Should I really avoid swimming after I eat?

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QUESTION: Should I really avoid swimming after I eat?

ANSWER: It’s an often-repeated myth that you have to wait 30 minutes after eating before you can take a swim. There’s no evidence of any truthfulness to this notion, however.

The long-standing idea is that when you eat, a lot of your blood is diverted to the stomach to digest your food, leaving the muscles of your arms and legs low on blood supply and especially susceptible to cramps, which could lead to drowning and death. The truth is that your blood is constantly circulating and going to areas of need, and not enough is diverted to the digestion process to cause problems elsewhere.

The American Red Cross issued a scientific advisory review with these words of wisdom: “Currently available information suggests that eating before swimming is not a contributing risk for drowning and can be dismissed as a myth.”

One of the earliest known sources of this myth is the 1908 handbook for the Boy Scouts, which warned that swimming after eating could lead to drowning and that boys needed to wait for at least 90 minutes. While it’s true that light swimming can take place immediately after eating without any ill effects, a general rule of thumb is to not undertake strenuous or rigorous exercise of any kind while your stomach is full of food, so save the big meal for after the workout.