When eating out, most people drink water or tea while eating. Is this actually good for your health?
Many people feel that it's not good to drink water while eating, as it will dilute stomach acid and affect digestion. Is this statement correct? Actually, looking at it from another perspective, we need to consume a large amount of water from food every day. Most vegetables and fruits contain over 80% water. The water in food will separate from other components in the stomach and enter the intestines, much like water that is directly drunk. This seems to be no different from drinking water directly.
Many studies have also shown that drinking water during a meal has no significant effect on the concentration or pH of gastric acid. This means that drinking a few glasses of water with your meal won't dilute the stomach acid to the point of being completely ineffective.
Drinking water while eating not only doesn't burden digestion, it actually promotes it. Drinking water softens and helps break down food, and it also rinses the walls of the stomach and intestines, providing enough space for subsequent food to be digested.