# How long after eating is still "with food"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-eating-is-still-with-food/168941>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 15, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-eating-is-still-with-food/168941 "2003-04-15T21:05:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Undine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e99b99/32.png) [@Undine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Undine)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-eating-is-still-with-food/168941/1 "2003-04-15T21:05:10Z")

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Forgive me if this has already been covered.

I know that vitamin pills (and some medication, but that is far more complicated an issue, I am sure) are best taken with meals. Often, though, I forget to take them until maybe 20 minutes or so after I ate. I assume that there is still food in my stomach at that point, but is that all that matters?

How long after eating is “close enough” for this purpose?

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**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-after-eating-is-still-with-food/168941/2 "2003-04-15T21:48:39Z")

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Taking vitimans by themselves (no food in the stomach) could result in nausia. I think that’s the reason against it, so if true as long as you don’t get sick then I think it’s OK.

BUT

Then again maybe the food has to buffer against the chemicals in the vitiamn

BUT THEN AGAIN

I ain’t no doctor and mainly talking out of my ass here (actually I know from personal experence the nausea).