What, when and how to drink for optimum digestion and health

[BananaMonkey]

I starting writing this as a reply to 4bsolute's thread on Correct Taoist Ways of Drinking in the healing circle forum and since the original posts were rather long, I thought I'd just add what else I know from reading and own experience. There's quite a bit of helpful info in it, so here we go:

Contents:

1. What to drink

2. How to drink

3. When to drink

4. Overwiew: Digestion time for different food types

1. What to drink

First off, pretty much all the liquids I drink (when not travelling) are based on distilled water. I read a few books on the subject and heard loads of testimony from people who benefited greatly from the practice. In a nutshell, the main advantage over tap or bottled water is that it contains no anorganic minerals, which the body cannot use and therefore has to use energy to eliminate. If the load of inorganic minerals is too high, calcified deposits will form on the joints and nerves, causing various kinds of trouble. Organic minerals on the other hand have been taken up from the soil and converted into biologically usable material by microorganisms in cooperation with plants. This is done by changing their charge and building them into organic molecules.

Another important point about distilled water is that the distillation virtually filters all known impurities such as herbicide residue, chemicals and pharmaceuticals as well as hormones that are found in regular tap water. Once all this stuff is removed, the water has a strong negative charge and pulls out all the positively charged molecules of unwanted material out of the body. This can lead to dramatic detox symptons in the first days and weeks of drinking distilled water, especially if large quantities are consumed.

I use a Megahome (Taiwanese brand) distiller that distills 4 litres in about 4 hours if it's filled with hot tap water. If you put in cold water, it obviously needs more time to bring it to a boil. I usually fill the machine once at night and twice a day, as I'm not the only person in the household. I myself usually drink at least 5 litres of the water as I've always been a thirsty person.

I use the water for plain drinking at room temperature, tea, smoothies, soaking dried fruit etc. When consumed by itself, the water is really smooth and has no taste, as opposed to tap water. Tea and coffee are said to be far more aromatic.

I recommed the very concise book "The Choice Is Clear" by Dr. Allen E. Banik and the many videos featuring Andrew Norton Webber on youtube for further info.

The maybe even better choice would be fresh spring water, as it's usually low in anorganic minerals and it is structured energetically. Spring water is just somewhat hard to get in large quantities if you live in a big city. Since I understand that this whole energetic structure business may sound too far-out for some, I'll just hint at structuring water: It can also be done using crystals, for example when using distilled water, there's loads of info on this online. Check out Masaru Emoto's work for a good introduction to the incredible science behind the structures of water.

2. How to drink

Those familiar with Chinese culture will know that the Chinese often drink warm water, although the influence of Western habits leads to a strongly increasing popularity of ice-cold softdrinks etc. According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), cold drinks affect digestion and the associated organds negatively, which leads to various unbalaces. When consumed with food, according to the TCM view, cold water especially strains the spleen. In Western science, we know that the enzymes involved in digestion need a certain temperature to work, which would obviously be affected by cold beverages.

Another often overlooked part of drinking is the speed at which you down your liquids. Gandhi said: “Chew your drink and drink your food”, advising people to drink slowly and masticate food thoroughly. Among the advantages of drinking slowly over guzzling water down is not stretching your stomach suddenly. In its empty state, the stomach contracts to the size of a fist. In an extremely trained human, it can accommodate up to four litres of food or water, but a fast expansion can lead to bloating and overstretching the membranes. Another reason to drink even room-temperature water slowly is that it's still about 20 degrees celsius cooler than the inside of your stomach and can be pre-warmed in your mouth before it hits your stomach, making its absorption easier.

3. When to drink

In addition to being picky about what I drink, my timing also tends to be fussy. When I wake up, I drink at least a litre of distilled water. Then I wait at least half an hour before I eat, if I'm not yet hungry longer. That would usually be a load of fruit, varieties depending on the season. I give fruit half an hour to digest, If it's a smoothie more like an hour, as it's more or less diluted.

The next time I drink a larger amount is before lunch, again about a litre at least 20-30 mins before I eat. For lunch I mostly eat cooked carbs like brown rice, millet, potatoes or legumes like chichpeas or beans, always with a lot of veggies. This needs two hours to digest.

