Dos and Don’ts after a Meal

Don’t: Go to Sleep

Many people eat dinner and go right to bed, or eat lunch and take a little nap. Sleeping after a meal slows down your digestion, causing you to feel bloated, uncomfortable and possibly even full when you wake up. Lying on your back or side also causes the digestive juices to slide into your oesophagus, giving you heartburn. It’s better to stay upright for an hour after you’ve eaten, so that your digestive juices can break down the food.

Don’t: Eat Fruit

Your body digests different foods at different speeds. Fruits get digested very quickly, so if you eat them after a meal, they end up just sitting there on top of the other food, getting fermented and causing gas. Instead, try to eat fruits an hour or two before meals. They make a healthy snack that you can carry with you to eat whenever you get hungry in between meals

Don’t: Drink Tea

Drinking tea right after your meal hampers your digestion in several ways. To begin with, tea leaves are acidic, so they affect your body’s ability to digest food. The acid from the tea hardens the protein in the food that you’ve just eaten, making it much harder to digest. Tea also contains polyphenols and tannins, which bind to the iron in your food and prevent it from being absorbed. Women and children are at a greater risk of iron deficiencies, so they especially should make it a point to avoid drinking tea after a meal. 

Don’t: Drink Too Much Water 

You can sip on a little bit of water during your meal if you feel the need, but avoid gulping down a lot of water either during or after your meal. Water thins out your digestive juices, making it harder for them to break down your food. 

Don’t: Take a Shower

Many people tend to eat breakfast and then take a shower before heading out for the day, or eat dinner and take a bath before going to bed. While these are habits that tend to become a part of your daily routine, they are bad for digestion. When you take a bath, your body temperature increases and most of your blood is pulled to the surface of your skin, and to your extremities. This takes it away from your digestive system, slowing down the breakdown of your food.

Don’t: Smoke a Cigarette

The jury is still out on this one, with some saying that smoking one cigarette after a meal is the equivalent of 10 cigarettes, and others saying that it makes no difference. However, smoking is harmful to your body no matter what time of day you do it, so we recommend quitting the habit altogether.

Don’t: Workout

After a meal, your body focuses most of its resources on your digestive system, so that it can break down the food and assimilate it. If you try to do a strenuous workout right after your meal, your digestive system doesn’t get the resources it needs to function, and you could experience nausea, cramps, or even diarrhoea.

Do: Avoid Stress

When you get stressed out, your central nervous system shuts down the blood supply to your digestive system, affects the contractions of your digestive muscles, and decreases secretions needed fordigestion. It also causes your oesophagus to spasm, resulting in indigestion, nausea, diarrhoea orconstipation. To prevent this, avoid getting angry or stressed after your meal.

Do: Drink Ginger Tea

According to Ayurveda, drinking ginger tea after a meal improves your digestive fire. It speeds up the movement of the food from your stomach to your small intestine, stimulates the production of digestive enzymes and relieves gas and stomach cramps. Make yourself some ginger tea by boiling some ginger and water together. You can drink this the whole day, including during and after your meals.

Do: Take a Walk

While strenuous exercise hampers digestion, taking a light stroll about half an hour after your meal is good for health. It not only improves digestion and enables weight loss, it also soothes any digestive problems that you may already have, like indigestion or gas. Make sure you wait for at least half an hour after your meal before you go for a walk though, since your body needs a little time to absorb the nutrients from your meal.

Do: Improve Your Posture

Whether you are sitting or standing after your meal, try to avoid slouching and hold yourself upright. When you slouch, your internal organs get scrunched up, hampering your digestion. A great way to improve digestion after a meal would be to sit in Vajrasana for as long as possible. You can do this at home or at your desk in the office.

Do: Write In Your Food Journal

If you regularly experience digestive distress, you should start maintaining a food journal. After every meal, write down exactly what you have eaten, how much of it, and what you did after the meal. In just a few weeks you should easily be able to identify trends about what’s causing your discomfort.