We’ve all heard someone say this at some point in their life, but does this statement hold any real value?
No, is your short answer. Your long answer is that you don’t have to wait 30 minutes or more to swim after you’ve eaten, because isn’t dangerous. At all. The concern was the fact that because because digestion diverts some of your blood flow from your muscles to your stomach, swimming might somehow inhibit that necessary blood flow to the stomach, causing cramps so bad that you could drown. Another version of the myth is that your limbs won’t get enough blood flow because your stomach is diverting it, causing you to drown.
So don’t worry, the scenario pictured above cannot be directly caused by eating.
Believe it or not, so many people were concerned about eating before swimming that the American Red Cross issued a scientific advisory review in the International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education about it. The review said, “Currently available information suggests that eating before swimming is not a contributing risk for drowning and can be dismissed as a myth.”
