Choose the right snack for late night

Have you ever been hungry late night and you're on diet? Of course, you're not alone.

Your stomach is crying to something at midnight. Iit turns out that snacking isn't bad for you and is actually serving a biological need. "By snacking you are fueling your body and maintaining your energy level, blood sugar level, and appetite level," says Dana Ellis, a dietician at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

But when you're hungry late night, you should avoid unhealthy snack such as candy, potato chips, cookies. They can cause your blood sugar levels to quickly peak and just as quickly, drop. That in turn, makes the craving worse and makes you lethargic, moody and probably intolerable, says Dr. Arthur Agatston, author of The South Beach Diet, who says it is crucial to avoid foods that cause big swings in blood sugar.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman, a family physician in Flemington, N.J., and author of the nutrition book "Eat to Live," also says that eating food that is low in nutrients, such as candy bars, causes a person to eat more because the body still needs to meet its nutritional needs.

Here are the healthy choices for the snack in the next time: Instead of sugary treats, dieticians recommend

• fruits and vegetables such as melon, apple, peach or orange, banana, along with food that contains good fats like omega-3, lean protein and fiber.
• nuts (for example rasin, sunflower) for lean protein and healthy fat, while hummus provides fiber and is tasty.
• Or you can try the plain yogurt which is so easy to digest and soothing at the same time

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ and answer.yahoo.com