When To Drink Water

Why water timing matters.

YES, drinking too much water to closely to a meal can disrupt your digestion, spike insulin and isn't ideal. Especially if you suffer from low stomach acid. Now, I'm not saying don't drink any water with a meal but it's not ideal to be chugging litres of water 20 minutes prior to or within 2 hours after a meal is finished as it can dilute your stomach enzymes, making it harder to digest your meal properly. It can also disrupt your ability to absorb nutrients from your food as you're diluting the food and making it digest too quickly. 

Drinking large amounts of water after your meal while the food is still sitting in your stomach digesting can also make you bloated. It speeds up the digestion process and can actually make you feel more hungry causing over eating. If you feel the need to drink water around a meal, sipping it slowly is best.

Water is also a coolant to the body and having to much cold water while eating a hot meal can cause acid reflex. Always make sure the water you're sipping on is room temperature to reduce stomach upset and to ensure you are still able to digest your food properly without diluting your gastric juice. If you experience heart burn after a meal, you may want to watch you water intake for as long as you can too as disrupting your stomach enzymes can make this worse.

If you need to take supplements or medication with a meal, its recommended to drink only enough water to swallow the pills as a pose to drinking an entire glass. An abundance of water too closely to a meal can dilute the enzymes needed to break down your food so a gap before and after will help you in many ways.

One last takeaway. If you disrupt the digestion process it can also leave behind undigested food in your stomach. The glucose from this will convert to fat and will be stored within the body. This can lead to a surge of insulin being release and an increase in blood sugar levels within the body which leads to diabetes and/or obesity. 

While it's still important to ensure you're getting in anywhere from 2-4 litres of filtered water a day, it's equally as important to choose the times you'll gulp larger glasses or be sipping on it.