Water

quickbeam

Okay, so I already asked this in the Food & Drink forum and haven't got any responses. I think here is a better place for the question anyway:

I know you should drink two litres of water a day, but I've been hearing conflicting ideas about whether it's a good idea to drink water with a meal or not.

Anybody know the definitive answer?

PS: I'm struggling to get the 2 litres down me and only manage to do so because I drink most of those 2 litres during mealtimes.

John

Icy cold water during a meal is a bad idea because the enzymes in your gastrointestinal tract are temperature specific, if you cool them down it means that it will take longer for the food to digest and you'll feel bloated and yucky. Other than that I think water is fine during a meal.

The two litres are best spread out over the day if possible. If you drink it in large helpings your body will just piss it out very quickly.

Pet

Also, if you drink a lot of water with your food it'll dilute your stomach acid, impairing digestion, which again isn't a majorly bad thing, but probably not the best idea either.

A point to note is that if you eat lots of soup or drink lots of fruit juice, this counts towards your daily intake of fluid too. It may seem obvious but people forget.

GerryRyan

I've seen a few threads on water consumption in the Fitness fourm.
*goes off to look*

edit: On second thoughts, those threads were about over-consumption of water.

Moojuice

Pet wrote:

Also, if you drink a lot of water with your food it'll dilute your stomach acid, impairing digestion.

Not to sure that this is the case. I doubt that the stomach could be thrown off so easily Ill ask a doctor friend of mine but I am pretty sure that its not the case.

ST*

John2 wrote:

Icy cold water during a meal is a bad idea because the enzymes in your gastrointestinal tract are temperature specific, if you cool them down it means that it will take longer for the food to digest

I heard the opposite - that cold water gave your body something of a 'jump start', meaning that it had to work harder to retain its natural temperature. This would then trigger a speed up in your metabolism, consequently burning more calories.

If non-chilled water is definitely the way forward, I'm happy enough with that - it is too hard to drink chilled!

John

I was talking about when you're eating, the enzymes that break down the food for absorption, metabolism occurs further down the line once the food is abosorbed and away from the stomach. If you cool down the stomach while you eat you can feel bloated as the food is just sitting there.