Can You Swim After Consuming?

There are just a few commonalities throughout childhood swimming experiences in the US that I’d enterprise to guess you is likely to be conversant in. Did you ever play Marco Polo? Maybe you rode round on foam pool noodles with your folks? Did you drink Capri Suns and snack on Cheetos Puffs across the perimeter of the water as I did? 

Even when not one of the above rings true for you, I’m nearly sure you’ve heard of the extensively accepted pool knowledge that many mother and father share with their children: Don’t swim for a minimum of half-hour (or typically an hour, relying on which grownup you are asking) after you’ve eaten.

I heard this previous adage all through my childhood, and like many others, I’ve lengthy accepted it as true. However while you replicate on this “truth” for a minute or two, it raises the query: Why can’t you swim for a minimum of half-hour after consuming? In a current episode of the podcast ScienceStuff, host and former roboticist Jorge Cham takes listeners on a deep dive into this doable fantasy, exploring what it means precisely, if there’s any diploma of reality to it, and whether or not we are able to begin consuming extra snacks proper earlier than we hop within the pool.

The place did this fantasy come from?

Even the supply of this age-old knowledge is considerably shrouded in thriller. Cham explains that neither he nor anybody he consulted might definitively decide the place the advice to attend half-hour earlier than swimming originated. Nonetheless, the earliest documented point out of this recommendation that he can discover comes from a considerably surprising supply: the unique Boy Scout handbook from 1908, Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell. 

This guide — which was wildly in style within the early twentieth century — affords a variety of recommendation, from sensible abilities corresponding to use a compass to knowledge that doesn’t endure, like climate predictions corresponding to “a yellow sundown means wind.”

The latter is unsurprising, contemplating it is a textual content from over 100 years in the past. But, hidden inside its pages is a chunk of counsel that’s nonetheless handed on at this time: “By no means bathe in deep water very quickly after a meal, it is vitally prone to trigger cramp, which doubles you up, and so that you get drowned.” And right here is the place the 30-minute fantasy begins — a minimum of to one of the best of our data.

Is swimming after consuming harmful?

Because the language on this archival Boy Scout handbook signifies, the “rule” that you simply shouldn’t swim for a minimum of half-hour after consuming arises from a worry that doing so might result in a cramp extreme sufficient to trigger drowning.

To find out whether or not this concern is justified, Cham consults a great supply: Dr. Matthew Badgett, a doctor specializing in inner medication and pediatric main care on the Cleveland Clinic, who additionally occurred to be a aggressive swimmer in highschool. (Badgett has additionally spoken in regards to the relationship between swimming and consuming earlier than.)

To start out, Badgett highlights the contradiction in mother and father advising kids in opposition to consuming proper earlier than swimming, whereas concurrently encouraging them to eat and drink simply earlier than different actions — corresponding to soccer — to forestall cramps.

Recalling his personal childhood, he says, “I at all times had a powerful barometer for hypocrisy, however I at all times thought this rule actually made no sense to me.” He additionally notes that “I might bodily inform the distinction if I had two items of toast after which went and swam an hour at 5:30, 6 a.m. in highschool, versus if I did not eat it, I might be dragging.”

Total, the physician emphasizes that for strenuous actions corresponding to biking and working, you want energy to gas your physique; this additionally applies to aggressive swimming.

Though most individuals aren’t exercising vigorously whereas swimming in a pool, Badgett explains that in his pediatric coaching, he by no means discovered something indicating whether or not it’s best to or shouldn’t eat earlier than swimming in any situation. He has additionally by no means had a mother or father method him with a problem attributable to their little one consuming shortly after swimming.

Along with Badgett’s expertise as a health care provider and his logical argument in opposition to the archaic rule in opposition to consuming and swimming, Cham additionally examines printed scientific proof confirming that there’s nothing to fret about.

In 2011, the American Purple Cross Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC)  printed a complete evaluate of current research on the consequences of consuming earlier than swimming. It finally concluded that, “At the moment out there data means that consuming earlier than swimming shouldn’t be a contributing danger for drowning and may be dismissed as a fantasy.”

Much more importantly, the American Purple Cross has printed steerage as lately as 2024 stating that “Swimming inside one hour of consuming meals in grownup and little one leisure or aggressive swimmers doesn’t improve the danger of drowning.” 

Can swimming after consuming make you are feeling sick?

Whereas proof exhibits there’s no inherent hazard in swimming quickly after consuming, there stays the likelihood that it might trigger nausea or discomfort. In truth, Cham notes that a number of research reviewed by the SAC discovered “that the swimmers who went swimming [in] thirty minutes or much less reported a major quantity of discomfort and nausea. It was not a great swimming expertise for them.”

To grasp why this happens requires a quick biology lesson. Dr. Stephen Ives, an affiliate professor of well being and human physiological sciences at Skidmore Faculty, explains that while you’re at relaxation, your coronary heart pumps the suitable quantity of blood to all of the methods in your physique primarily based on their wants.

This consists of your digestive system, and Ives particulars that “Your mind’s getting what’s wanted, the center’s getting what it wants, the muscle groups are getting some, the intestine is getting what it wants.”

If you train, your cardiac output — the quantity of blood your coronary heart pumps per minute — will increase. On the similar time, the precedence of blood move to completely different bodily methods shifts, as sure areas require vitamins, vitality, and oxygen from the blood whilst you exert your self. “There is a excessive demand for blood move, for the vitamins, for the oxygen to assist vitality manufacturing so the muscle groups can maintain doing their factor and contracting.

“That may come at [the] value of a few of the different organs. So on a proportion foundation, the intestine goes from getting possibly 25% of the blood that is pumped out by the center per minute to possibly a pair %. It will get reduce dramatically,” Ives explains.

This implies your digestive course of will possible be slower. Should you’ve simply eaten a really giant and calorically dense meal — or one thing excessive in fats, which may be tougher to digest — it’d sit in your abdomen for longer and trigger discomfort. You may think about this as a sensation similar to in the event you went for a run proper after an enormous meal. You may do it and be wonderful, however your abdomen would possibly really feel a bit unsettled.

However blood move isn’t the one issue contributing to doable sluggish digestion whereas swimming. Ives factors out that gastric emptying, the method of meals shifting out of your abdomen to your small gut, happens extra rapidly while you’re standing or sitting upright in comparison with mendacity down. If you swim, you’re technically horizontal, which might additionally result in slower digestion and discomfort.

Ives factors out {that a} frequent reason behind muscle cramps is an absence of electrolytes, which may be obtained from meals like bananas, spinach, milk, dill pickles, and plenty of others. If it has been too lengthy because you consumed a great supply of electrolytes, it might result in cramps whereas swimming. Cham summarizes this by saying, “It appears like you do not need to eat too near swimming, however you do need to eat one thing beforehand in some unspecified time in the future,” to make sure you have gas and electrolytes.

What does this imply for you?

In keeping with the Purple Cross’ steerage, you needn’t fear about any severe hazard from consuming inside half-hour of swimming. As Ives concludes, “It is probably not a security situation. I might say under-nutrition might be extra of a security situation. It is extra of a consolation situation.”

You may positively swim proper after consuming, however in the event you’ve had a big meal, it is likely to be smart to attend for about half-hour to keep away from feeling nauseous. Should you’ve solely had a lightweight snack, you possible don’t want to fret in any respect, which is nice information for these of us who love snacking and swimming.