JOHN is a daily-paid mason who joins his colleagues at one of the artisan centres in Benin waiting for employers to show up to recruit them for jobs. Sometimes, he is successful in landing a job in a day, while at other times, he draws blank.
However, each day the has a nauseating character trait about him. Although, he leaves home at 8am each day, he never return until about 9pm soaked in either palm wine or ogogoro drink. In addition, he brings home a polythene bad. As soon as he arrives home with it there is jubilation.
Eyes pop out while mouths water. This is because of the goodies in the bag. There is suya, fried yam and akara balls it. He unloads them on the table. Everybody begins the Late Night Meal- John is wife and his four children. Time? It is 9.15pm.
After the meal, every member of the family goes to bed. But unknown to them, their lives are at risk because of late-night habitual eating. Hear Prof. Oladapo Ashiry an anatomist and a reproductive endocrinogist “Any food eaten after 8pm is poison as the intestine shuts down after 8pm. You should try to ent before 8pm to avoid the accumulation of undigested foods that are harmful to the organs.
The eludite Professor, gave this expert view in December 2012 when he delivered a lecture titled DEFYING AGE at the fourth Allure Vanguard Women On Wellness seminar at crown Totel, Ikoyi – Lagos. All he is saying is simply that there is a strong relationship between bad eating habits and ill-health, to start with secondly, food is poison, not nutrition, when eaten after 8pm he emphasized.
For other experts Prof. Oladapo Ashiru is liberal. This is because for them 6pm is the time for the last meal of the day. If it turns out that you have hunger pangs, thereafter, before going to bad then all you need to do is to eat only fruits and/or vegetables, they advise. Also, if you are woken up at night by hunger, they counsel that you adhere to the diet of fruits and vegetables. No solid food. It is poison eaten at such times of the night.
Having said this, let’s look at some of the health risks of eating late at night. Firstly, you are pre-disposed to acid reflux disease most especially if the food eaten in meaty, fried, roasted or processed. The consequence of this condition is heartburn. Anyone who lies down after a meal without allowing sufficient time for digestion to take place stands a high chance of suffering from heartburn disease. Infact, even people with a malfunctioning value linking the oesophagus to the stomach stand the risk of heartburn disease and HCL acid reflux from the stomach.
Secondly, eating late at night deprives you of a good sex life. The reason for this is simple. Blood is rooted in large volumes to the stomach containing a late food waiting to be digested, and absorbed. This is in line with the Law of Blood Distribution that ensures more blood is sent to areas of the body where there is work to be done.
Invariably, following blood rush to the stomach, less blood is available for “gingering up” the pelvic region where the reproductive organs are located. This translates to poor stimulation; erection and resolution for men. Only adequate blood supplies to the reproductive organs ensures delivery of oxygen and evacuation of metabolic wastes from them. Well – nourished reproductive organs that are free from toxic wastes function effectively.
Thirdly, you usually don’t have a good sleep after a late night meal of cooked, solid food. Sleep is a period of long rest and relaxation, not a time for the arduous task of food digestion.
Therefore, when you eat late at night the stomach is given a hard work to do. So, the body struggles between sleep and wakefulness to get the digestive work done. At the end of the day, you cannot achieve the standard deep REM sleep of full rest and peaceful relaxation the body needs. You wake up tired.
Recall, too, that William Shakespear, the great play wright, said that sleep is nature’s balm for a tired, broken body. Good talk. God placed in man a healing force known in natural medicine circles as VIS MEDICA-TRIX NATURE. It works best at night when someone has a sound sleep uninterrupted by late night food that is undergoing digestion or is left undigested as toxic wastes in the traumatized stomach.
Fourthly, because sleep time is a period of low, reduced metabolism there is not much energy available for the proper digestion of late night food. The result is indifestion in most cases which becomes a source of poisoning for the whole body arising from the toxic fermentation of undigested food in the stomach. One symptom of such food poisoning in the stomach is skin eruption.
Impliedly, if you have such a skin health problem which refuses to go after medical treatment, do two things. Modify your habit of eating cooked, processed foods late at night. Also, carry out a detoxification of your body to clean out all the toxins in your body before you treat the skin problem.
Constipation is a twin illness of indigestion. Once you suffer from indigestion, you are predisposed to constipation. Indigestion and constipation can both trigger off degenerative diseases that kill a person. That is why one should be wary of late – night habitation eating that causes indigestion/constipation.
A final word from Prof. Oladapo Ashiru. He states: “The intestine is the root system of the human body that is responsible for the most common cause of systematic damage.” A word is enough for the wise.
