Don’t do these 13 things after a meal

It is common sense that wrong diet will harm your health; wrong behavior after meals will also harm your health, but you probably don’t know much about this, right? Take a walk after meals, eat fruit after meals, drink water after meals... These post-meal behaviors are not unfamiliar to us, and many people even regard them as a healthy lifestyle. But in fact, these common details after meals are actually killing your health!

◆ Eat fruit after meals

Harm: Causes bloating, diarrhea or constipation

After food enters the stomach, it needs 1 to 2 hours to digest. If you eat fruit immediately after a meal, it will be blocked by the food you have eaten previously, causing the fruit to not be digested normally and easily causing bloating. Because fruits contain a lot of monosaccharides, which are easily absorbed by the small intestine. If they are blocked in the stomach, they will cause bloating and lead to constipation.

suggestion:

It is best to eat fruit between meals. Eating fruit after a meal is not a big problem for normal people except that it increases the burden on the gastrointestinal tract. It should be noted that in addition to vitamins and other nutrients, fruits also contain more dietary fiber. Dietary fiber affects the digestion and absorption of some nutrients, such as trace elements. Therefore, it is best to eat fruit between meals. For those with high blood sugar, it is especially not recommended to eat fruit immediately after a meal.

◆ Drink water after meals

Hazard: May cause gastrointestinal diseases

Drinking water immediately will increase the intragastric pressure, causing the food in the stomach to enter the small intestine without having time to digest. In addition, drinking water dilutes the gastric juice, weakening its digestive capacity and not conducive to the sterilization of gastric acid.

suggestion:

It is best to drink water on an empty stomach about an hour before a meal, because the digestion of food is completed by the digestive juice of the digestive organs. Drinking water one hour before meals can ensure sufficient secretion of digestive juices, which can help digestion and absorption without affecting the physiological water content in tissue cells.

It is better to drink water on an empty stomach before breakfast. After a night of sleep, the body loses a lot of water and the blood becomes more concentrated. Drinking a glass of water after getting up can replenish water, reduce blood viscosity, and restore blood vessel dilation. It is best to drink warm water on an empty stomach. You can also drink light beverages such as fruit juice, light tea, vegetable juice, etc. Milk, soy milk, eggs, etc. should not be consumed on an empty stomach, but should be eaten during or after meals.

◆ Take a walk after dinner

Harm: Indigestion

Reason: After a full meal, in order to ensure the digestion and absorption of food, the abdominal blood vessels expand and become congested. Walking a hundred steps will affect the absorption of nutrients by the digestive tract due to the increased amount of exercise.

suggestion:

Walking a hundred steps after a meal is suitable for people who are less active, work at a desk for long periods of time, are overweight or have excessive stomach acid secretion. Don't walk after a meal. This mainly applies to people with poor physical constitution, frail body and especially those suffering from diseases such as gastroptosis. Not only should they not take a walk after a meal, they should also lie down for 10 minutes.

Improper physical exercise can also harm the stomach and gallbladder. For example, strenuous exercise redistributes blood throughout the body, weakens gastrointestinal motility, greatly reduces the secretion of various digestive juices, and puts the digestive system in an inhibited state. Not taking a proper rest after exercise, eating immediately or drinking a lot of frozen drinks can easily cause indigestion, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal and gallbladder diseases.

◆ Drink strong tea after meals

Hazard: Anemia

Drinking tea immediately after a meal will dilute the gastric juice and affect food digestion. At the same time, the tannic acid in tea can turn the protein in food into a coagulated substance that is difficult to digest, which adds burden to the stomach and affects the absorption of protein. Tea contains a lot of tannic acid, which combines with the iron in food and prevents the absorption of iron in the intestines;

Tannic acid combines with protein to form tannic acid protein with astringent effect, which slows down intestinal peristalsis and thus prolongs the retention time of feces in the intestine. It not only easily causes constipation, but also increases the possibility of toxic substances and carcinogens being absorbed by the human body. Therefore, you should not drink tea immediately after a meal, especially strong tea.

◆ Go to bed immediately after eating

Harm: Weight gain.

Reason: Some office workers often feel sleepy after dinner because of fullness, coupled with fatigue from daytime work, so they take a nap. Going to bed right after eating will increase the burden on the stomach, causing food to accumulate in the body and causing obesity.

Recommendation: Wait at least 20 minutes after a meal before going to bed, even for a nap.

◆ Take a shower immediately after meals

Harm: Indigestion

Reason: Taking a bath after a meal will increase the blood flow on the body surface and reduce the blood flow in the gastrointestinal tract accordingly, thereby weakening the gastrointestinal digestive function and causing indigestion.

Recommendation: Scientifically speaking, do not wash when you are hungry before a meal, as it can easily cause hypoxia and temporary anemia. It is also not good to wash immediately after a meal. It is best to wait an hour or more after a meal. Taking a bath before bed will eliminate the day's fatigue and help you fall asleep easily.

◆ Driving after a meal

Hazard: prone to operational errors

After a meal, due to the need for digestion, most of the blood is concentrated in the stomach, and the brain is in a state of temporary ischemia. Driving at this time can easily lead to operational errors and cause car accidents. Therefore, it is safer to drive one hour after a meal.

◆Smoking after meals

Hazard: Damage to the respiratory tract and digestive tract

Some people believe that "a cigarette after a meal is better than being a living god." In fact, this practice is extremely harmful to the human body. Because the gastrointestinal motility of the human body is very frequent after a meal, blood circulation also speeds up, and the digestive system begins to move comprehensively.

If you smoke at this time, the lungs and body tissues will absorb the smoke more strongly, causing a large amount of harmful components in the smoke to be absorbed, which has a strong stimulating effect on the respiratory and digestive tracts. It will undoubtedly cause much greater damage to human functions and tissues than normal smoking.

◆Sing karaoke after dinner

Hazards: Gastrointestinal discomfort

Right after a meal, the stomach capacity increases and the blood flow increases. Singing at this time will cause the diaphragm to move downward and increase the abdominal pressure, which may cause indigestion at the mildest and gastrointestinal discomfort and other symptoms at the worst.

Therefore, it is best to sing karaoke about 1 hour after a meal, after the food has been digested normally, or simply sing first and then eat.

◆Eat cold drinks after meals

Harm: Abdominal pain, gastrointestinal cramps

The stomach and intestines are very sensitive to cold and heat, so drinking cold drinks immediately after a meal is likely to cause stomach cramps, leading to abdominal pain, diarrhea or indigestion.

Exercise immediately after a meal

Hazard: Induces stomach disease

Within half an hour after a meal, the stomach becomes very heavy due to the intake of food. Taking part in exercise at this time (even light exercise such as walking) will cause the stomach to suffer from "turbulence", affecting the digestive function, and may even cause stomach problems in the long run.

Therefore, it is best to sit for half an hour after a meal, and then go out for light activities such as walking.