How long after drinking water. Can I drink after eating

  • Date: 16.08.2019

If after each meal you feel heaviness in the stomach, suffer from constipation, suffer from flatulence and complain of overweight, then it's time to think about proper nutrition and revise your diet. Thinking not about new diets and miracle pills, but about healthy and proper nutrition. It is believed that healthy eating  it is difficult. Not at all. Are listed below simple tips  nutrition, compliance with which will help you eat right and normalize your digestion.

Tip 1. Do not confuse appetite and hunger. Eat only when you are hungry.

Appetite is your habit. It can be determined by various circumstances - the onset of a certain time of the day ("lunch at 13:00"), the smell or type of food ("what cake ..."), etc.

Appetite can often be accompanied by a feeling of emptiness in the stomach, depression, general condition  weaknesses. But the underlying reason here is psychological. And if you feel weak, this does not mean that your body is on the verge of exhaustion.
Thus, hunger is a real need for food, based on the physiology of the human body. Appetite is only a desire for food, which is a consequence of the interaction of various external factors.

Illustrative example: for lunch, you ate soup, a second, and fruit. There was a delicious sweet roll, and eating it is driven by your appetite, rather than a feeling of hunger.

And remember - the best time  for digestion from 11 to 14 and from 16 to 20.

In the morning, before the first meal no later than half an hour, you need to drink at least a glass of warm water. You can add fresh lemon juice to the water. Also, during the day, try to drink a minimum of a liter of water, and preferably more (not tea and coffee, but water), this will help digestion, cleanse the body and reduce hunger.

Studies have shown that the liquid, being in the stomach for an average of 10 minutes, and going further down the digestive tract, takes with it the gastric juices needed for digestion. The result is a digestive disorder. Therefore, doctors recommend not drinking water / tea / coffee after eating!

Output: it is better to drink water 15 minutes before meals, 30 minutes after taking fruits and vegetables, 120 minutes after taking starches, and 240 minutes after taking meat.

Here it should be noted that both cold and hot drinks inhibit and impede digestion. Therefore, it is better to drink water a little warm (30 - 40 degrees).

Have you ever had a high (38-39 degrees) temperature? Remember if you wanted to eat at this time? Least then you thought about food. Therefore, if you feel unwell, if something hurts you, do not feed yourself with food. The body is not in vain refusing it at these moments - it mobilizes all its forces to fight the disease. And eating will deprive him of the opportunity to do so. In this regard, dogs and cats are much smarter than people - when they feel bad, they just lie and wait for their body to cope with the disease.

Tip 5. Do not eat before and during hard mental or physical work.

Any athlete knows that you can eat only 2 hours (or better - more) before training. The reason is simple - if he eats an hour before or on time, then the body will spend tremendous amounts of energy on digestion. This will affect your return during training - it will be significantly lower. And in addition, all the same, the digestive processes will be disrupted - indigestion, malaise - all this will be waiting for you. A similar situation is with mental work. Do you know that the activity of the brain consumes more energy than the activity of the body itself? And this proportion is about 70/30. Those. 70% consumes the brain, 30% - the body. Therefore, for mental work, advice is even more relevant.

If you have a hard day, or if you don’t have the opportunity to have a bite to eat at home, bring fruit or walnuts. When you feel hungry, instead of eating a chocolate bar bought at a nearby store, fruits will be a great alternative to eating. A banana or pear is best, as they quickly satisfy your hunger and make you feel full.

How much can you eat at one time? Yogis say - as much as fits in two palms, composed together. You can go for a trick and replace the usual plates in the house with small ones - there are a lot of optical food, but actually just enough to not overeat.

A saying from childhood is relevant to everyone. While eating, you can’t talk and be distracted, not only in conversation, but also on TV, a book, magazines, etc. Talking sprays energy and impairs air circulation.

The teeth were not given to us for decoration, but for thoroughly chewing food, so we need to chew food thoroughly, and not swallow it quickly. Food should be taken calmly. If you are in a hurry, it will be better for you if you skip a meal than you eat it. Many people have the habit of eating fast, chewing food badly and swallowing it in pieces. This leads to digestion, overeating and fat deposition. Have you noticed that people who chew their food thoroughly are more fit and slim?

If you go to bed immediately after a meal, this will lead to a weakening of all processes in the body. Sleep does not promote the absorption of food. You can sleep after eating an hour or an hour and a half.

And now, for comparison, the tips that are familiar to tears from our good mothers, grandmothers, and neighbors:

1. "Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, and give dinner to the enemy."

