Exercise After Eating | Walking After Eating Fats

Eating has been shown to make immediate changes to the blood. To illustrate this, many blood tests must be done in coordination with fasting or right after meals because of the changes food imposes. In fact I even wrote about how saturated fats have an immediate affect on the blood of those people with heart conditions. If you haven’t read that finding I hope you will take the time to do so.

See this post for more on clogged artery symptoms. If you are at risk then this is even more important.

Healing Arteries

Piggy-backing on this idea is another related finding that shows that you can repair the immediate damage of eating fats by simply doing some light to moderate exercise such as walking after eating your high-fat meal. Apparently exercising after eating may cause you to live longer.

Best Life brought this to my attention in their December/January 2007 issue. They wrote:

Instead of the garlic mashed potatoes, opt for a side of exercise with your steak. Exercising after consuming a high fat meal reverses the damage fatty foods cause to the arteries, according to a study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. After eating a high-fat meal, a healthy person’s arteries resemble those of someone with heart disease. However, if you exercise after eating (within two hours) a high fat meal, your arteries return to their normal, healthy state. The researchers say a relaxed 45-minute walk is all you need.

Exercise After Eating


...and don't forget that the benefits of walking after eating (or any time of the day, every day) can essentially minimize your risks for early death by roughly 19 percent (this is worth a read if it's new to you). Light to moderate exercise is after all the best way to maintain a normal blood sugar range and prevent insulin resistance.

So if you are walking every day anyway, try to exercise after meals. Walking after lunch or dinner is a good option and it will help optimize your efforts.You might even find that if you plan on walking after eating you will likely eat less overall. After all, if you know that exercise after meal time is the routine you probably wont want to over eat. Every little bit helps us live longer.

UPDATE 9/4/09: You can also try popping a few walnuts after eating your high fat meals to counter the negative effects of the fats on your blood.

And if you are a devoted walker or or looking to add walking into your daily exercise routine then you may be interested in The Complete Guide To Walking which goes over everything there is know about walking for fitness, weight loss, and over all health.

Source
Best Life, Dec-Jan, 2007