system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Does drinking water with meals slow down digestion?

I was just wondering if there was an impact on the speed of digestion from drinking whilst eating. Does it dilute your stomach acid? What effect might that have?
gpt
The more isotonic the solution in your stomach, the more quickly it will empty from your stomach into the duodenum of the small intestine, and in turn be absorbed.

Hypertonic solutions will hang out in the stomach longer, to allow for more digestion compared to an isotonic solution of the same size. 

Dilution of stomach acid isn't really a concern when drinking water, your body will be able to produce plenty of stomach acid to digest your food.


This entire situation makes a lot of sense from a "density" perspective. If you have a 90% food 10% water bolus in the stomach, it will take longer to digest than a 50/50 food water bolus of the same mass. 

So, if you are drinking water with your food, it will very likely speed up gastric emptying and digestion.