system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does eating after taking a pill help the pill take effect?
gpt
Sometimes it's actually because the designers want the pill to take effect *slower* than it would on an empty stomach. Drug and alcohol users know from experience that taking things on an empty stomach will make the things hit harder and faster. When you have food in your stomach, things are absorbed a little bit slower because they have to be "sucked out" of the wet food mixture as opposed to being in solution. 

Compare it to sucking the liquid out of a blended ice drink (like a frozen  margarita, daiquiri, or a slurpee) instead of a drink with no ice.