Walking after a Big Meal

We waved goodbye to Halloween and we’re just two weeks away from Thanksgiving! In other words, it’s the time of year where we eat and eat and, well, eat. Even at Homberg Chiropractic and Wellness, your Knoxville chiropractor, we’ve already started talking about where we are going to eat for our office Christmas dinner! You’ve often heard me talking about the importance of walking. I’m going to go a step further in this blog and address the importance of walking after a big meal. Walking improves our overall health, but here are some other ways walking, especially after a meal, are beneficial to us.

• Walking aids in digestion – Digestion begins right after a person has eaten their meal and walking has proven to be far more effective in aiding this than drinking a digestive agent such as tea or coffee. The gastric juices and enzymes required in digestion need time to get stimulated and a short walk can accelerate this process. Walking can also help reduce the severity and frequency of unpleasant symptoms that may follow meals, such as acid reflux. If you find that walking immediately after you eat isn’t for you, try drinking more water before your walk, waiting for two hours after you eat and then get moving. This easy remedy can improve your digestion by helping to send food through the digestive tract quicker.

• Better metabolism for a healthier life – Walking after eating a heavy meal or any meal for that matter can help boost the metabolism process. It also improves the functioning of other organs.

• Maintaining Blood Sugar levels – After you eat each meal, your blood sugar levels tend to spike due to the breakdown of food. However, a short walk of around 15 minutes after your meal was found to temper the spike in blood sugar levels by using up the excess glucose present in the body, reducing the risk of suffering from diabetes.

• Helps in the smooth flow of blood throughout the body – A walk is beneficial as it helps lower the levels of fatlike triglycerides and cholesterol in your blood and also helps in the smooth circulation of blood to various parts of the body.

• Losing those dreaded pounds – A short walk after dinner is clearly very beneficial for overall health however, at the same time it has been found to help with weight loss. Walking is considered the best exercise for maintaining a healthy weight as it helps burn all those additional calories.

While all of this is important to your overall health, you have to make sure your body is in its best condition to walk. Visit Homberg Chiropractic to keep your spine in optimal shape as that will affect the alignment of everything – from your hips to you knees to your feet!