Meals Archives - usatoday24

In Asia they haven’t put ice in the water during meals for centuries. Digestive physiology just explained why they were right

June 8, 2026 by usatoday24

The other day a friend told me about a peculiarity she observed during a recent trip to China: the glass of ice water on the table is almost a rarity. Instead you’ll find a pot of green tea, a bowl of broth, or just nothing cold. For centuries, in much of Asia, drinking cold liquid during a meal has been an eccentricity more typical of the West than there. What for a long time seemed like a quaint custom, or directly a matter of infrastructure—ice was not always available everywhere—turns out to have a pretty solid physiological explanation. The temperature of the water we drink while we eat is not a minor detail. It affects the movements of the stomach, the rate at which it empties, and how the muscles of the digestive system behave. And science, although with important nuances, is beginning to agree with what millions of people in Asia have been practicing for millennia. Before getting into the physiology, we must understand how this debate has reached the West. It has not been through a medical congress or a scientific journal. It has arrived, like so many other things, through TikTok. The phenomenon is known as chinamaxxing either Becoming Chinese: a viral trend in which thousands of Western people adopt lifestyle habits from Chinese culture, including drinking hot water. According to documents The New York Timeshot water has become “the new superstar of online well-being”, with influencers documenting how this habit deflates them, gives them energy and improves their digestion. But what the Internet presents as a revolutionary discovery is nothing new. This practice has been rooted for thousands of years. in Indian Ayurveda—where the morning ritual of drinking hot water is known as usha paana— and in Traditional Chinese Medicine, where cold is believed to “turn off the agni“, the digestive fire, and weakens the vital energy or Qiforcing the body to expend extra energy to warm the stomach. Hot water, on the other hand, balances the Yin and the Yang and keeps the body calm. Just because something is part of an ancient tradition does not automatically make it scientific truth, of course. But it doesn’t disqualify him either. The question is what exactly science says when it begins to analyze what happens in the stomach according to the temperature of what we drink. What really happens in the stomach? To understand the debate, we must separate two things that are often confused: the effect of drinking water during a meal and the effect of the temperature of that water. They are different questions with different answers. On the one hand, regarding water itself, there is a widespread belief that drinking water during meals dilutes gastric juices and digestive enzymes, slowing down digestion. Medical portals such as HealthLine They explain that there is no solid scientific evidence that water dilutes gastric juices or significantly hinders digestion. The stomach has a dynamic regulatory system that detects changes in pH and automatically secretes more hydrochloric acid to compensate. Drinking a glass of water during a meal hardly alters that balance. Marina Domene, head of nutrition at SHA Spain nuances in Vogue Where is the real limit: the problem is not drinking water, but excesses. “What is not recommended is drinking excessive amounts, more than two or three large glasses, as it could distend the stomach too much and temporarily dilute the enzymes,” he explains. It also points out that there are specific contexts where it is advisable to be more careful: in people who suffer from hypochlorhydria – low production of stomach acid – it is not recommended to consume liquids during meals. On the other hand, regarding temperature the panorama changes and this is where physiology begins to agree with Asia. The temperature of the liquids directly affects gastric motility, that is, the muscle movements of the stomach that drive digestion. Domene explains it clearly: “Cold drinks can slightly slow down gastric emptying and constrict the blood vessels of the stomach, which in sensitive people can be heavy. Hot liquids, such as broths or infusions, have a relaxing effect on the smooth muscles of the stomach.” This is not just a clinical opinion. There are studies that support this, such as research on the effect of temperature on gastric emptying have observed that very cold drinks, around 2-5 °C, can temporarily slow down the initial phase of gastric emptying compared to liquids at body temperature. Drinks at 4°C also disrupt antral and pyloric contractions, briefly retaining stomach contents. An experiment with 11 young men who consumed 500 ml of water at different temperatures found that water at 2 °C reduced the frequency of gastric contractions compared to water at 60 °C, and that lower muscle activity was related to lower subsequent caloric intake. The sample sizes of these studies are modest—it should be said—but their results consistently point in the same direction. A study published in Gastroenterology Nursingfocused on patients who had recently undergone colon surgery, observed that the consumption of hot water had a positive impact on subsequent bowel movements. It is not a study designed for healthy people, but it adds evidence about the role of temperature in intestinal motility. Gastroenterologist Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, consulted by The New York Timesdescribes it more graphically: during the night, the digestive system slows down. Hot water generates waves of contraction and relaxation in the muscles of the esophagus, stomach and intestines. “It’s basically telling everyone, ‘Okay, get up. We’ve got to get going,’” he explains. Why did they take that path and not another? The physiological explanation that science offers today connects quite well with what traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda have been saying for centuries, although in completely different languages. In China, Japan and much of Southeast Asia, It is common to accompany meals with hot tea or soup. It is not a fad or a recent trend: it is part of the structure of food. The broth does not close the menu, it accompanies … Read more

