Before the First Bite

Greetings, Primals!

When I was growing up, a meal didn’t feel like a meal unless there was a big glass of iced tea or some kind of cold drink sitting next to the plate! We’d take bites, sip, refill, and keep going. I never questioned it because everyone around me ate the same way. Every restaurant I went to a big glass of ice water came to the table as you sat down. Drinking with every bite wasn’t about thirst, it was simply habit, and it wasn’t until years later that I started to notice how differently my body felt when I ate without constantly washing food down.

In today’s issue:

WEEKLY DEEP DIVE

Human digestion begins before food ever enters the mouth. This early phase is known as the cephalic phase of digestion, a well-established physiological process in which the brain prepares the body for eating. Simply smelling food, thinking about food, or seeing food being prepared increases saliva production and stimulates the release of digestive enzymes and stomach acid. Chewing further amplifies this response, signaling the stomach and intestines to prepare for nutrient breakdown and absorption.

The mouth itself plays a far larger role in digestion than most people realize. It is home to hundreds of microbial species and is the second largest microbiome in the body, surpassed only by the gut. From mouth to anus your gut contains 2-6 pounds of bacteria! Alongside saliva, these microbes begin interacting with food the moment it is chewed. Proper chewing and adequate saliva help form food into a digestible bolus and reduce the workload placed on the stomach and intestines later in the process.

When large volumes of liquid are consumed during meals, digestion can become less efficient. Research shows that increasing stomach volume with fluid temporarily raises stomach pH by diluting gastric acid. Although the stomach compensates by producing more acid, this response is not immediate. During that window, protein digestion can slow and gastric emptying may be altered. In healthy individuals this is not dangerous, but it can contribute to bloating, heaviness, or incomplete digestion, particularly when meals are eaten quickly or under stress.

Cold beverages introduce another variable. Digestive enzymes function best at body temperature, and exposure to cold can briefly slow enzymatic activity and gastric motility. While the effect is modest and temporary, it adds to the overall inefficiency when combined with rapid eating and constant sipping.

From an ancestral perspective, this pattern of eating and drinking together is relatively new. For most of human history, meals were eaten slowly, food was chewed thoroughly, and liquids were consumed primarily between meals in response to thirst. This naturally allowed saliva, enzymes, stomach acid, and microbes to work together without dilution at the exact moment digestion needed them most.

The Primal Takeaway

This is not about avoiding water. It’s about timing! Many people notice improved digestion, better satiety, and less post-meal discomfort when they allow meals to stand on their own and hydrate before or after eating instead. The next time you sit down for a meal, try eating without constant sipping. Chew your food fully and let your mouth and gut microbiomes do the work they evolved to do. You may be surprised by how different digestion feels when biology, not habit, leads the way.