# Do you drink (any nonalcoholic beverage) while you eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988 "2011-11-05T21:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/41 "2011-11-06T20:26:26Z")
> [@jem\_1](#): > > At home, I take just a few sips of water or skim milk during a meal. In restaurants, a margarita or glass of wine. If I ask for a glass of water, I then feel guilty for not drinking it. I can’t understand how people can down huge glasses of water and pop during meals, I mean, how is there room for food?! I also wonder if there’s a correlation between how much one drinks during meals, and how much a person eats at one sitting (or even if there’s a correlation between that and weight.) I think I probably do feel more full because of my habit of drinking a fair amount of water or whatever during a meal, and I feel full for hours afterwards; I don’t “snack.” I’ve noticed that many people I know and eat with appear to eat more frequently than me. The girlfriend I mentioned in my OP that I went for a giant steak dinner with told me she was eating some of the “doggie bag” leftovers after she got home. She ate breakfast the next morning, too. I was so stuffed I didn’t eat anything until lunch time the next day…I couldn’t imagine wanting to eat anything an hour or two after stuffing my face with bloomin’ onion, deep-fried brocolli, steak, salad, beans, grilled vegetables, baked potato and chocolate cheesecake. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/42 "2011-11-06T20:33:19Z")
Well it depends really on what I am eating. But breakfast has to include ice cold milk to complement the bacon. Lunch at work normally just fizzy water, spicy Indian curry then Mango Lhasi. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/43 "2011-11-07T01:21:09Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > If I’m really thirsty then I’ll have a few sips before eating. I rarely stop eating to drink my water or tea. I prefer keeping that fork in my hand. 😃 … didn’t we used to have a blushing smiley? If I’m eating really fast, I’ll pick up my drink with the other hand. That only happens about 1% of the time and I generally get full very fast, which I doubt has much to do with drinking, and more to do with the fact that I just don’t eat very much and have a small tummy. I may get hungry two or three hours latter and then may or may not have a snack, depending on how busy I am. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/44 "2011-11-07T15:15:14Z")
I drink tons of water with food. I also often drink a beer or a glass or wine, but I have to have the big water glass in addition. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/45 "2011-11-07T15:35:55Z")
I drink milk with every meal at home, water and sometimes a cola when eating out. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/46 "2011-11-07T16:00:10Z")
I drink milk with breakfast, water with lunch, and usually seltzer with dinner. I drink after almost every bite or every other bite, and am not really enjoying a meal unless I have plenty to drink, too. It drives me crazy in restaurants when they take forever to refill your water. I don’t enjoy the food as much. I understand not liking milk but simply reading it about makes someone want to throw up? It’s not cockroach juice or something. :rolleyes: And of course drinking makes you full. That’s part of the advantage - it helps limit how much you eat. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/47 "2011-11-07T16:07:47Z")
I try to drink a lot during meals because it encourages me to eat less. Usually I’ll have water or unsweetened tea or diet soda. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/48 "2011-11-08T08:37:00Z")
Other: It depends on the meal. If it’s just a sandwich or other finger food, then no drinking. If it’s an actual meal, then I have to drink something. And if it’s takeout, I always drink at least 32 ounces. Dine in, I drink even more, due to the free refills. Plus it depends on what’s to drink. Milk is not something I drink with meals–just with certain gooey foods that milk washes down better. I also tend to only drink water with meals to wash things down. But if I have soda, I drink and eat concurrently. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/49 "2011-11-08T15:44:58Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > I also wonder if there’s a correlation between how much one drinks during meals, and how much a person eats at one sitting (or even if there’s a correlation between that and weight.) My one sister and I are more or less the same size and we tend to eat about the same amount of food (or she eats a bit more than I do, especially at restaurants). I almost never drink while I eat while she will drink 2 or more glasses of soda or iced tea over the course of a meal. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/50 "2011-11-08T16:02:02Z")
