"What Healthy Habits Should You Practice Half an Hour After Meals?"

Doing These Things Half an Hour After Meals Can Keep You Healthy

1. Eat Some Fruit
Fruit is a great addition to breakfast. Kiwifruit and strawberries are top choices among many fruits because they are rich in vitamins. Consuming abundant vitamins in the morning can boost energy and ensure our work efficiency throughout the morning.

2. Tap the Outer Side of Your Calves
Tapping the outer side of your calves for 5 minutes after breakfast can help prolong life. This area contains the most important acupoint in the human body – Zusanli. Tapping it after meals can generate stomach qi, dry spleen dampness, making it another secret to maintaining good health after breakfast.

3. Take a Nap
A nap can relieve stress and improve memory. Even if it's just ten minutes, the effect is immediate. Half an hour after lunch is a crucial time to adjust our physical and mental state, so middle-aged and elderly friends, as well as busy individuals, can utilize this time for a quick nap.

4. Stretch, Stand on Tiptoes, and Take Deep Breaths
If time doesn't permit a nap, and you're unable to sleep, it's best to give your throat a rest, especially if you talk a lot. Experts suggest stretching your waist, standing on tiptoes, and taking deep breaths half an hour after meals to refresh your mind.

Things Not to Do After Meals

1. Drink Water Immediately
Drinking water immediately after meals dilutes gastric juice, allowing food to enter the small intestine before digestion, weakening the digestive power of gastric juice and predisposing to gastrointestinal diseases. Drinking soda after meals is even more inappropriate as the carbon dioxide it produces can increase intragastric pressure, leading to acute gastric dilatation.

2. Drink Strong Tea
Tea contains a large amount of tannic acid. Drinking strong tea after meals causes undigested proteins to combine with tannic acid, forming precipitates that hinder protein absorption. Moreover, substances in tea can also impede iron absorption, leading to iron deficiency anemia over time. Additionally, drinking tea immediately after meals introduces a large amount of water into the stomach, diluting digestive juices and affecting digestion.

3. Loosen Your Belt
Many people feel bloated after overeating and often loosen their belt buckles. While this may provide temporary relief, it decreases abdominal pressure, forcing the stomach to sag. In the long run, this can lead to genuine stomach ptosis.

4. Lack of Movement
The saying "Take a hundred steps after meals and live to be 99" is misleading. Increased physical activity after meals can interfere with the absorption of nutrients by the digestive tract. For the elderly, with declining heart function and hardened blood vessels, postprandial walks can even cause a drop in blood pressure.

5. Smoke
Some believe that smoking a cigarette after meals is akin to becoming an immortal. In reality, this practice is highly detrimental to health. After meals, gastrointestinal motility increases, and blood circulation accelerates, initiating comprehensive digestive system activity. Smoking at this time significantly enhances the absorption of harmful smoke components by the lungs and tissues throughout the body, exerting a stronger irritant effect on the respiratory and digestive tracts than usual smoking.