7 common dinner habits that are shortening your life

As our physical activity comes down at night, it is always advised to have a light dinner to avoid indigestion and promote good sleep.

While eating a light dinner is one common dinner rule, there are many other rules that often get ignored.

Today in this article, we will examine how certain wrong dinner habits reduce our life span. Read on to find out.

1. You have a cocktail before dinner
Some light music and a glass of wine while you cook for yourself may feel like a perfect unwind for the day but having a cocktail right before dinner stimulates appetite, which is also called aperitif effect.

In a study, 24 men were given vodka with orange juice or orange juice alone before a meal. It was found that men who consumed alcohol, ate 11 per cent more food than men who only had orange juice. The increase in fatty food consumed by vodka drinkers was 24 per cent.

2. You do not drink water before eating
From headache, constipation to fatigue, being dehydrated can lead to many negative outcomes. Not just this, it can also lead to possible weight gain and poor digestion.

Having water before meals helps you consume lesser calories, which is the first step towards maintaining a healthy weight.

3. You microwave your food in plastic
If you often wrap your food in plastic or keep it in a plastic container before you microwave, you are consuming a lot of unhealthy chemicals.

Non-microwave safe containers may leach BPA and phthalates into the food, especially if the food is fatty. These chemicals are suspected to be endocrine disruptors, which mimic the hormones that disrupt healthy cells.

4. Your dinner does not include vegetables
What did you have last night for dinner? What are you planning to have tonight for dinner? If your plate does not have loads of fruits and vegetables, you are inviting cardiovascular problems in the future.

As per a study presented at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual conference in 2019, 1 in 12 people die from cardiovascular disease and stroke because they do not eat enough vegetables.

5. You do not include protein in your dinner
Studies have found that not having protein in dinner makes you hungrier sooner and you end up loading up on extra calories. Extra calories mean weight gain, which is associated with a long list of health problems.

6. You eat very fast
Gulping down your dinner too fast can make you fat and harm your heart, says research presented at an American Heart Association scientific conference in 2017.

Fast eaters are 11.6 per cent more likely to have metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster disorder including high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels and high triglycerides levels. Eating fast is also associated with weight gain. When you eat fast, you do not chew the food properly, which can also affect the number of nutrients you are getting from healthy food.

7. You stay seated after dinner
According to a study by the American Cancer Society, sitting for long periods of leisure time is linked with a high risk of death from 14 common causes of death. The study included 127,554 people who had no chronic disease for 21 years.

It was found that people who did not do any movement after dinner had a higher risk of dying from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease, Parkinson’s disease Alzheimer’s disease and nervous disorders.