Drinking while eating

I just Googled whether drinking water during meals was a good or bad thing, and I found that the consensus is that drinking water while you eat is bad because water dilutes the stomach acids. This causes digestive problems and may lead to your body not absorbing all the nutrients from the food.

Sorry if everybody already knew that, but it came as a surprise to me. I've been drinking a lot of water while I eat and have not noticed any side effects. Is drinking water while you eat really bad enough that it will badly effect health? Or is it not that big of a deal?

I'm not seeing the logic here.

Something to keep in mind is that alot of food, especially fruits and vegetables are already mostly water.. take lettuce. Mostly water, a little fiber, a few carbs.. not much there. During digestion, the carbs and water are separated out, the water is absorbed by your intestine and the carbs broken down and turned into usable energy in your stomach (absorbing your nutrients happens in your lower intestine, not your stomach)

So...

Anyways, so let's say you've got ALOT of water in your stomach... why would it hang around? Why wouldn't it go directly into your intestines? after all, there's nothing to break there?

I mean.. I can see the diluting the stomach acids thing.. but... I don't know that it would dilute them enough to make the pH neutral.. it'd still act like an acid. At WORST, if there was too much water in your system, the food would sit in your stomach a little longer while the water is ejected and new stomach acids pumped in.

... I guess what I'm saying, while rambling is... I don't think that's actually true, biologically speaking.

I highly, highly doubt that drinking water while eating will effect your health.. doesn't make any sense.

You will be ok.

I've never heard that before! I always drink water while I'm eating a meal, otherwise I get really thirsty, and can't enjoy the food. I doubt that drinking water while you're eating is going to be detrimental to your health!

Original Post by hkellick:

I'm not seeing the logic here.

Something to keep in mind is that alot of food, especially fruits and vegetables are already mostly water.. take lettuce. Mostly water, a little fiber, a few carbs.. not much there. During digestion, the carbs and water are separated out, the water is absorbed by your intestine and the carbs broken down and turned into usable energy in your stomach (absorbing your nutrients happens in your lower intestine, not your stomach)

 

So...

... I guess what I'm saying, while rambling is... I don't think that's actually true, biologically speaking.

 Thanks for the great response. I regret ever Googling the question because I would hate to start essentially micromanaging what goes on digestively. So I'll just assume that since I'm having no digestive problems from drinking while eating, there's no reason to desist.

Sipping water whilst you eat (as opposed to chugging down great glasses full) is a good way to slow down the eating process.  In small amounts it doesn't dilute stomach acids any more than eating a bowl of soup would. 

Yeah I heard that recently to- there was a study that showed people who always drank straight after meals were less healthy than those who didn't b/c it apparently flushes out the nutrients quicker or something. Don't quote me on that! But I don't believe it anyway.

Any links to this study?

Maybe it's legitimate. Very possibly it's pseudo-science. It wouldn't surprise me if this is a study funded by, like, the Dairy Council to explain why Water is Bad, but Milk is Good.

There's ALOT of Psuedo-Science out there, unfortunately.

I've actually heard this before....I've even seen something brief on the discovery channel about it, and you KNOW discovery don't put crap on their channel....lol

I think the health benefits of being at a healthy weight are much better than any benefits we might get from not drinking water while eatng. if I didn't drink water with all my meals, I would have to eat way more to feel full. so even if they proved that, i would still drink water...

yeah i heard the same thing. My mum went to a nutritionist who told her to drink 30 minutes before a meal and 30 minutes after. It still keeps you full but doesnt disturb the digestive process.

It is very hard to not drink while eating on cetain meals but it definitley helps.

I watched some show on tv about health and some professor actually said that didn't matter... which is good because i love drinking water during meals makes me fuller so much faster..

heh well, the other thing to consider that drinking while eating helps keep the food down - it acts as a lubricant and makes eating and swallowing a lot easier, and keeps it from crawling back up when you burp XD

I only drink if I'm eating something really salty - but I'm not a thirsty person by nature, so I'm perfectly content to eat an entire meal without drinking anything at all.  I think in the end, if it's not causing trouble, it's entirely up to personal preference.

yep i heard that before. in some book about food combining.  while i dont practice it, it makes a tiny amount of sense but not enough to justify paying it any attention