During the afternoon, after digesting lunch for at least two hours and drinking another litre or so I may get hungry again. In that case I usually eat some fruit with no drinking for 30 mins.

Before Dinner I also drink a litre. My dinner usually is a massive salad with fat like avocado, various good cold-pressed non-filtered oils or a sauce based on soaked nuts or seeds blended with water or tomatoes or sour, juicy fruit like oranges. The vitamin C of sour fruit is said to aid in the digestion of protein. The advantage of eating fat at night is that it provides the body with a steady stream on energy for the whole night, whereas carbs run out sooner. In that case, the body would have to switch into gluconeogenesis, burning glucogenic aminoacids or other material. In addition, the insulin that's released during and after ingestion of carbs interferes with melatonin and can affect your sleep.

After dinner, which I usually finish between 7 pm and 7:30, I don't really drink for at least four hours because fats and protein need the longest time to digest. But I will always have a glass jar with water handy at night, so that I sometimes drink another litre at night.

And then the whole thing starts again

4. Overwiew: Digestion time for different food types

First off, I you have never about trophology or food-combining, be sure to read up on this as it's crucial for good digestion and efficient use of nutrients. With that in mind, here's some general info on the time it takes various foods to be broken down in the stomach and pass into the large intestine. Once they're out of your stomach, you won't dilute the digestive enzymes by drinking. These figures may not be extremly accurate, but they're provided as a sort of rough guideline.

Fruit: 30 mins

Vegetables: 1-2 hours

Grains: 1-2 hours

Beans: 1-2 hours

Meat and Fish: At least 3-4 hours

Olives and avocados: 2 hours

Oil: 3-4 hours

Keep in mind that adding oil slows down the digestion of other foods as it coats them and has to be broken down first. That's why I usually eat salads with oil only as the last meal of the day.

This ended up being a bit long-winded, hope people can make some use of the info...

Edited June 9, 2013 by BananaMonkey

[RiverSnake]

You may find this thread useful. http://thetaobums.com/topic/25715-tcm-food-combining/

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[skydog]

I starting writing this as a reply to 4bsolute's thread on Correct Taoist Ways of Drinking in the healing circle forum and since the original posts were rather long, I just I'd just add what else I know from reading and own experience. There's quite a bit of helpful info in it, so here we go:

 

 

Contents:

1. What to drink

2. How to drink

3. When to drink

4. Overwiew: Digestion time for different food types

 

 

1. What to drink

 

 

First off, pretty much all the liquids I drink (when not travelling) are based on distilled water. I read a few books on the subject and heard loads of testimony from people who benefited greatly from the practice. In a nutshell, the main advantage over tap or bottled water is that it contains no anorganic minerals, which the body cannot use and therefore has to use energy to eliminate. If the load of inorganic minerals is too high, calcified deposits will form on the joints and nerves, causing various kinds of trouble. Organic minerals on the other hand have been taken up from the soil and converted into biologically usable material by microorganisms in cooperation with plants. This is done by changing their charge and building them into organic molecules.

 

 

Another important point about distilled water is that the distillation virtually filters all known impurities such as herbicide residue, chemicals and pharmaceuticals as well as hormones that are found in regular tap water. Once all this stuff is removed, the water has a strong negative charge and pulls out all the positively charged molecules of unwanted material out of the body. This can lead to dramatic detox symptons in the first days and weeks of drinking distilled water, especially if large quantities are consumed.

 

 

I use a Megahome (Taiwanese brand) distiller that distills 4 litres in about 4 hours if it's filled with hot tap water. If you put in cold water, it obviously needs more time to bring it to a boil. I usually fill the machine once at night and twice a day, as I'm not the only person in the household. I myself usually drink at least 5 litres of the water as I've always been a thirsty person.

 

 

I use the water for plain drinking at room temperature, tea, smoothies, soaking dried fruit etc. When consumed by itself, the water is really smooth and has no taste, as opposed to tap water. Tea and coffee are said to be far more aromatic.

 

 

I recommed the very concise book "The Choice Is Clear" by Dr. Allen E. Banik and the many videos featuring Andrew Norton Webber on youtube for further info.

