You must have heard about [XX can be done after dinner, not XX], such as:
Drink yogurt after meals to help digestion!
Exercise after meals causes gastroptosis!
If you want to say, the last thing you should do after dinner is to be hungry.
Today, let’s tell you the truth behind these rumors.
Can drinking water dilute gastric juice after meals?
As long as your digestive function is normal, drinking water at any time will not dilute gastric juice to the extent that it affects digestion.
Normal people have very little gastric acid content on an empty stomach before meals. Only after eating can they secrete a large amount of gastric acid.
Gastric acid (gastric juice) is a kind of [buffer], which means that when soldiers come to block and water comes to cover, gastric acid will always be stable within a reasonable range and will not easily become very acid or be diluted.
From a purely biochemical point of view, it takes about 2 liters of water to change gastric juice. Well, the average person can’t do it.
Can drinking yogurt after meals help digestion?
Cruelly, drinking yogurt after meals does not help digestion.
We often say that digestion requires regular gastrointestinal peristalsis and digestive enzymes. However, yogurt itself cannot correct the irregular gastrointestinal movement of the body, nor does it have digestive enzymes, which cannot really help digestion.
What about probiotics? Perhaps it is really like what the advertisement said when leaving the factory [a bottle contains millions of active probiotics], but after transportation, storage, being bought home, and finally drinking, it is hard to say how many bacteria can reach the intestinal tract alive through all kinds of difficulties.
In addition, yogurt is a food with a strong sense of satiety, and most of the yogurt sold on the market contains sugar.
When you are already full, drinking yogurt means eating more sugar and calories, which will make you fuller and more difficult to digest.
Therefore, if you are losing weight but still want to drink a cup of yogurt after a meal, it is recommended to halve the amount of food you eat first.
Do you have gastroptosis after dinner?
Gastroptosis is mainly related to slender body shape and whether to exercise after meals.
[Gastroptosis] Sounds a little scary, but it is not a disease, it is just an anatomical state with a relatively low position of the stomach. The existing evidence does not show that gastroptosis can cause various stomach discomfort.
But then again, exercise immediately after meals will indeed affect breathing, gastrointestinal peristalsis, etc., making people feel uncomfortable.
Here, it is suggested that everyone should reasonably arrange the time for eating and exercising:
- Within half an hour after the meal: Don’t take strenuous exercise, you can do some lightweight activities, such as wiping the table and sweeping the floor. One hour after dinner: You can do moderate-intensity exercises such as fast walking and jogging. Of course, it is also how you feel comfortable. If the exercise at this time makes you uncomfortable, Dr. Clove suggests you take it slowly. Two hours after dinner: This is the best time to exercise, and you can safely take all kinds of physical exercises.
Are people who swim after meals more likely to drown?
There has always been a saying that after meals, the stomach is rich in blood flow and has a lot of digestion work to do, while the blood flow distributed to muscles is less, so it is easy to twitch when exercising and even drown when swimming.
However, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Red Cross reviewed a number of relevant clinical trials and consulted experts in relevant fields, and finally issued a statement saying:
Swimming after meals has nothing to do with the increased risk of drowning.
However, if you eat food containing alcohol, it will really increase the risk of swimming and drowning. When it comes to convergence, you should still restrain yourself.
Therefore, many [not all] [others often say] old sayings are wrong in themselves.
It is really good for your health to read Dr. Clove’s popular science articles after dinner.