You’re busy. Somewhere along the way, the chair disappeared from meals. Breakfast over the sink, lunch at the counter. Sometimes, you can still hear your parents chiding you about how it’s “better” to sit down while eating. But is that really true? Is it bad to eat standing up?
Digestion is about gravity
When it comes to habits for good digestion, experts say the goal is to work with—not against— gravity. Whether you’re sitting down or standing up, a good guideline is to simply make sure you’re eating upright. The biggest no-no is eating lying down, or lying down right after you eat.
“A really common way to trigger heartburn symptoms is to eat and then lie down immediately,” Dr. Carolyn Newberry, gastroenterologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, tells Popular Science. “As stomach acid gets secreted and it’s digesting food and mixing it up in your stomach, that can regurgitate back up if you’re not using gravity to help it go down properly.”
It typically takes about two hours or more for food to move from the stomach to the intestines, which is why eating right before bed is discouraged.
With gravity in mind, eating standing up might not be that different from eating sitting down. Experts say the major drawback to standing and eating is mainly that people tend to do it because they’re in a hurry, and that’s where the trouble lies.
The trouble with eating in a hurry
If you’re experiencing indigestion and changes in diet aren’t helping, experts suggest examining the pace of your meals. Eating in a rush can cause bloating, upset stomach, and overeating. Unintentionally swallowing excess air and not chewing sufficiently as you scarf down your lunch can be rough on the gut.
Our digestive system does its best work when we’re in a leisurely state. Newberry says people should take their time while eating meals.
She encourages taking smaller bites and making sure to chew completely. “The digestion process starts in the mouth,” she says, “even with the salivary enzymes that break down some of your macronutrients.”
Pumping the breaks can also help you to know how much food you actually need. “You want to eat at a pace that you can feel when you’re full,” Newberry says. Satiety hormones kick in at a bit of a delay. It takes about 20 minutes from the time you start eating for your brain to start sending you the “Hey, I’m almost full now” signals. When you eat slowly, you give it a chance to get that message across, which helps you to avoid overeating.
If you must eat quickly, however, Newberry recommends eating smaller, more frequent, protein-rich, snack-sized meals.
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Think “rest and digest”
Another drawback to dining in a rush is the potential for moving around more than you should while eating. Eating while walking or running is generally discouraged, as it carries many of the same risks as hurried eating does, not to mention a heightened risk for choking.
But even just lunching in haste may mean you need to get up very suddenly, change position, or run off to do something. Abrupt position changes during or right after eating aren’t good either.
“If you were to eat a big meal and then get up really quickly, you may feel dizzy or lightheaded just from those fluctuations in blood flow and the different hormone changes that happen,” says Newberry.
Blood flow is important for digestion and diverting it to other muscles may make it harder to digest well. We’ve all heard the rule about not swimming right after eating. But this applies to other vigorous activities too. A gentle walk shortly after a meal is fine, and even good for you, but you should wait 30 minutes following a snack and two hours after a big meal to engage in strenuous exercise. Simply put, our bodies are wired to digest while in a state of calm.
“‘Rest and digest’ is parasympathetic,” Newberry says, referring to the network of nerves in your body responsible for periods of tranquility. “It’s the opposite of adrenaline. It’s a different type of hormone that’s released, and it allows your body to relax. Blood flow can go to your intestines, and you can digest and metabolize your food.”
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