eating and swimming/diving

[stepfen]

Hello everybody.

There was a tragic accident yesterday on the island of Rhodes here in Greece. Two teenager (16 and 19yo) tourists from France were fount dead in the swimming pool of a hotel. Can't find any reference in English yet.

No details are know yet but while listening to the radio about it, a possible cause was mentioned to be what we call "swimming with full stomach" i.e. swimming soon after somebody has eaten.

This reminded me of the guidelines given to everybody here in Greece - especially young kids: One should never swim before digesting i.e. sooner than 3 hours after eating.
The reason often given to support this, is that the stomach uses a lot of blood/effort for digestion hence you shouldn't put more stress to your body or you greatly increase the chances of a heart attack. To me this doesn't sound very possible, but anyway.

It is something that everybody here is very aware of and results in constant battles between parents and kids during holidays etc. I have noticed though that I have never seen any similar precautions from foreign sources.

Could that be another social "myth" ? Are there any established guidelines against swimming or similarly against diving after eating?

We are talking about even normal meals (without alcoholic beverages). Not huge feasts like the ones that you are so full that you can't even move out of the dinning table.

Any thoughts? Thanks a lot in advance

(Edit: Just fount an article about the accident: Two teenage sisters drown in Rhodes hotel pool | Kathimerini )

 

[happy-diver]

It is something that everybody here is very aware of and results in constant battles between parents and kids during holidays etc. I have noticed though that I have never seen any similar precautions from foreign sources.

The European peasants stifled by fear, from my childhood until death and not from anything feared
firmly purveyed this superstition

Could that be another social "myth"

Yes, but perhaps it was safer having thirty minutes less swimming in oceans and rivers unsupervised
where these activities usually also involved driving long distances picnics barbecues drinking and carousing

For me it's chew with your mouth shut
especially when underwater

but when I overeat during most surface intervals, next dive I find the mooring block or a compartment or rock
and have a snooze for a while
crawled into a nicely sprung officers bunk on a purpose sunk dive wreck once and Did fall asleep
or woke up as I was falling asleep or something

Perhaps it was a few more schnapps and a snooze the supervisors needed rather than feigning supervision

 

[Pearlman]

We hear the same advice here so it seems to be universal. However it is unlikely both drowned due to heavy meals. More likely one experienced post meal lethargy and got into difficulties and the other drowned trying to save her sis with impaired metabolic efficiency?
RIP poor girls.

P

 

[Zef]

I am not a doctor, but as an accredited swim coach, long time swim instructor, and dive master, I believe the danger of swimming after eating is an old wives' tale that has perpetuated through time. I think moms and dads were told it when they themselves were children and repeat it to their children out of the fear that if there is a smidgen of truth they would be remiss for not following the sage parental advice that was imparted on them when they were growing up.

There are so many possible factors that could have been involved with the deaths noted in the OP...attributing the deaths to eating just prior to swimming comes across entirely as conjecture.

Here is an article that discusses the notion as myth.

-Z

 

[seeker242]

"Don't swim after eating" is in the same category as "aliens built the pyramids". It's complete nonsense.

 

[stepfen]

Thanks for the info - hence it sounds like a myth. Just as I thought.

BTW sorry for not clarifying this earlier: Apart from thoughts and condolences to the family of the diseased girls, I am not interested at all to find out what happened and/or blame them or others for whatever. That's why I posted it here and not in the accident section.
That accident and what I heard in the radio this morning reminded me about this "myth" and that I've been wanting to ask about it here in SB for some time now, because I regularly go dive eg just after breakfast or soon after lunch during dive trips etc.

Thanks for all the replies...

(PS: just for completeness here some are more info about the accident: Parents of drowned sisters say teens did not know how to swim | Kathimerini and unfortunately it was not the only such accident for yesterday: Child, 8, drowns while on holiday in Crete | Kathimerini )

 

[Ana]

My grandmother rules went farther than banning swimming after lunch (no issues after breakfast) it was also no playing loud music or doing anything that made noise. Of course the only reason was she wanted to take a siesta.
As soon as I realized that, I tried to convinced her that I if I got in trouble in the water I'd do it quietly.

 

[Esprise Me]

The version I heard was not that swimming after eating would cause a heart attack, but that it could cause cramps that might prevent you from swimming effectively enough to save yourself from drowning. I think there's probably a grain of truth in there somewhere, and it might not be a great idea to go for a long, vigorous ocean swim right after a huge meal. But scuba diving generally shouldn't involve vigorous exercise anyway, and a light meal should be fine even if you do end up in a current.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Thanks for the info - hence it sounds like a myth. Just as I thought. . . .

The Greeks deserve credit for myths, but perhaps not this one.

 

[scubadada]

"Don't swim after eating" is in the same category as "aliens built the pyramids".

Well then, who built them, people?