

Dark chocolate has long been recognized by psychologists for its mood-altering properties, which include increasing feelings of pleasure and enjoyment [11].

Dark chocolate has long been recognized for its mood-altering properties; however, the evidence regarding the emotional effects of daily dark chocolate intake is limited. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of dark chocolate intake on mood in everyday life, with special emphasis on the gut-brain axis. Two different dark chocolates (85% and 70% cocoa content) were tested in this study. In a randomized controlled trial, healthy adults (20–30 y) consumed either 30 g/d of 85% cocoa chocolate (DC85, n=18); 70% cocoa chocolate (DC70, n=16); or no chocolate (control group, CON; n=14); for 3 weeks. Mood states were measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Daily consumption of dark chocolate significantly reduced negative affect in DC85, but not in DC70. To assess the association between the mood-altering effects of dark chocolate and the gut microbiota, we performed fecal 16S rRNA sequencing analysis for the DC85 and CON groups. Gut microbial diversity was significantly higher in DC85 than CON (P<.05). Blautia obeum levels were significantly elevated and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii levels were reduced in DC85 compared to CON (P<.05). Furthermore, we found that the observed changes in negative affect scores were negatively correlated with diversity and relative abundance of Blautia obeum (P<.05). These findings indicate that dark chocolate exerts prebiotic effects, as evidenced by its ability to restructure the diversity and abundance of intestinal bacteria; thus, it may improve negative emotional states via the gut-brain axis.

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