What's wrong in drinking water along with food?

 It is quite natural and common thing to do, Isn't it ?  While we eat we all drink water or other soft drinks along with the food. In fact we tend to fill our stomach with water or drinks even before the food arrives in our table when we go to restaurants. I always felt this was not correct and I would always finish the meal before I touch my water or drinks. One of the reasons I would do that is, I lose the appetite very soon if I drink water before or during the meal. Some of my friends would be surprised to see me as they would say that they cannot do this for a million dollar! For every one or two bites of the meal they would for sure sip lot of water or Coke. I am sure that is the case with many of us. 

While researching the science behind this, I found some useful and very reasonable arguments. Hunger is nothing but the secretion of hydro chloric acid in the stomach. We all know that when you put water to an acid it becomes diluted or becomes a weak acid. A weak acid cannot perform as good as a strong concentrated acid. In our case the HCL in stomach if it gets diluted cannot digest the food very well. This sounded very reasonable for me and I am sticking with the habit of not to take any liquids during any meal so that the food taken can digest well meaning the nutrients can be absorbed into the body for nourishment. If indigestion happens or in complete digestion happens then the nutrients go wasted without getting absorbed by the small intestine. Not only that the undigested food remains in the body to cause more serious troubles.

In fact these days I take water only after 30-60 mins after the meal, giving enough time for the digestion process in the stomach and small intestine. Earlier in spite of taking water after the meal I very often felt the need for using restroom after every meal. However after following this method of taking water not before the meals and during the meals and having it only after 30-60 mins after the meals is showing a great improvement with me and I feel great. I do not see a need for using the restroom after every meal. On retrospection I think when I was drinking water after the meal most probably I was not giving enough time for the food to digest in my stomach and was pretty much flushing it through the stomach and small intestine. But now it appears like there is enough time for the HCL to act on the food without getting diluted and making the digestion process more effective. While I am an Engineer and no way related to medical profession I believe no one understands my body better than me. While the logic may or may not be accurate I feel great about this method. 

Some authors claim that just by this single method of taking the water only after 30-60 min of taking the meal has provided tremendous benefits in their health improvement because of better digestion process. I sincerely think there is truth to this claim. I recommended this practice to my mom who is 65 and she also feels lot better with her stomach these days.

On the other hand some people think or recommend drinking a lot of water during the meal for better health and to overcome obesity, which sounds extremely weird based on my intuition, above logic and my experiences. I suspect drinking liquids with meal would cause more indigestion which means more loss of nutrients and more undigested fat increasing the chances of obesity and other serious illnesses. 

What is your take?

The next questions that would arise invariably to every one is What if I get hiccups? What if I feel thirsty or dry in my throat? The answer lies in proper chewing of the food with saliva. More chewing leads to better saliva secretion and better mixing of food with saliva making you feel comfortable with the food and it will not feel very dry as it slides through the throat. Chewing the food into minute pieces and mixing it well with saliva is the very first step for effective digestion which is often overlooked or never discussed in health forums. In the worst case scenario the recommendation would be to take very little water to manage the hiccups or dryness.