Studies of the 20th century have shown that breakfast should not be “hearty”. The most “solid” meal should be lunch. The optimal ratio of calorie meals: breakfast - 30-35%, lunch - 40-45% and dinner - 25% of the daily diet.

2. Soups should be consumed daily. Otherwise, you will face a stomach ulcer.

Very controversial statement. Statistics have not yet proven the corresponding relationship. In other words, the usefulness of daily soup intake for ulcer prophylaxis is highly questionable.

3. Vegetables and fruits can be eaten as much as desired.

Indeed, fruits and vegetables are healthy. But not in any quantities. At first, excessive consumption  unpleasant things such as bloating, heartburn, diarrhea can cause them. And all this is a consequence of a violation of the digestive process.
Further, if you already eat raw vegetables and fruits, then it is better to do this before the main meal (on an empty stomach), and not after it. Otherwise, fermentation processes will begin in the stomach. And this is a violation of the digestive process, bloating, etc.

4. Exclude “fats” from the diet

The situation is very similar to paragraph 3. Fats are really harmful in large quantities. But in small ones, they are necessary. At least recall the polyunsaturated fatty acids needed by humans, which contain “fats”.

5. Do not eat sweets before meals - you will lose your appetite.

But lack of appetite is good. At least for those who are struggling with overweight. And now there are much more such people than those who suffer from dystrophy.

6. Tea, coffee, juice - after eating.

This is the most common bad habit. The fact is that this liquid, getting into the stomach along with food, complicates digestion, reducing the concentration of gastric juice, but also increases the speed of food movement along the "digestion tract", which leads to a deterioration in the digestibility of the latter.

Can I drink after eating? People began to ask such a question (trying to lead healthy way  life) after the media began to appear in the media that the water drunk during meals, in every way harms the process of its digestion. This question began to be surrounded by related questions: if you can’t drink at the time of eating, then when is it better to do this: before eating or some time later?

This article is dedicated to finding the answer to this question. The assumption of the harmfulness of the use of any drinks (which is not medical ethanol) during meals is based on the following statements:


  •   Liquid intake during meals leads to a decrease in the concentration of gastric juice.

  •   Water helps to thin the food, which delays the process of digestion.

  •   Food moistened with water in the oral cavity is not chewed properly.

Are such statements true? None of them reflects the true picture of the process that occurs at the time of digestion.

a) the fluid dilutes the gastric secretion;
b) the dish is poorly digested;
c) the load on the liver, pancreas, and also on others increases internal organsinvolved in digestion;
d) occurs high load  on the secretory apparatus of the stomach;
d) gas formation increases;
e) acidity decreases.

So, can I drink after eating? It is possible, but not immediately, but in two hours.

When to drink correctly

Tea is a source of vitamins C (especially rich in it). green tea), P, B1, B2, PP, as well as calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, zinc, iron, iodine, copper. The tannins contained in tea normalize cholesterol metabolism, strengthen blood vessels, stimulate the immune system and even contribute to the removal of radioactive substances from the body.

Tea has an invigorating effect due to the caffeine contained in it. There is even more of this substance in a tea leaf than in coffee beans. In brewed tea, caffeine is less only due to the fact that to prepare a cup of tea you need less raw materials than for a cup of coffee. Caffeine stimulates central activity nervous system, improves memory, promotes creative work.

Drink right

Tea is a noble drink, and you shouldn’t drink it anyhow. If used improperly, it can be harmful. Firstly, you should not drink tea on an empty stomach. This was known in ancient China. It is believed that tea “on an empty heart” can cool the spleen and stomach. It is not recommended to drink very hot tea. Scientists have found that drinks with temperatures above 62 degrees injure the throat, esophagus and stomach walls. Tea temperature should not exceed 56 degrees.

Can I drink tea after eating?

Tea drinking at the end of the meal is a tradition. It is difficult to refuse a small continuation of the dinner, for which you can chat with loved ones, eat sweets. And yet, do not forget that tea is still a liquid that dilutes the gastric juice and at the same time greatly interferes with the proper digestion process. If you still can’t do without tea, try to postpone it for some time from the main lunch, so as not to interfere with the active phase of digestion of food.

The ban on drinking water immediately after a meal arose a long time ago when people drank raw water without heating it. Now we eat very differently, and after meals we drink mostly hot and warm drinks. Therefore, such a problem does not arise in us.

This is, firstly, a direct path to obesity, as it is impossible to get enough of such food and the feeling of hunger comes very quickly. Secondly, putrefactive processes in the intestine begin because normal digestion, as such, did not exist.

