Drink your way to a good night's sleep The bedtime drink is something of a British institution - which accounts for the racks of different brands, all promising to promote a restful night's sleep, that line the supermarket shelves. But just how good are these drinks for you, and do they really help you sleep? Here, we talk to nutritionist Nathalie Savona to find out what bedtime beverage you should be drinking. Hot milk 200ml semi-skimmed milk: 98 cals, 4g fat. Milk is soothing because of the calcium content, which helps you relax. It is also rich in tryptophan, which the body converts into serotonin - a natural hormone in the body that can make you sleepy. Milk is also sugar-free and additive-free. Skimmed is the least fattening but still has a high calcium content. The more fat you consume before bedtime, the greater the burden put on the digestive system and liver, which ideally needs to be cleansing at night. Rating: 9/10 Cadbury's velvet hot chocolate Served with 200ml semiskimmed milk: 235 cals, 10.2g fat. This drink consists of a sachet of milk chocolate flakes that you add to hot milk. Milk chocolate, especially Cadbury's, is extremely high in sugar and fat. The sugar is a stimulant, raising blood sugar levels and making you more alert. Grating good-quality dark chocolate, which has a higher cocoa content and less sugar, into hot milk is healthier, less of a stimulant and just as tasty. Rating: 2/10 Options Belgian Chocolate Flavour Made with 200ml hot water: 40 cals, 1.3g fat. This is marketed as a lowfat instant drink which also comes in chocolate-orange and chocolate-mint flavours. The hydrogenated fat - the type present in most low-fat drinks and foods - has been processed so much that any goodness it might have had for the body has gone. Natural fat, such as sunflower oil, can be used by the body for helping hormones remain balanced and for producing natural antiinflammatory substances. But the extreme processing of hydrogenated fats disrupts the chemical structure of the fat, making it unusable by the body. Rating: 2/10 Horlicks Light Instant Made with 200ml of hot water: 121 cals, 1.3g fat. This is a processed instant malt drink which is low in fat but not calories. This is often the case with so-called diet drinks which are still high in sugar and therefore calories - although not as high for this drink as for some of the chocolate diet drinks. Then there are all the chemicals and additives involved in processing, as well as the fact that powdered milk has less nutritional value than real milk. Rating: 3/10 Cocoa Served with 200ml of semiskimmed milk: 100 cals, 4g fat. Cocoa is simply plain cocoa powder made from cocoa beans and can be used in drinks as well as cooking. This is about as pure as you get for a hot, milky chocolate drink. Cocoa is additive-free, and you can use semi or skimmed milk to keep the fat down and minimise the amount of sugar you add. Try to drink your cocoa weak, about two teaspoons per 200ml of milk, as it still contains fat. Some evidence suggests natural cocoa stimulates the production of phenethylamine, which is a mood-enhancing stimulant. Rating: 8/10 Ovaltine original Served with 200ml of semiskimmed milk: 167 cals, 3.8g fat. Ovaltine is a chocolate malt drink to which you add milk. It's a good source of calcium, vitamin D and iron, and doesn't contain as much sugar as most of the diet and instant hot drinks. It contains hardly any additives and is also more nutritional because you make it with milk. But it's quite high in calories. Rating: 5/10 Source
