[00:01.4]
Hello, and welcome to the Own Your Health podcast, I'm Cyndi Lynne, and I can't wait to help you step into your health power. Today is a quick episode on an important quick topic. I want everyone to be able to listen, grab the takeaway, and make the health change in their life.
[00:20.1]
Let's talk about drinking while eating. So everyone knows hydration is super important. And I've told clients over and over again, and I've heard and read, and everywhere you see, drink more water, stay hydrated, get those electrolytes, really keep your body moving.
[00:40.9]
We're so fluid, both in our lives and in our physical bodies, that we need to have good hydration in order for any of the processes to work, including digestion. So this seems like a little bit of a catch 22 for some.
[00:58.8]
When your digestion is slowed down because of dehydration, the inclination is to drink more, but that can be particularly tricky. So I was out this weekend, eating in restaurants with groups of people, and I saw it over and over again, and I thought, all right, we need to talk about this, this week.
[01:23.6]
Drinking while you're having your meal is really counterproductive to digestion. Now, the exception to this, although somewhat controversial, is sipping wine with a meal can actually help digestion because of the slight acidity.
[01:45.4]
But drinking big glasses of ice water, big glasses of iced tea, big glasses of sodas are counterproductive to the digestive process. And that is because our digestive juices are at specific pHs to produce the enzymes we need in order to digest our food.
[02:10.9]
So our mouth, for example, when we start chewing something, our mouth excretes amylase, or the enzyme to start digesting sugar. It's one of the first things that our body recognizes in the digestion process. Our mouth excretes the amylase and signals the rest of our body that, hey, there's food coming along.
[02:35.6]
Start all of the rest of the digestive processes, and we can do an episode on those processes if you want. But I want to keep this short and sweet today because I saw so much of it going so wrong. Wrong. When we drink large amounts of even pure water, we dilute the messages.
[02:55.1]
We dilute the information that our body can glean from the enzymes that it creates. And we dilute the signaling. We dilute the acid, for example, in our stomach that our body needs in order to complete the digestion process.
[03:17.2]
So drinking is great. Hydration is super important. But drinking with a meal will actually inhibit digestion. And how this often presents itself, this is probably the most classic case, often can present itself as indigestion, as feeling like there's too much stomach acid.
[03:42.0]
Too much like you're, too full. Now, when we eat normally, or I'll say eat according to how the process is supposed to work, when our stomach is signaled with proteins, our body and our stomach excrete acids.
[04:05.9]
And they create these acids not to digest the food that, the actual food or the protein, but the acid is created in the stomach in order for the enzymes to be released. So we have to hit a certain level of acid in the stomach for the digestive enzymes for protein specifically to be released.
[04:30.4]
If we dilute that stomach acid, if we dilute the contents of the stomach, the signals don't get through. The message doesn't come through to our body that says, hey, we've got protein down here. Okay, acid is going to get strong enough, and then enzymes get to be released and we digest that food and it moves through the rest of the process, moves through our body.
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When we dilute that stomach acid, the level, the strength of the acid never gets strong enough to trigger the production of the enzymes. And therefore proteins specifically don't get digested.
[05:13.1]
Now, the same can happen with amylase, with the sugars that we eat. If we're drinking a lot, we can lose the ability to break down those sugars in our stomach as well. And that can leave you with indigestion and feeling full and feeling bloated because the food is just kind of stuck there and it's not digesting, it's not processing in the normal fashion.
[05:41.9]
So my intent with this was not to get super technical, but just to help you understand that when we dilute chemical processes that are supposed to happen, they don't. And when we drink while we eat, we short circuit that whole normal process.
[06:02.5]
And very often our indigestion isn't necessarily what we ate as much as what we drank while we were eating. So what do we do instead? How do we, make sure that we remain hydrated?
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Well, obviously, drink between meals. And if you have been out and about and you're running around and you finally sit down and you're ready for a meal and you want a drink, go ahead and drink on an empty stomach and wait five to 10 minutes.
[06:37.4]
And that's really all it takes for water to pass through. Our body doesn't need to digest water in the way it does other nutrients. The water passes through very quickly and is absorbed and, out of the stomach very quickly. So go ahead and drink before.
[06:54.3]
Wait 5 to 10 minutes. In a restaurant, that often means that you could drink when you sat down, and then by the time you order your food and actually get it, that would be enough time. And then while you're eating, don't drink. If you're one of those people who thinks, wait a minute, how am I going to wash my food down?
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Right there is another really good way that we end up with indigestion. Our food should become moist enough with our saliva and with our chewing that we can swallow easily without the need for any additional, moisture, water, anything to wash it down.
[07:34.5]
If we're chewing well, if we're hydrated to start out with, if we're chewing well, then swallowing shouldn't be a problem at all. The food should not be too dry. It should be wet enough from our saliva and the processes that naturally occur in the mouth.
[07:53.5]
So pay attention to how you eat, how you chew, and if that's calling for, if that's what prompts you to reach for your glass, go ahead and chew a little bit longer and see if that doesn't make it a little bit easier and be much more conscious of this.
[08:13.2]
Now, if you automatically reach for a glass and you're busy talking with folks and, you drink it down and don't even notice that, put the drink a little bit farther away, skip the water, ask that it not be brought, and spend some time on your digestion.
[08:33.6]
So, like I said, quick episode here. Really wanted to react to some things that I saw this week and see if you're noticing this with yourself as well. So, yes, go out, stay hydrated, but not drinks with food.
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So, until next week, happy digestion, and let's go out and own it.
