NUTRITION
TELL MEWHAT YOU EAT AND I’LLTELL YOU HOWYOU SLEEP
Our lifestyles have caused us to eat the wrong way: we eat too much, too fast, too raw, out of season and at the wrong time. All these factors can affect the quality of our nights. Specialist advice to restore harmony and balance to our food and sleep.
Text - Sylvie Ulmann, Photo - copyright free
Whether t h e y a r e nutritionists, specialists in Chinese medicine or Ayurveda, they are unanimous on three points. To maximise your chances of getting a good night's sleep, you should eat at set times to give your body a sleep-wake rhythm, avoid overeating in the evening, which is just common sense, and eat the right foods at the right time. Aline Corcelle, a nutritionist at the Efficium centre in Geneva, explains this last point in more
secretion, we should give preference to “vegetable proteins in the evening, with semi-wholegrain or wholegrain cereals, or lean meat such as poultry or white fish. Animal proteins should be consumed in the morning and at lunchtime,” recommends Aline Corcelle. An English breakfast, with its eggs, is very good. Meat - especially red meat, including duck breast - and fatty fish feature on the lunch menu. Banish that little salad that you quickly swallow perched
NUTRITIONISTS’ TIPS FOR GOOD SLEEP
1) Linden blossom or camomile tea for sleep, lavender for stress. You can even add a little honey, unless you've already had a square of chocolate for dessert - beware of too much sugar! 2) Omega 3 Activating the secretion of neurotransmitters is good, promoting their transit in the brain is even better. However, 60% of the mass of this organ is made up of fatty acids, 70% of which are the famous Omega 3s. For example, an oily fish for lunch is fine - take a tin of sardines and some leftover vegetables with you to the office. In addition to oily fish (salmon, herring, mackerel, tuna, sardines, sea bream, arctic char, pink trout, etc.), rapeseed, camelina and walnut oils, chia and flax seeds and eggs from grass-fed hens are excellent sources of omega 3. cinnamon cocoa or the famous “golden milk”, milk blended with turmeric and honey that is all the rage on social networks. Finally, in times of stress, a supply of magnesium can make a difference, not forgetting iron, an essential cofactor in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and often in short supply in women of childbearing age.
on the corner of your desk. Secondly, the
detai l : “Sleep is l i n ke d t o t w o
time of day we eat also plays a role in the quality of our sleep. Eating less than two hours before going to bed can compromise our ability to fall asleep and can cause us to wake up
neurotransmitters that depend on our diet. The first is dopamine, which affects the quality of sleep; it is secreted from protein intake at the beginning of the day and
its precursor is tyrosine.” Withdrawal symptoms include restless nights, waking up early or at night, feeling like you haven't slept enough. On the other hand, another neurotransmitter promotes sleep: serotonin, which is secreted mainly at the end of the day and whose dietary precursor is another amino acid, tryptophan. “Serotonin is itself the precursor of melatonin, the true sleep hormone, whose secretion starts with the drop in luminosity,” explains the specialist. Carnivorous at lunch, vegetarian in the evening Both of these neurotransmitters depend on our diet. To balance their
during the night. This time it’s the liver which is to blame: “Eating too much fat or too heavily makes this organ, which is responsible for absorbing fat, work very hard. There is also a risk of acid A small amount of sugar is also welcome in the second half of the day, at about 4pm. for example, in the form of fruit or perhaps indulge in a square of chocolate after supper: raising blood sugar levels helps people fall asleep. Our mothers and grandmothers knew this, encouraging us to drink a glass of warm milk before going to bed. A more contemporary and trendy version is reflux,” warns Aline Corcelle. Sugar to sweeten our nights
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