Your first meal of the day is called breakfast because it is literally the meal that “breaks” your “fast”. It has been several hours since your last meal – your body has gone into fasting mode and your digestive system is very receptive.
That’s why you have to be extra careful what you eat first (not just in the morning, but any time of day that your stomach is empty).
These are the even worst foods you can eat on an empty stomach
Orange Juice
Orange juice can be a highly nutritious drink with many health benefits and vitamins. BUT, drinking it on an empty stomach is a bad idea.
Orange juice is high in malic acid and citric acid. When you drink orange juice on an empty stomach it can cause health issues, by eating away at the lining of your stomach. Orange juice also triggers hydrochloric acid (your normal digestive acid) production from your stomach lining – turning your stomach into a very acid environment. Together they cause irritation and inflammation in the lining of your stomach. As we know – inflammation is never a good thing in the body.
Symptoms often observed in those who drink orange juice on an empty stomach include heartburn, upset stomach, stomach aches, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and stomach ulcers.
The more concentrated your juice is, the stronger the effects will be, and if you drink large quantities of orange juice on an empty stomach on a frequent basis, you are liking to develop issues faster.
Coffee
Many people feel they can’t start their day without a cup of coffee. Here is why you should eat breakfast before you drink coffee.
As with orange juice, coffee creates hydrochloric acid in your stomach. If there is no food in your stomach for this acid to digest, it will damage your stomach lining and cause symptoms of IBS, heartburn and indigestion.
According to the chief medical officer at PushDoctor.co.uk, Dr Adam Simon, coffee also acts as a diuretic, increasing the amount of water you pass. This can cause dehydration if you don’t have any other fluids in your system.
Coffee on an empty stomach is a particularly bad idea for anyone who suffers from anxiety or panic attacks. It can up your blood pressure, cause your heart beat to be irregular, increase your pulse and even give you the “jitters” or shakes, and mood swings.
If you are going to drink coffee, make sure you do it after a solid meal, or at least add milk or cream to your cup.
Sweets and Sugar
When we talk about sweets and sugar, we don’t just mean candy. Any food that is high in sugar and low in pretty much everything else, counts as “sweets” in this instance. This includes things like doughnuts, Danish pastries, sweet pies and even dried fruit, or large amounts of fresh sweet fruits. You eat these on an empty stomach and you have a sugar rush.
What happens next is that you get a rush of insulin into your blood stream, which attempts to metabolise the sugar. Once the sugar is processed (and stored as fat) you have surplus insulin in your blood stream and you experience a sugar crash.
When you buffer the effects of the sugar by eating a protein and (good) fat rich meal before you have the sugar, you will not experience as much of a sugar crash. They have a stabilizing effect on your body. They help to control the rate that sugar is released into your blood stream.
Yogurt
You may be thinking – yogurt is supposed to be good for me – and it can be. But the thing that really makes yogurt great is the probiotics (healthy bacteria) that it puts into your gut. Unfortunately, when you eat yogurt on an empty stomach – those probiotics are destroyed before they can do you any good.
When you eat, your stomach produces acid to aid digestion. If you eat yogurt on an empty stomach, all of the goodness and probiotics in the lactic acid are destroyed by the high acidity levels in your stomach. It’s a much better idea to eat yogurt after a balanced meal – so that the digestive acid in your stomach will be diluted.
Cold Carbonated Drinks (Soda)
Most of us already understand the dangers of drinking soft drinks, and yet many people still drink them. If you are among those that do drink soft drinks – make sure that you are not drinking them on an empty stomach.
Drinking cold carbonated drinks on an empty stomach changes the acidity levels in your stomach and gastric lining. It makes the environment too acidic – causing inflammation in your stomach lining. The high acidity levels also impair your ability to digest food, and thus, your ability to absorb nutrients and minerals.
Spicy Foods
According to gastroenterologist Lisa Ganjhu, you should never eat hot or spicy foods on an empty stomach because they will cause irritation in your bowels and stomach. When you eat spicy foods after you have eaten a balanced meal, there is likely to be some fat and protein in your stomach to protect your stomach lining from the effects of the heated spice. When your stomach is empty, spices like jalapenos, chillies, hot sauce or hot curry, can have terrible effects on your stomach lining – causing ulcers, IBS, and stripping away at your stomach lining.
Alcohol
Evidence that you really should never drink on an empty stomach. Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim of “The Truth Behind Alcohol” did an experiment to prove how much faster alcohol affects us if we drink on an empty stomach. He and a test subject each drank a glass of wine, his after a balanced meal, and hers on an empty stomach. Twenty minutes later both did a Breathalyzer test – the test subject who had not eaten before the glass of wine showed double the alcohol reading of the Doctor who had eaten a meal before drinking.
According to another study by Wayne Jones, a professor of forensic toxicology in Sweden, drinking on an empty stomach produces a rate of alcohol absorption which is as fast as receiving the alcohol intravenously (directly into your blood stream through a needle).
Aside from the dangerous effects of alcohol in your system – there is one more reason not to drink on an empty stomach: It makes you over eat later.
Alcohol lowers your levels of leptin, the hormone in your brain that tells you when you have had enough to eat. The result is that you keep feeling hungry and making bad food choices.
So, if you are planning on having a few drinks make sure that you eat a good, healthy meal before you do!
If you have a weak digestive system, please avoid these 7 foods when on an empty stomach.
If you are suffering from digestive issues, go to the next page and read 3 tips to get rid of boosting, gas, constipation indigestion –
About the Author:
Emma Deangela is the best selling author of The Alkaline Diet Program and 80/20 Fat Loss. She has helped over tens of thousands of men and women to lose weight and transform their health with sound nutrition advice. Check out her 4 foods to never eat for breakfast video to lose more than 18 lbs in 3 weeks.
Which wonderful friends in your life would appreciate knowing these 7 foods to avoid on an empty stomach?
Please help them by sharing this eye-opening article with each of them using any of the social media and email buttons below.
Leave a Reply