Walking After A Meal: Good or bad idea?

One of the most commonly heard advice for health is to walk after a meal. This seems contrary to reason, because after all, you rest and digest for your body to absorb food.

So, should you walk after a meal?

To understand let us delve into the backstory. Your body has two primary modes. Fight and flight or rest and digest. Think of these as your accelerator and brake.

So, rest and digest is when your body and mind are calm, you eat mindfully and digest and absorb your food. So, where does walking, which would be the exact opposite, fit in?

What is important is the entire process, end to end.

When you eat, you are ideally meant to eat slowly, chew your food several times, savour and taste. The entire process could take thirty minutes or longer. This gives your body enough time to rest and digest.

Once done, if you go for a short leisurely walk, it helps reduce bloating, improve gastric emptying, and improve motility. So, contrary to the belief that walking after a meal could cause pain or indigestion, it helps improve absorption.

In a research study done in 2001, a meta study by Peters et al. found that walking for up to fifteen minutes after a meal improved digestion across all parameters.

So, should you walk?

I was also surprised to learn that the answer was yes. You should.

Walking not only helps improve digestion, it also reduces blood sugar. Typically after a meal, your sugar will spike. The body is converting the food you ate into sugar. Your liver is releasing glycogen into your blood.

We experience this as a post-prandial sugar spike. Walking helps soak up some of this sugar and use it as energy, blunting the effect.

So even if you do not have indigestion or high blood sugar, building the habit of walking briefly after a meal is a good habit.

The key is a brief stroll, not a lengthy or vigorous one.

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