Ok this question sounds stupid... Denise Austin said that you should drink water during and after meals to help you feel full but Suzanne Somers said that you should never drink water around any time that you eat because it will interfere with digestion.

Hmmm.. I drink water thru the day...every hour on the hour...including but not always...during meals. I stop at around 8pm otherwise I'd be in the bathroom all night. Don't see a problem with my drinking of water....its when I DON'T drink water (or enough water) when the problems begin...

AFAIK, it doesn't really matter unless you have a problem with reflux. Drinking a lot of water with a meal can aggrivate that. Otherwise, I don't see how it could "interfere" with digestion.

I drink water when I'm thirsty... not to sound liek a smart a--, but I find that the more water I drink, the thirstier I am. I carry water with me everywhere, all day and night long.

I drink water all day long from the time a get up to almost when I go to bed. I have had no difficulty with digestion. I think you should do what feels right for your body!

Does she say how it will interfere with digestion? From all my anatomy/physiology schooling, I've never heard such a thing.

Anne Marie Colbin says something similar, that too much water dilutes the digestive enzymes and they don't work as well. I can see a logic, although I have no clue if it's true. I drink after a meal, usually, at least for the water that's directly linked to a meal.

Other suggestions--keep a big (plastic for safety) cup in the bathroom, and drink it down every time you brush your teeth. That can be 16 oz at each end of the day, which means you're starting with a load of water and going to bed with another that can do its "clean-up" work overnight. Might have to adjust so you can sleep through the night, but I have to admit, a full bladder sure helps get me out of bed in the morning!

When I was young, I remember my mother during dinner time always forbidding us to drink water until after we've finished eating. My father and younger sister has no qualms with that notion, but I could never grow comfortable with that habit.

I never knew the reason why she insisted not drinking water while eating, but I was always thirsty in the middle of dinner needing something to drink, whether it was water, soda, or juice.

So, I never followed that rule and for all of my life--when I escaped the maternal tyrany during college--I would drink before, during, and after meals. It's never affected me adversely in any way what so ever.

In my view, it seems pretty irrational to refrain from drinking if one is thirsty.

Regards,

Frederick

The only thing that can cause an enzyme to loose effectiveness is either an enzyme inhibitor, a major pH change or extreme high temperatures. Plus, you have about 15 different enzymes that break down different types of molecules (fat, sugar, protein) located in different areas throughout your digestive system. You start breaking down carbs in your mouth, protein in your stomach and fats and nucleic acids make it all the way to your small intestine before they start to break down.

In your stomach, the digestive enzyme is pepsin, which is kind of "self activating." It's secreted as an inactive enzyme, pepsinogen (inactive so it doesn't eat away the lining of your stomach when it's not in use). Other cells in your stomach secrete hydrochloric acid, as needed, which activates the pepsinogen, turning it into pepsin. The pepsin can then activate more pepsinogen until there is enough to digest all the food, then the process shuts itself off. Several of the other digestive enzymes function this way, as well. Therefore, if the become to "dilute," they can create more as needed.

My advice: drink when you want to

No, she didn't, I wish she had though. It seems to me after reading all of these posts that it really doesn't make a difference when you drink, just that you drink enough.

She did mention why not to. It's the same thing that melissasvh posted about Anne Marie Colbin. If it's true I have no clue, but I found it difficult to get through the meal without something to push the food down, so when I was doing her plan I bypassed that rule.