Toast is one of the best sleep inducing foods you can eat right before bed😴🍞
I know, I know…
You’re probably scared of carbs making you gain weight, and it’s totally understandable.
But listen here,
“The USDA recommends that everyday we eat 6 to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice, pasta, and other foods containing grains, especially whole grains…
The American Dietetic Association recommends a minimum of three servings of whole grains per day and goes so far as to recommend whole-wheat toast with peanut butter as a quick and healthy breakfast option.”- source.
And never fear, no single food can make you gain weight.
Hearty, high fiber breads can make you feel full for longer, and give you balanced energy throughout the day…
This can prevent unnecessary cravings and overeating throughout the day and night (because you know you start to binge on snack foods after everyone goes to bed)…
The lesson here should be that, when you’re overly restrictive with certain foods, it can lead to having an unhealthy relationship with it (aka bread/toast).
Find tips here on having a healthier relationship with food.
Your focus should be on nourishing your body to get the best sleep and life as possible, while eating things in moderation.
Get all your questions about carbs, answered here, by clicking this link.
Check this article out, for more benefits on carbs, bread, and all that.
What’s so good about eating toast before bed?
Eating carbohydrate-rich foods will cause a spike in your blood sugar levels…
And this sets off the bodies natural production of insulin, to bring the levels back down.
If you have a slice of toast, an hour before your actual set bedtime, it will give you a short-lived adrenaline rush,
During that time you could send those last few emails, edit that post you want to publish, or spend some time stretching, before the insulin kicks in, and you are ready for bed.
After the insulin has done it’s job of bringing your blood sugar levels down…
Your brain begins to release tryptophan and serotonin,
This promotes relaxation and combats anxiety.
And carbs, aka toast, will make it easier for your brain to produce this tryptophan.
Toast allows tryptophan to enter your brain and that helps to make melatonin (this causes you to fall asleep much quicker).
If you pair carbs with protein, you can trigger appetite-suppressing hormones and keep yourself full throughout the night.
So make yourself a turkey sandwich or use chickpeas (if you’re vegan) on toast, to sleep good and stay full throughout the night.
Ways to spice up your toast
Get creative with your toppings…
You could use butter, honey, cinnamon and sugar, or your favorite raspberry jam.
In this photo, the person behind the camera was using butter, peanut butter, and homemade fig and almond jam (find the recipe for that here).
Cream Cheese combination ideas:
You could try pineapple-flavored cream cheese with banana slices.
Or mix cream cheese with jelly.
Here are a bunch of ideas from a website sourced here.
“Site user Joanne likes this: toast topped with hummus, slices of tomato, a bit of sliced and a sprinkle of salt and pepper
Breakfast buddy Jon recommends topping toast with butter and thinly sliced avocado
Braden M. likes to drizzle the yolk from an over-easy egg on his (sometimes buttered) toast
A diverse fellow, Braden M. also wrote in to say “another great combo for toast is vinegar and olive oil” on toast
Breakfast lover “bacondebaker” says “Treehouse Berry Farm in Kansas makes really great cranberry-jalapeno jam – you take a morning wake up call on warm toast. It’s killer.”
Shanti A. of Wellington, New Zealand and her husband Don sent us a recipe for sauted mushroom on toast:
“Saute your mushroom with butter and seasoning with ground blackpepper until done on your own preferrence.
Toast your bread on your liking then spread them with butter and top it with sauted mushroom and fresh finely cut chives herbs. Yum.
You can make them more yummy if you could replace the butter with either marmite/vegemite.” Thanks Shanti!
International Breakfast Lover Chantal, emailed us to say:
“I’m from Australia… I know it sounds crazy but I love my toast with cream cheese, peanut butter and honey. Mmm delicious!”
Technical Consultant Mark D. wrote us and said he likes this one, but with cream cheese and honey only.
Ben W. of the U.K. has a suggestion:
“It’s always nice to grind a bit of Montreal steak seasoning up with a mortar and pestle or in a pepper grinder or something and then sprinkle it over hot buttered toast.
Dill is good in general, but it works REALLY well here.””
Put hummus on your toast
Click this image above to view several hummus toast recipes🔝
The recipes consist of spreading hummus across your toast, and then adding any type of seasoning or topping that your craving.
Feel like eating bananas?
Chop one up and place the slices on your hummus toast, with some cinnamon.
Or fry an egg, and put that on your hummus toast.
The recipes range from Mediterranean hummus toast, to Mexican street food hummus toast.
There are plenty of ways you can get creative with toasted bread, try one of these or try them all.
In this video, you can learn how to make sweet egg bread.
You will need:
1 egg, some slices of bread, sugar, cardimom, and butter.
You basically mix the egg yolk with the sugar, cardimom, and butter, then you pour it into a pan and place your bread in it.
The egg will cook around and through the bread, making a delicious snack for bedtime.
Avoid putting anything spicy or red meaty on your toast, because these foods can keep you up at night.
Keep it chill, and top your toast off with light dairy, veggies, or fruit-like toppings.
Don’t pressure yourself and obsess about falling asleep fast either…
You will get to bed eventually even if it’s only 4 hours of sleep, you will make it through the day.
The more you relax and accept that you might not get all the sleep you want to get…
You will fall asleep easier because you are not adding more unnecessary stresses on yourself.
