Should you lie down, sit, or stand after eating? Doctors give the standard answer...

Expert of this article: Pa Lize, Chief Physician of Nutrition, Science Popularization Committee Member of Chinese Nutrition Society

What is your habit after eating?

Take a hundred steps after a meal, and you will live to be ninety-nine.

You cannot stand after a meal, as this may cause gastroptosis;

You should lie down after a meal, this is the correct posture;

Drink a cup of tea after a meal to refresh yourself and aid digestion;

…

Which is the right way to "open" after a meal? Today, let's reveal the secret.

Can I lie down after a meal?

Although eating is the human body's instinct to obtain energy and nutrition by taking in food from the outside to maintain survival, the process from eating to digestion, absorption, and utilization of nutrients in food to meet the body's physiological needs is a complex and magical biological process.

After a meal, the food is moistened, chewed, and partially digested in the mouth before being pushed into the stomach, where the key digestion step of breaking down large-molecule nutrients into small molecules takes place.

The stomach is a muscular and elastic, bean-shaped, bag-like digestive organ that is divided into three parts: the cardia, body, and antrum.

Under normal circumstances, after food enters the stomach, the terminal esophageal sphincter contracts to narrow the opening connected to the gastric ostium to prevent the backflow of gastric contents. The food temporarily stored in the stomach is fully mixed with the viscous gastric juice containing hydrochloric acid and pepsin to become chyme. The physical and chemical digestion carried out in this link lays the foundation for the next step of absorbing nutrients in the small intestinal cells for the body to use.

From this we can see that if you lie down immediately after a meal, it is easy to cause the full stomach to shift position, causing the food and gastric acid in the stomach to reflux into the esophagus through the esophageal valve, causing acid reflux and heartburn.

The esophagus has a different structure from the stomach and does not secrete mucus to prevent acid corrosion. Over time, esophagitis is inevitable, especially for people with fat accumulation in the waist and abdomen, slow sphincter contraction due to old age, and decreased gastric motility. Even for healthy people, lying down after meals will reduce physical energy consumption and be detrimental to weight control.

Will standing after a meal cause gastroptosis?

Many people like to stand up immediately after eating for the purpose of losing weight.

Indeed, standing consumes more energy than sitting.

However, for those who are thin, the standing posture will change the center of gravity of the stomach. People who are accustomed to standing immediately after a meal can easily cause gastroptosis.

But for healthy people, especially young white-collar workers who have lunch at their workstations, standing and stepping on the spot after lunch can promote blood circulation throughout the body and improve work efficiency in the afternoon.

Should I sit down after a meal?

Sitting for a while after a meal can be considered a healthy posture, but sitting for more than half an hour or sitting still is not only not conducive to digestion, but also increases fat accumulation, especially abdominal fat accumulation, which increases the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Can I exercise after a meal?

Adverse reactions and health hazards caused by exercise after meals, such as gastroptosis, are mainly caused by strenuous exercise.

If possible, you should exercise after a meal, but there is a trick: taking a walk for half an hour after a meal or dancing slowly are both healthy lifestyles.

The healthy Mediterranean diet, which has topped the diet rankings in recent years, includes an important item: regularly participating in cultural and sports entertainment activities such as ballroom dancing after meals. However, strenuous exercise and taking a hot water bath, sauna, etc. immediately after a meal are not recommended, especially for people with high blood pressure.

Is it good to drink tea or yogurt after meals?

Drinking tea after a meal can help relieve greasiness?

Drinking tea after a meal can relieve greasiness not because tea contains substances that can degrade undigested oil in the gastrointestinal tract, but it may be because most teas contain ingredients such as caffeine, theophylline and theobromine that can stimulate gastric acid secretion, promote gastric motility, and accelerate metabolism, thereby improving the process and feeling of stomach fullness.

Theoretically, the small amount of tea saponin in tea can inhibit the activity of lipase and hinder the absorption of fat in the digestive tract. However, according to the intake of tea saponin, an adult needs to drink at least one kilogram of tea leaves a day to see the effect.

Drinking yogurt after a meal helps digestion?

The view that drinking yogurt after a meal aids digestion may be from the perspective that the organic acid in yogurt can increase gastric acid and lactic acid bacteria and thus regulate the balance of intestinal flora.

The strength of the human body's digestive ability depends on the role of digestive enzymes in breaking down nutrients and the absorption capacity of small intestinal cells. Yogurt itself also contains proteins and fats that need to be digested, so the health benefits of yogurt are long-term and slow.

If you drink yogurt to aid digestion, you will feel bloated instead.

What other misunderstandings are there after meals?

Many people still have many misunderstandings about post-meal habits. Paying attention to the following points is not only beneficial for digestion and absorption, but more importantly, it can prevent digestive system diseases:

1. Do not lie down immediately within half an hour after a meal;

2. Do not do strenuous exercise after meals;

3. Eat until you are 70% full. Don’t be superstitious that tea and yogurt can remove fat or aid digestion.

4. Change the habit of smoking, drinking carbonated drinks and beer after meals.

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