The Best Things to Eat If You’re Hungry Before Bed According To Nutritionists

Everyone loves a good late-night snack...even though you know you probably shouldn't be indulging in food right before bed.

I know that I am not the only person who has a problem seemingly every night where you begin to feel hungry right before bedtime. Even worse than that is when you wake up in the middle of the night because you're hungry. At that point, you have a very important decision to make. Do you get up from your warm, cozy bed and walk into the kitchen to get a bite to eat, or do you just tough it out and try to get some rest? Nine times out of ten, I am guilty of getting up and making something to eat really fast. However, we all know that snacking before bed isn't really the best idea because it has been said to lead to weight gain and affect your sleep.

If skipping that bedtime snack isn't in the cards for you, what are some foods that you should be eating? Huff Post recently asked a bunch of nutritionists what they recommend us eating before bed, and here are the foods that they suggest:

Walnuts

Walnuts are filling and full of great nutrients. On top of that, they could help you get a better night's sleep because they are packed with melatonin.

Chocolate Covered Nuts

I know, I had you at "chocolate", right? Well, the nutritionists say that it's best if these are dark chocolate-covered nuts. Just don't eat too many of them because dark chocolate contains caffeine. Don't want to be up all night!

A Banana

Eating a banana before bed might actually help you sleep. As you know, bananas are full of potassium, which is a natural muscle relaxant, and there's also a little tryptophan in there to help you relax at night.

Greek Yogurt with Berries and Almonds

The concept behind this is pretty simple: yogurt contains protein, the berries have carbs, and there's fat in the almonds. Those three combined will help you sleep by keeping your blood sugar balanced.

Peanut Butter on a Rice Cake

Much like the greek yogurt combo, this is perfect for a good night of sleep and to keep your blood sugar balanced because peanut butter has protein and fat and rice cakes have carbs. In order for this to work, you can't use just any jar of peanut butter, it needs to be "natural" peanut butter, and not loaded with extra sugar.

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Now if you are like me, you might be slightly disappointed with this list because it didn't mention a bag of chips, Ramen noodles, or cookies. So, you can either take the advice of these nutritionists and eat the aforementioned foods above or just continue to eat the junk food and cross your fingers that you don't pack on a few pounds. The choice is yours!

(H/T- Huff Post)