By the way, this is the path on which " Mcdonalds"And made a lot of money for himself.

Drinking food (sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs) with ice drinks, a person will never be able to eat fast food, which means that he will come to eat again and again. At the same time, for hot drinks - tea, coffee or a fairly high price is set, or they are not included in complex sets, or they simply are not advertised. But the ice-cold Coca-Cola is either relatively cheap or aggressively imposed by bright posters and colors.

Older children need to explain that after chewing in the mouth, all the pieces of food should be crushed so finely that they make gruel.

How to drink water?

The ninth ban - do not drink medicine with tea. Splitting tannins in tea form tannin, from which many drugs precipitate and are poorly absorbed. Therefore, the Chinese say that tea destroys medicine.

Indeed, fruits and vegetables are healthy. But not in any quantities. Firstly, excessive consumption of them can cause such unpleasant things as bloating, heartburn, diarrhea. And all this is a consequence of a violation of the digestive process.
Further, if you already eat raw vegetables and fruits, then it is better to do this before the main meal (on an empty stomach), and not after it. Otherwise, fermentation processes will begin in the stomach. And this is a violation of the digestive process, bloating, etc.

4. Exclude “fats” from the diet

The situation is very similar to paragraph 3. Fats are really harmful in large quantities. But in small ones, they are necessary. At least recall the polyunsaturated fatty acids needed by humans, which contain “fats”.

5. Do not eat sweets before meals - you will lose your appetite.

But lack of appetite is good. At least for those who are struggling with overweight. And now there are much more such people than those who suffer from dystrophy.

The question of the benefits of drinking water after eating is today very relevant. But the recommendations regarding when, after what time after a meal you can drink water, are different. There are even tips that you can do this right away. But this is not so, according to experts. Most studies have shown that drinking water immediately after eating does not have a very beneficial effect on the digestive system.

The negative effects of drinking after eating

Between the ingestion of food in the stomach and the beginning of the process of digestion, there is a time gap of 30 minutes on average. The final breakdown of food and the absorption of useful nutrients occurs in special areas small intestine  much thanks to the action of gastric juice.

Drinking with or after meals reduces the concentration of gastric juice. As a result, the duration of the digestion process significantly increases and, accordingly, the load on all organs that take part in this process increases one and a half to two times (stomach, duodenum  and etc.). Since the digestive process slows down, a person feels heaviness, the process of gas formation begins.

Moreover, the liquid increases the rate of passage of food through the digestive tract, bypassing the areas in which the absorption of nutrients occurs. In the presence of undigested food in the intestine, putrefactive processes begin in it, as a result of which highly toxic compounds are formed. They are absorbed into the bloodstream and, due to intoxication, serious disorders occur in all internal organs.

Drinking water regularly after eating for a long time can lead to multiple disorders. gastrointestinal tract  (gastritis, indigestion, low acidity, etc.).

How long after eating can I drink water? The interval depends on the food consumed and the duration of its digestion. After taking:

  • vegetables - approximately 60 minutes
  • fruit - 30 minutes
  • milk - 2.5-3 hours
  • protein food - 4 hours
  • carbohydrate - about 2 hours


Water after eating and losing weight

Scientists have experimentally proved that purified water can not only maintain health, but also get rid of extra pounds. This is because fluid is necessary for the breakdown of fats in the body. In addition, it helps to eliminate toxins and toxins. Based on this, nutritionists pay special attention to the consumption of the required amount of fluid when recommending all diets without exception.

Water is also a natural appetite suppressant. A lack of water in the body can cause an increased craving for food, since the brain does not perceive the differences between hunger and thirst. Therefore, when a person thinks that he is hungry, in fact, the body can signal that he is thirsty.

Nutritionists recommend consuming at least 6-8 large glasses of water per day. You need to drink it after 2-2.5 hours after eating to complete the digestion process. Drinking fluids immediately after eating leads to the deposition of fats and prevents weight loss. The main goal when losing weight is to drink water constantly and gradually. If a person drinks too much and all at once, the liquid will simply be excreted faster from the body, less enriching it.

It’s best to drink purified still water. To give it a pleasant taste, you can add fresh juice of orange, lemon or lime. The temperature of the water should be room temperature, because when you use cold liquid, the body spends energy to heat it, while fats thicken and are absorbed worse. In addition, cold water reduces the length of time the food has been in the stomach (up to 20 minutes less), so a person soon feels hunger again, which sooner or later leads to additional weight gain.