Question
After the weather gets colder, it’s harder to wake up in the morning, and sometimes I rush out and drink milk on the go. An elderly colleague at work said that one shouldn’t drink milk on an empty stomach. Is that true?
Answer
Milk has a high water content, and drinking it on an empty stomach can dilute stomach acid, aiding in the digestion and absorption of food. However, when the stomach is empty, intestinal peristalsis accelerates, causing milk to pass quickly through the stomach and small intestine, spending less time in the intestines. This means that the nutrients in milk may not be fully absorbed before entering the large intestine. The protein in milk is broken down by pepsin in the stomach and absorbed in the intestines to be converted into amino acids and utilized by the body. Drinking milk on an empty stomach can lead to many proteins not being fully decomposed, with some amino acids not being fully utilized in the small intestine and directly entering the large intestine. This process may produce harmful substances, reduce the efficiency of protein utilization, and possibly increase the burden on the intestines.