When the nights are too short (less than 6 hours), hormonal secretions are disturbed: the ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry, starts to increase while the leptin, satiety hormone, decreases. Result: the appetite is exacerbated with, to make matters worse, a predilection for fatty and sweet food. Another consequence of the lack of sleep, the body, tired, has less desire to move, all in a longer space-time where the opportunities to nibble are likely to multiply.
Make way for the right nutrients
Certain nutrients help to fall faster than others in the arms of Morpheus. This is the case of carbohydrates which facilitate the production of serotonin, “the essential neurotransmitter in the fight against depression”, according to Dr. Florian Ferreri, psychiatrist, and Franck Grison, dietitian, co-authors of “The anti-depression diet” (ed. Odile Jacob) , and which is essential for the secretion of melatonin that makes us fall asleep.
Eating sugary foods (carbohydrates) is not enough to produce this valuable serotonin. To synthesize it, the organism necessarily needs tryptophan, the precursor amino acid, but he doesn’t know how to make it. It is therefore necessary to find it in its diet. The latter is present in almost all animal proteins (eggs, milk, meat, fish, hard cheeses …) but also in pulses, rice, corn or even cashews and almonds.
Pasta on the menu
The ideal meal for a good night’s recovery: 100 to 200 g of cooked spaghetti, sources of complex carbohydrates, accompanied by a vegetarian bolognese sauce with vegetables and lentils, rich in tryptophan. In all cases, we avoid fatty foods, difficult to digest in the evening, and which cause sleep fragmentation.
The recipe for the bolo-vegetarian sauce
This sauce recipe is perfect to accompany a pasta dish, as it is particularly rich in tryptophan. Chop 1 large onion and 1 leek, peel and grate 1 carrot. Sweat everything in a cast iron casserole dish with a little oil for 7 to 8 minutes, then add 1 small can of drained lentils, 1 glass of white wine, Provence herbs and 1 large can of peeled tomatoes cut into pieces . Simmer until the sauce takes on the consistency of meat bolognese (recipe for 4 people by Franck Grison, dietitian).
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