‘You are what you Eat’. This is a proverb you might have heard before if you have taken part in some health program before. The truth is quite near to it. What you eat or drink all day long determines your health. This is true even for what you do in the morning before you start your day.
There are many notions about what one should drink or eat after waking up. And while we are not ‘Mythbusters’ (which sounds like something you would see on the Discovery channel), we would like to dispel them to help you lead a better, healthier and more fulfilling life. So here are a few common food and drinks that you would generally consider taking on an empty stomach and what you should do about this kind of habits.
Conventional Fruit Juices
Waking up n the morning, stretching up a bit, turning on the juicer and loading it up with an orange or Mango or banana, perhaps. And if you lead a metropolitan life, the opening the packet of fruit juice with ‘Real Fruit’ written on it. There is perhaps anything else which can give you a feeling of healthy living than a tall glass of chilled, freshly prepared fruit juice.
Even the commercials on a TV show this kind of healthy living, don’t they?
But wait, think it up a little bit. Following that kind of trend can cause harm to your digestive system and indirectly to your whole body. When you wake up in the morning, your organs are starting to function again after a period of near rest. Putting such stress on them can cause damage to your health.
Consider it like this; you are like a computer. When you wake up and stretch, your systems are booting up. They need some time to bring the whole device (your body) back up. You wouldn’t want to run a resource-intensive program immediately after your computer starts up, would you? You have to give it a little bit of time to boot up completely.
Conventional Fruit Juices contain fructose and glucose. A lot of sugar. Under normal conditions that would be good as it would provide you with a lot of energy. But your organs like liver, pancreas, and stomach need some time to adjust after a prolonged period of inactivity. The sugar would put your digestive system on overdrive. This kind of kick-start is actually bad. Studies have shown that it is better to have breakfast and fruit Juices after At least 1 hour of waking up.
Coffee or Tea
A cup of liquor tea or strong brew of coffee can literally open your eyes after a good night’s sleep. And even if you haven’t had an 8-hour sleep, it can still kick you back into active working mode. It’s stronger than the kick normally gets from a Friday night Cocktail.
Given the working conditions, many prefer to start the day with a strong caffeine dose. As far as waking you up from your sleep goes, it gets a 10 out of 10. Top marks. The remaining sleep in your eyes just vanishes as the caffeine hits your stomach and delivers a sucker punch to your brain.
Even though it might save you from your boss’s disapproval, it won’t save your body. The fact that caffeine is bad is very well documented. There are many side effects associated with the consumption of caffeine. Some studies even link it with Cancer.
The common side-effects of caffeine consumption include but are not limited to – nausea, anxiety, restlessness and more. Now combine it with a dose early in the morning on Empty Stomach. How well do you think it fares? You don’t need to be an expert on pediatric diet and physical health to understand it.
So, try to avoid a morning cup of good ol’ Joe and then going off to work with a piece of bread in your mouth. It might seem fashionable, but it is not at all healthy.
Who in their right state of mind would eat Pastries early in the morning!? Unless of course, the Pastries are not going to last, in which case, keep up the good work – you are the pivot which turns humanity.
All puns aside, consuming a chunk of pure carb is not good at all. Not just at parties an all but also after waking up and on an empty stomach. Once or twice a week might be good, but that too after you have eaten something. You need to control your cravings if you have such a habit.
If you want to know why scroll up to the point where we tell you why drinking fruit juice on an empty stomach just after waking up can be added. Even though fruit Juices have nutritional value, even though they contain fibre and all, still it is not recommended. How bad do you think pure sugar with an extra layer of cream on top of it and a cherry would be?
Carbonated Drinks give you such freshness, don’t they? But regardless of the time of day you consume a fizzy glass of aerated sugar water, you would be harming your health. If you are a fitness buff, then you know how bad even a small glass of soft drinks can be. You know how much behind the schedule it would throw you.
Carbonated Drinks contain almost twice the amount of sugar than Pastries. They might give you fizz and jizz, and you might think that drinking a small cup of it in the morning would help you feel better all day, but in fact, you couldn’t be any farther from the truth.
Carbonated Drinks increase the acidity of your mouth and stomach.
They can mix with the Hydrochloric Acid present in your stomach. It would result in the rise of the acidic environment in your stomach which would then corrode the inner lining of your stomach.
Cold Beverages work in a similar fashion as to Carbonated Drinks. But then the definition of ‘cold beverages’ can be wide. If you focus on the word ‘cold’, then it would give you a better meaning.
Any drink and the water in it can only be absorbed by the body if it is at your temperature. If not then your body would work to bring it to your body temperature. So if you were to drink cold water or something of that sort, your body would need to burn some amount of your fat to bring the beverage at your normal body temperature before absorption starts.
Normally, this should be a good thing. After all, cold beverages could then allow you to shed some fat (depending on the sugar content). But if you do it early in the morning on Empty Stomach, it would backfire. It is recommended that you drink lukewarm water with a bit of honey and lemon in it if possible instead of cold beverages. It would help you detox your digestive system before you start the day. It would also help you stay hydrated all day long.