admin | September 19, 2016 | Health |
The first phase of the digestion process begins in the mouth where it needs to be 25% ready for digestion before it actually reaches the stomach. This is done with the help of our teeth, but the problem is that many people eat in a hurry and don’t think a lot about the consequences.
When food is properly chewed, the mouth produces enough saliva that helps the food slide down into the stomach. Saliva replaces the function of water as it contains 98% water and 2% digestive enzymes which ease the digestion process.
However, a lot of people tend to drink water while eating, which is wrong. Hence, when you do this, there is less saliva produced, and thus, the digestion process becomes more difficult. After being swallowed, food reaches your stomach where digestive enzymes and gastric juices are produced for the purposes of the digestion process. One of the most potent acids is hydrochloric acid which plays a crucial role in digesting the food you’ve eaten.
Hence, this acid destroys leftover bacteria. The process of digestion lasts around 2 hours. Therefore, when liquid is mixed with food, the liquid doesn’t only dissolve the gastric juices, but it’s absorbed through the stomach wall until the gastric juices begin to react. When this happens, the substance becomes thicker than food and the stomach doesn’t have enough gastric juice to dissolve it.
This causes indigested food absorbed through the stomach and further into the system. However, some people find it difficult to stop drinking water or other liquids while eating. But, you can lower the amount to several small sips of room temperature water. All in all, you need to be properly hydrated 20 minutes before a meal and don’t drink water or other liquids at least half an hour after a meal.
Source: https://www.wittyfeed.com/story/27941/should-one-not-drink-water-immediately-before-and-after-meals