Patient's question:
It's getting cold, and I don't want to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes, if I see the time is not right, I pick up milk and drink it on the go. But the older colleagues at work say you shouldn't drink milk on an empty stomach. Is that really true?Doctor's answer:
Since water accounts for a significant proportion in milk, drinking a large amount of milk on an empty stomach dissolves gastric juice, which is beneficial for the absorption and elimination of food. When fasting, intestinal peristalsis is very rapid, and milk passes through the stomach and intestines quickly with a very short retention time. Its nutritional components often don't have enough time to be fully eliminated before rushing into the large intestine, essentially going through the motions.The proteins in milk require the action of pepsin in the stomach and the absorption and compression in the small intestine to obtain various amino acids before they can be eliminated and utilized in the small intestine. Drinking milk on an empty stomach leads to rapid gastric emptying, causing many proteins to be incompletely broken down into amino acids. Many amino acids are expelled into the large intestine before they have enough time to be fully eliminated in the small intestine. In the large intestine, these proteins and amino acids are compressed and decomposed, turning into substances harmful to the body. This prevents the precious proteins from fully achieving their intended benefits and also increases the body's stress.