If I’m dining out, I’ll usually drink a couple glasses of water, because if I’ve spent a lot of that day out of the home I’ve likely not had anything to drink anywhere else. I’m not drinking because the meal requires it, I’m drinking because that’s my opportunity to drink something. If I’m eating a meal I made at home, I probably won’t drink anything with it, because I’ve already been drinking water whenever I feel like it. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/51 "2011-11-08T16:27:36Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I used to, but then a few months ago I heard that a lot of fluid prevents your food from being digested for quite a while, and then I started imagining big globs of rotting food floating around in the water or whatever I’m drinking, in my stomach, and that grossed me out, so I stopped. Seriously? I mean, I hear weird shit from random people all the time - doesn’t mean I believe it. Have a little faith - the human body systems will do what they’re designed to do. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/52 "2011-11-08T16:33:18Z")
It’s just not easy to get rid of an oogy mental image once it’s burned into your brain. A rather militant (not about anything in general, she was just very militant) teacher I had in 10th grade got off on a tangent once about how hot dogs contain ground up horns and hooves and eyeballs and cockroaches. I know it’s not true but the thought was so grody it was years before I was able to eat a hot dog without feeling queasy. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/53 "2011-11-08T16:38:03Z")
When I was about 12 or 13, I went for a sleepover to a girlfriend’s house. The family had five kids and were very rigidly strict about everything. At the evening meal, a gallon of milk was brought to the table, and kept on the floor next to the dad. He did not serve anyone anything to drink. Finally, at the end of the meal, he asked if I wanted a drink. I’d been programmed since birth to have a little something to drink with every meal so I was desperate for something. I didn’t know there was something to drink available because he’d kept the milk out of sight. To this day, I’m still pissed off about that because I’d really wanted something to drink with my meal, not after the fact. I never went over there again. Those people are weird. They don’t drink anything with meals. My BF doesn’t usually drink much with a meal. Sometimes he will make dinner for us both and will forget to give me anything. I usually just get up and get my own glass of water. I still can’t really wrap my brain around no liquids with food. ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/54 "2011-11-08T16:42:57Z")
I drink iced tea or ice water all day long. With meals, usually coke or pepsi with a ton of ice. I almost always have something with me at any given time to drink. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/55 "2011-11-08T18:35:02Z")
Regardless of whether or not there’s adult beverages involved at the meal, there is always water to hand as well. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/56 "2011-11-08T19:29:17Z")
Coffee with breakfast. Water after 2 pm. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/57 "2011-11-09T02:52:39Z")
This thread reminds me of an old girlfriend, the batshit-crazy nurse I’ve mentioned a couple of times. She had this weird deal where she’d have milk and cookies, and the last bite of cookie _had to_ correspond to the last swallow of milk. If one side still had more left, she had to get more of the other side, and heaven help anyone around her for the rest of the evening if the other side was all gone. ---
**Author:** ![biglazerfish1675](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@biglazerfish1675](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biglazerfish1675)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/58 "2011-11-09T04:12:04Z")
I usually have a soda or something ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/59 "2011-11-09T16:38:01Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > All this talk of drinking milk is making me throw up in my mouth a little. _urp_ Gross. > [@Anaamika](#): > > I understand not liking milk but simply reading it about makes someone want to throw up? It’s not cockroach juice or something. :rolleyes: Especially because there were only 4 mentions of milk in the posts before the throw-up post. And yet, the post about \*big globs of rotting food floating around in the water \* wasn’t nearly as barf-inducing as reading the word “milk” a few times. I drink tons of fluids during the day—like, 3 liters of water and a bunch of coffee. Strangely, though, I drink a little when I eat but not very much. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988/60 "2011-11-09T16:44:06Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I drink a fair amount of water if I’m eating at a restaurant, but not very much if I’m having a quick bite to eat at home. Presumably the food is saltier and the meal lasts longer in most restaurants. This is what I do, too. I pour myself a big glass of water with dinner at home, but I don’t generally drink it while I’m eating. Usually when I’m eating out, though, I drink a lot of water. Part of it is that we tend to eat out when we’ve been shopping or something, so it’s been a while since I’ve had a drink and I’m thirsty. Also, I cook with very little salt at home, so even restaurant food that isn’t overly salted tastes fairly salty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-drink-any-nonalcoholic-beverage-while-you-eat/601988.md?page=4)