Late-Night Eating for Diabetics, Safe Enough?

Sometimes it cannot be avoided for diabetics to find themselves in the middle of the night and still awake. Then they feel hungry and eat. However, questions sprout if late-night eating is good for their diabetic system or not.

People with diabetes are keen on their lifestyle, on the food they eat and on their eating habits. Late-night eating for diabetics is still an issue to discuss. To keep their blood glucose at a safety level and make things normal, people with diabetes have to live a healthy life and everything shall go smoothly.

Late-night food or snacks are not prohibited for diabetics. What is there to be more cautious about is these late-night eating should not lead to gaining weight. Weight gaining that lead to obesity is a no-no for diabetics.

Night-eating syndrome

Human beings centuries ago had no way to preserve food. So, they have to consume the food during daytime and had nothing to eat at nighttime. Our age solves the food preservation issue, making it possible to eat anytime, even do late-night eating. However, this increases the risk of over-eating for those who cannot discipline themselves, and for those who are diabetics.

Eating late at nights is healthy as long as it seldom done. However, some people take their daytime food normally, and eat at late-nights. This can lead to added sugar, calories and body weight.

People eat while watching television, or when they are craving for food or simply bored. This becomes a bad habit or they end up having night-eating-syndrome. Night-eating syndrome also happens to those who have depression, obesity and low self-esteem. This must be consulted to your doctor.

Wise food choices after dinner

Late-night eating for diabetics can add extra calories to the body and body weight as well. You may have high blood glucose in the next morning.

If you feel hungry after dinner, you might want to choose foods that have less carbohydrates and calories. These can be a small serving of sugar-free gelatin, one vanilla wafer, 2 saltine crackers, 5 baby carrots, a hard candy or a piece of gum. These can satisfy your hunger but do not give much sugar and calories.

It is far better to talk to your doctor about late-night eating and what food to choose. Your doctor can give you advice to balance food intake with your medications and insulin.