Sipping Water With a Meal Is Linked to Eating More
Water likely leaves the stomach fast, but it may keep each bite tasting new.
Nautilus · Drinking Water With Meals May Make You Eat More, Not LessSipping water with dinner was linked to eating more, not less, in a small experiment. Food scientists fed 49 healthy adults a dish of curry or chili, each served with water, and filmed the meals. People who drank about 100 grams more water, about 3.4 ounces, ate about 39 grams more food, or roughly 49 calories.
Water "is emptied quickly from the stomach so it likely doesn’t fill us up for long," said Paige Cunningham, a food scientist at Cornell University and an author of the study. She suggested it may increase how much people eat by "providing lubrication which can speed up eating, and preventing a dry mouth which can prolong enjoyment of the food."
The team guessed that alternating sips and bites dulls sensory-specific satiety, the decline in enjoyment of a flavor the more of it you eat in one sitting, because water acts as a palate cleanser that makes the next bite taste new. Each switch was linked to just over four grams of extra food. The finding comes from a secondary analysis of associations, and the researchers are now testing for cause.
Questions people ask
Should I stop drinking water with meals to lose weight?
Probably not. Water has no calories and keeps you hydrated, and 49 extra calories is small compared with a full meal. Weight depends far more on what you eat, how much you eat, and how active you are than on whether you sip water.
Does drinking water before a meal reduce appetite?
The evidence is limited and mixed. A few small studies, mainly in older adults, have found that drinking about two cups of water about 30 minutes before eating can slightly reduce intake, likely because the stomach is still partly full. It is not a well established weight loss method.
What is sensory-specific satiety?
It is the tendency to enjoy a particular flavor less the more of it you eat in one sitting, even while other flavors still sound appealing. That is why you can feel full after dinner but still have room for dessert. A sip of water may briefly cleanse the palate, delaying that decline in enjoyment.