Why eat a sugary meal right before going to bed?

  1. Food high in sugar is nutritionally good for short burst energy, and if not used up, that energy is stored as fat. Since people generally go to sleep after meals are they not wasting this potential short-release energy yield?

  2. Let’s consider instead that we eat dessert specifically to put on fat. Well, this may have been desirable as an outcome historically, but for a long time - maybe 200 years or so - humans have NOT wanted to build fat. Also - it doesn’t work. We burn fat during sleep, so those ‘dessert gains’ disappear.

  3. Now let us visit the simplest answer of “it tastes good” - well in that case, why do we eat dessert when we do? We could eat sugary snack at any point of the day - a dessert-lunch might make a lot of sense! So let me repeat myself:

Why eat a sugary meal right before going to bed?

  • RegularJoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    4 hours ago

    It starts with libations and food offerings.

    Sweets were fed to the gods in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient India[7] and other ancient civilizations.[8] Herodotus mentions that Persian meals featured many desserts, and were more varied in their sweet offerings than the main dishes

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert#History

    The Romans continued the practice.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_cuisine#Desserts

    back to the main dessert article:

    Europeans began to manufacture sugar in the Middle Ages, and more sweet desserts became available.[14] Even then sugar was so expensive usually only the wealthy could indulge on special occasions. The first apple pie recipe was published in 1381;[15] The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie’s Receipts cookbook.[16]

    And then there’s this guy:

    Evidence for the domestication of the cacao tree exists as early as 5300 BP in South America, in present-day southeast Ecuador by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, before it was introduced to Mesoamerica.[8] It is unknown when chocolate was first consumed as opposed to other cacao-based drinks, and there is evidence the Olmecs, the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization, fermented the sweet pulp surrounding the cacao beans into an alcoholic beverage.[9][10]

    Chocolate was extremely important to several Mesoamerican societies,[11] and cacao was considered a gift from the gods by the Mayans and the Aztecs.[12][13]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate#History

    Spongebob selling chocolates

    Now as to “why before bed”? It’s become a practice. But here’s the thing: nobody is making you eat a sweet nor at a particular time of day.

    In the 80s it was rare to see people drinking water, except for “health food nuts”. It was far more common to see soft drinks/sodas. Over the years, society has become more accepting of drinking water. You didn’t have “hydrohomies” in the 80s. Be the change you want to see in the world.