While certain foods often get a bad rap, eating a delicious, satisfying meal is one of life’s simple pleasures. After you delight your taste buds at breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you might always engage in certain habits. For instance, you may typically brush your teeth, eat a mint, or go for a walk. However, if maintaining optimal health is at the top of your list of priorities, consider avoiding the following activities immediately after consuming a meal.
Sleep
Is lying down for a luxurious nap after mealtimes one of your most beloved pastimes? While sleeping after eating may feel divine, it’s not a healthy habit. When you lie down, the gravitational pull can cause some of the digestive juices in your stomach to flow back to your esophagus. Because of their acidic properties, these digestive juices can burn the inner layer of your esophagus. As a result, you can develop the uncomfortable condition known as acid reflux.
If the threat of acid reflux isn’t enough, going to bed too soon after eating dinner is believed to increase your stroke risk. A research study implies that waiting at least an hour after consuming dinner before going to sleep decreases your risk of succumbing to a stroke by approximately two thirds. According to Cristina-Maria Kastorini, MSc, a nutritionist at the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece, your stroke risk reduces by another 10 percent for every 20 additional minutes you wait beyond an hour.
Smoke
Smoking is never a good idea. This harmful habit can increase your odds of experiencing a plethora of health issues such as a heart attack, certain types of cancer, tooth decay, and emphysema. Unfortunately, smoking after mealtimes is even more lethal than smoking on an empty stomach. In fact, according to numerous studies, smoking after eating a meal has the same effect as puffing 10 cigarettes at one time. The reason stems from the nicotine cigarettes contain. This substance attaches to the oxygen your body greatly needs for digestion. As a result, your body absorbs carcinogens.
Exercise
Exercising is one of the most beneficial activities you can do for your health. Besides helping you maintain a healthy weight, working out can lower your blood pressure, triglyceride, and blood sugar levels. Exercising can also help you sleep soundly at night. Avoid scheduling workouts too soon after mealtimes.
If you eat right before you work out, both your skeletal muscles and your digestive organs fight for blood flow. This phenomena will cause your exercises to be harder to perform. Consuming food before working out might also lead to stomach cramps, nausea, or diarrhea.
Consume Cold Water
Drinking at least the recommended six to eight glasses of water a day is vital to maintaining good health. Consuming water gives your skin a radiant glow and boosts kidney function. Interestingly, drinking cold water directly after eating a meal impedes the digestive process. Because it causes the food you eat to clump, ice water doesn’t permit your food to digest properly.
Take a Shower
Like drinking cold water, taking a shower right after eating a meal can disrupt the digestive process. When you get into the shower, your body temperature increases and blood gravitates towards the surface of your skin, your hands, and your feet. Your stomach area needs blood flow in order to regulate your core temperature during the digestive process. Rather than your body beginning and completing digestion efficiently, it becomes distracted.
Drink Tea
At the end of a long, stressful day, all you might want to do is eat a scrumptious meal and drink a hot cup of tea. While tea is packed with health boosting antioxidants, you shouldn’t drink it immediately after finishing a meal. The tannic acid in tea can bind with the protein and iron in the foods you consume. When this occurs, your body can’t absorb these nutrients properly. An iron deficiency can cause anemia. The bothersome symptoms of this condition include fatigue, dizziness, leg cramps, insomnia, a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, and headaches. After mealtimes, wait at least 30 minutes before indulging in a hot, soothing cup of tea.
If you’re like most people, you probably pay more attention to what foods you put into your mouth than what you do after consuming them. However, if you want to increase your chances of staying healthy and happy, abstain from doing the aforementioned activities after devouring a delicious meal.
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