7 Eating Habits You May Want to Start Avoiding

You may have developed these habits and thought that it won’t cause you anything, think twice! We compiled these dangerous things you do after eating to convince you to do otherwise.

1. Smoking

Everyone does this.  They say it relieves the feeling of fullness however, experiments proved that smoking a cigarette right after a meal is more than smoking 10 cigarettes straight. It may relax you or give you that notion that it aids in your digestion but the truth is smoking has been linked to both IBS or irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis (a stomach ulcer). Your stomach is more vulnerable to this after meal.  So, I guess you know better now.

2. Eating fruits right after meal

We didn’t know this until today. Fruits are great desserts, substituting those unhealthy sweets like chocolates or candies but when you eat fruits right after meal, there’s a great chance that they will hinder movement of heavy food, making them virtually stuck before the intestines. This is the reason why some physicians recommend eating fruit at least an hour before or after your regular meal.

3. Drinking tea

Tea is acidic and the acid reacts negatively to protein by hardening it making the digestion difficult. It’s a common practice in the East to drink hot tea before each meal but our experts highly recommend to do it at least an hour after your meal.

4. Loosening your belt

By doing this, it will allow you to eat more, to a degree that you are normally uncomfortable. This is an old practice especially from people in the urban areas and it’s a bad one.  Plus overeating is something you should never do and try to avoid.

5. Taking a bath

Highly discouraged to do this since taking a bath increases the flow of blood to your extremities (hands and legs). This consequently decreases the amount of blood flow towards your stomach which is crucial for a faster and more efficient digestion.

6. Walking

Women usually do this to the misconception of preventing bulges and live handles. It accounts for acid reflux and indigestion in huge percentage of the population. You should wait after at least half an hour before you walk and the activity becomes beneficial. Walk for only about 10 minutes and only after 30 minutes you eat so you won’t experience acid reflux and stomach upsets.

7. Sleeping immediately after a meal

I know those protein packed meals are responsible for your drowsiness and urge to sleep, but try to control it.  While some people say it’s to prevent you from experiencing lucid nightmares it is actually to prevent indigestion. Sleeping slows down your whole body along with many of its processes, including digestion. Recurring indigestion can lead to a variety of health problems including gastric and intestinal infection.