To understand why water is thought to disturb digestion, it’s useful to first understand the normal digestive process. Digestion starts in your mouth as soon as you start to chew your food. Chewing signals your salivary glands to start producing saliva, which contains enzymes that help you break down food.
Once in your stomach, food gets mixed with acidic gastric juice, which further breaks it down and produces a thick liquid known as chyme. In your small intestine, chyme gets mixed with digestive enzymes from your pancreas and bile acid from your liver. These further break down the chyme, preparing each nutrient for absorption into your bloodstream.
Most nutrients are absorbed as the chyme travels through your small intestine. Only a small portion remains to be absorbed once it reaches your colon. Once in your bloodstream, nutrients travel to different areas of your body. Digestion ends when the leftover materials are excreted. Depending on what you eat, this whole digestive process can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.