 

 

The maybe even better choice would be fresh spring water, as it's usually low in anorganic minerals and it is structured energetically. Spring water is just somewhat hard to get in large quantities if you live in a big city. Since I understand that this whole energetic structure business may sound too far-out for some, I'll just hint at structuring water: It can also be done using crystals, for example when using distilled water, there's loads of info on this online. Check out Masaru Emoto's work for a good introduction to the incredible science behind the structures of water.

 

 

2. How to drink

Those familiar with Chinese culture will know that the Chinese often drink warm water, although the influence of Western habits leads to a strongly increasing popularity of ice-cold softdrinks etc. According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), cold drinks affect digestion and the associated organds negatively, which leads to various unbalaces. When consumed with food, according to the TCM view, cold water especially strains the spleen. In Western science, we know that the enzymes involved in digestion need a certain temperature to work, which would obviously be affected by cold beverages.

 

 

Another often overlooked part of drinking is the speed at which you down your liquids. Gandhi said: “Chew your drink and drink your food”, advising people to drink slowly and masticate food thoroughly. Among the advantages of drinking slowly over guzzling water down is not stretching your stomach suddenly. In its empty state, the stomach contracts to the size of a fist. In an extremely trained human, it can accommodate up to four litres of food or water, but a fast expansion can lead to bloating and overstretching the membranes. Another reason to drink even room-temperature water slowly is that it's still about 20 degrees celsius cooler than the inside of your stomach and can be pre-warmed in your mouth before it hits your stomach, making its absorption easier.

 

 

3. When to drink

 

 

In addition to being picky about what I drink, my timing also tends to be fussy. When I wake up, I drink at least a litre of distilled water. Then I wait at least half an hour before I eat, if I'm not yet hungry longer. That would usually be a load of fruit, varieties depending on the season. I give fruit half an hour to digest, If it's a smoothie more like an hour, as it's more or less diluted.

 

 

The next time I drink a larger amount is before lunch, again about a litre at least 20-30 mins before I eat. For lunch I mostly eat cooked carbs like brown rice, millet, potatoes or legumes like chichpeas or beans, always with a lot of veggies. This needs two hours to digest.

 

 

During the afternoon, after digesting lunch for at least two hours and drinking another litre or so I may get hungry again. In that case I usually eat some fruit with no drinking for 30 mins.

 

 

Before Dinner I also drink a litre. My dinner usually is a massive salad with fat like avocado, various good cold-pressed non-filtered oils or a sauce based on soaked nuts or seeds blended with water or tomatoes or sour, juicy fruit like oranges. The vitamin C of sour fruit is said to aid in the digestion of protein. The advantage of eating fat at night is that it provides the body with a steady stream on energy for the whole night, whereas carbs run out sooner. In that case, the body would have to switch into gluconeogenesis, burning glucogenic aminoacids or other material. In addition, the insulin that's released during and after ingestion of carbs interferes with melatonin and can affect your sleep.

 

 

After dinner, which I usually finish between 7 pm and 7:30, I don't really drink for at least four hours because fats and protein need the longest time to digest. But I will always have a glass jar with water handy at night, so that I sometimes drink another litre at night.

 

 

And then the whole thing starts again

 

 

4. Overwiew: Digestion time for different food types

 

 

First off, I you have never about trophology or food-combining, be sure to read up on this as it's crucial for good digestion and efficient use of nutrients. With that in mind, here's some general info on the time it takes various foods to be broken down in the stomach and pass into the large intestine. Once they're out of your stomach, you won't dilute the digestive enzymes by drinking. These figures may not be extremly accurate, but they're provided as a sort of rough guideline.

 

 

Fruit: 30 mins

Vegetables: 1-2 hours

Grains: 1-2 hours

Beans: 1-2 hours

Meat and Fish: At least 3-4 hours

Olives and avocados: 2 hours

Oil: 3-4 hours

Keep in mind that adding oil slows down the digestion of other foods as it coats them and has to be broken down first. That's why I usually eat salads with oil only as the last meal of the day.

 

 

 

 

This ended up being a bit long-winded, hope people can make some use of the info...

 

 

Thank you

[Chang]

Very interesting. Thank you.