You should not drink the following four beverages on an empty stomach: coffee, yogurt, slimming tea, and honey.
Coffee
For the white-collar workers bustling among office buildings, coffee is a very familiar beverage. Cafes are the preferred venues for daily business meetings, and coffee is also a great tool for staying alert during overtime and late nights.
The caffeine in coffee stimulates the sympathetic nervous system after entering the body, which eliminates sleepiness, improves blood circulation, and makes the body feel warm and less fatigued, hence its "refreshing" effect.
However, stimulation and excitement of the sympathetic nervous system have a negative effect on appetite, meaning appetite will decrease. Therefore, drinking coffee before a meal can lead to a loss of appetite. Additionally, the stimulation of the stomach increases gastric juice secretion, which can irritate an empty stomach and is detrimental to patients with conditions like gastric ulcers. However, drinking it after a meal can aid digestion because the increased gastric juice secretion helps with the digestive process. Therefore, drinking coffee after a meal is absolutely fine.
Of course, "too much of a good thing is a bad thing." Even the best things should be enjoyed in moderation. As a rule of thumb, it is advisable to drink two to three cups of coffee a day. If you drink four or five cups, most people will start to feel nauseous, so be careful.
Honey
Honey is a naturally nourishing food rich in nutrients and one of the most commonly used supplements. It contains various inorganic salts and vitamins whose concentration is similar to human serum, making it easily absorbed by the body. Many white-collar workers have the habit of drinking honey water, which can prevent constipation, nourish the skin, and maintain overall health.
Experts remind us that the timing of consuming honey is very important. It is recommended to drink it 1.5 to 2 hours after a meal. Drinking honey water on an empty stomach can easily increase acidity in the body, and over time, this can lead to excessive stomach acid, causing gastric ulcers or duodenal ulcers.
For people with sensitive stomachs, it is best to drink it mixed with water at 30°C to avoid adverse symptoms like diarrhea or gastroenteritis. However, the temperature should not be too high. From a pharmacological perspective, heating honey above 67°C will destroy its vitamins and reduce its aroma, thereby lowering its nutritional value.
Slimming Tea
Summer is the perfect time to get fit, lose weight, and show off a great figure. Many white-collar workers who aim to correct their body shape and prevent weight gain rely on slimming tea to control their weight.
Tea is an incredibly familiar beverage to most of us. Everyone basically knows that you shouldn't drink tea immediately after a meal; it's best to wait for half an hour. However, many people often overlook that tea should also not be consumed on an empty stomach. As the ancients said, "Do not drink tea on an empty stomach," which means exactly this. Because tea contains caffeine and other alkaloids, drinking it on an empty stomach can lead to excessive absorption of these substances in the intestines, easily causing gastrointestinal discomfort and loss of appetite.
The currently popular slimming tea products on the market emphasize the concept of tea therapy for wellness, with their main ingredients extracted from natural tea leaves. Consequently, they are also not suitable for drinking on an empty stomach. Moreover, a person in charge from a well-known domestic slimming tea brand, Bisengsheng, explained that drinking it correctly can enhance its effects, and a very important rule is to drink it after a meal and never on an empty stomach.
Yogurt
People often discuss how to drink yogurt for better health or when is the best time to drink it for optimal nutrient absorption. If consumed on an empty stomach, yogurt can easily stimulate the gastrointestinal tract to empty quickly, and the nutrients in the yogurt won't have enough time to be fully digested and absorbed before being expelled. Drinking it after a meal can reduce this stimulation, allowing the yogurt to be slowly absorbed in the stomach.
Li Guangyi, a nutrition expert, explains that generally, the best time to drink yogurt is between 30 minutes and 2 hours after a meal. Under normal conditions, the pH value of gastric juice is between 1 and 3. When the stomach is empty, gastric juice is highly acidic with a pH value below 2, which is not suitable for the growth of the active lactic acid bacteria in yogurt. Only when the stomach's pH value is higher can the lactic acid bacteria in yogurt grow fully, which is beneficial to health. Furthermore, the optimal temperature for drinking yogurt is 10°C-12°C. Note that the temperature should not exceed 50°C, as this will deactivate the beneficial bacteria.