What Do You Think About Having a Small Bowl of Oatmeal at Night Instead of a Main Meal at Dinner Time and Then Eating More at Lunchtime? Healthy?

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What do you think about having a small bowl of oatmeal at night instead of a main meal at dinner time and eating more at lunchtime? Healthy.

This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition.

Expert, and fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Christy from Instagram asks, what do you think about having a small bowl of oatmeal at night instead of a main meal at dinner time? I'm eating more at lunchtime.

Is it healthy?

All right, I've got some tips for this one, so kind of short answer is yes, but there's more to it, so I'll be right back with the answer.

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Okay, so Christy, here's the thing. Number one, we want to make sure. So it's not just what you're eating, it's also when you're eating it. So we're gonna look at what, how much and when. And also, by the way, it's not just how much is how. Like if you're racing around standing up, shoveling food in your mouth, not good. Sit down, be mindful, slow down, put your fork down between bites. Something I have to remind myself all the time cause I'm a great speed eater, which is not the way you want to be. So now we're looking at couple things. Number one, it's not just what you eat, it's when you eat. So the first thing, the first thing to help you get yourself dialed in, to not eat snacks and limit it to two to three meals a day is to make sure that you're eating by the plate. And I have the plate in both the virgin diet and the sugar impact diet. And that is clean protein things like wild salmon, grass fed beef, pastured pork and chicken. And I'll explain a little on the vegan vegetarian side in a sec. And then healthy fats, nuts and seeds, avocado, coconut, and then loads of non starchy vegetables and a little bit of slow low carb. Although I don't really do those in the morning too much, I tend to do those more in the evening to help me sleep. And you're getting fiber from the slow low carbs and the non starchy veggies. And of course, if you're a vegan, you would be doing something kind of crossing between nuts and seeds and lentils. So you're going to be getting your protein either from your protein fat sources or your carb protein sources. So that's the first thing. And here's why. Protein and fiber slow down stomach emptying, keep ghrelin suppressed so you feel fuller longer, and also control blood sugar balance so that you don't have that big blood sugar rise and fall. So your blood sugar is stable. You don't have to pump out a bunch of insulin in response. So you're able to use stored fat for fuel and have steady energy. Then fat triggers release of a little chemical in the small intestines to tell your brain that you are satiated. So that's the first thing we want to look at because what you're eating is going to allow your body to have that great blood sugar and satiety. So you're not hungry now. Next thing you want to stop eating at least three hours before bed. Only time that's an exception. If you like, I, you know, have a younger, younger child who's maybe hypoglycemic or someone who's really having trouble keeping on weight and putting on muscle mass. That's probably not any of us. So we really want to stop eating three to four hours before bed. That does not mean go to bed later. No, no, no. So that's the next thing then. You really want to look at eating three meals a day, no snacks. So say you wake up around seven. I like to push breakfast out and get my exercise in in the morning. So breakfast will be more around 10. And then I like to eat dinner earlier around 6. That's my ideal. Doesn't always happen. Sometimes breakfast is at nine and dinner's at seven. But dinner at seven is sort of the latest I'll ever do dinner because I'm asleep at 10. And breakfast can be anywhere between, you know, now it's like 9 and 10. So ideally you would have breakfast and lunch as your more sustainable meals and a smaller dinner just like you talked about. But where you're having oatmeal is concerning because oatmeal on its own would just be a big carb hit. So what I would love to see instead is if you made oatmeal and then you threw in a little protein powder. And this is how I'll make my oatmeal is I'll take my oatmeal and I'll give you one other one I did on Dr. Oz that was amazing. But you can take oatmeal, use some coconut milk, use a little bit of chia seeds so you've got the healthy fat from coconut and chia seeds. You've got more fiber. Oatmeal, first of all, has got great fiber. Now you have more fiber and then throw in some protein powder. So I'll throw in either some of my vanilla bone broth protein powder and then I've got my protein, fat and fiber trifecta. And that'll be great for sleep too. So that's how I would do it. Now when I was on Dr. Oz doing I'm trying to remember what the segment was, but it was we did some kind of a detox where we did savory oatmeal and I did not come up with this idea. The producers did. And I thought that is a very weird idea, except that it was amazing. So we used bone broth, oatmeal and shiitake mushrooms spinach. It was like incredible. So. So you probably hadn't thought of that, but that's another great option that you could do as well. So there you go. I love the idea of having that smaller dinner at night. I find a little carbs at night really great for helping you sleep too. So there's that piece. And there you go.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert.

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