Snacking between meals is not a lack of will, but a battle that we lose in our brain

February 19, 2026 by usatoday24

A fairly typical scene in the lives of some people can unfold in the middle of the afternoon or even after dinner, where an inner force drags us to the pantry or the refrigerator to have some chocolate or some small pecking. And although this is something that we try to justify within a “lack of will”the reality is that our brain and hormones are fighting a battle with us in which we usually lose. And to understand what is happening here, you have to look at the scientific literature. A sleep problem. Blame lack of sleep of an imbalance in our hormones is undoubtedly one of the most solid pillars of current metabolic medicine, and the truth is that it is not any type of myth. This is something that was evidenced in a study published in 2004 which showed that when healthy young people restricted their hours of sleep, an endocrine disaster occurred. Here, your levels of leptinwhich is the hormone that sends the satiety signal to the brain so that we stop eating, plummet, while ghrelinwhich is the hormone that tells us to keep eating, it shoots. Greater intake. The result here cannot be other than consumption of 328 extra kcal per day through snackslooking almost exclusively for quickly absorbed carbohydrates because our brain is telling us that we need foods that provide us with energy quickly. Although in truth it is something that is not needed, so these foods directly end up forming more fat deposits. A more recent review goes further and confirms that even a single night of bad sleep is enough to disrupt insulin and orexin, physiologically preparing us for a day of uncontrollable cravings. Eat dinner early. This is something that in many countries, such as France, is totally normal, but not in Spain. Here the science is pretty clear because it has been more than proven that our body does not process food in the same way at 2:00 p.m. as it does at 10:00 p.m. Here the different trials suggest that aligning our meals with circadian rhythms drastically modulates appetite hormones, so eating while our central biological clock is active reduces the average daily germin levels and increases satiety hormones in the evening. This is the same as what a study published in 2023 which confirms that eating at times aligned with sunlight improves the synchronization between the central biological clock and the peripheral clocks in the different organs. The message we should take home here is that eating early literally turns off the physiological desire to eat at midnight because the body understands that the eating cycle has ended and the repair cycle begins. Protein to calm satiety. In this case, the field of nutrition has stopped focusing only on calories to focus on the hormonal response that each food generates in our body. The different reviews suggest that eating around 25-30 grams of high-quality protein per meal not only optimizes muscle protein synthesis, but also suppresses appetite in the long term and, therefore, reduces the temptation to snack between meals. A 2020 meta-analysis corroborated Likewise, seeing that this amount of protein in a meal reduces ghrelin levels and increases the production of hormones that inhibit appetite, such as famous LPG-1 on which medications such as Ozempic. Stress and cortisol. Snacking has an important emotional and brutal stress management component, since it has surely happened to you that when you have more things on you that’s when you eat the most. This is where scientific literature defines hedonic hunger as the strong desire to eat for pure pleasure, in the total absence of physical need for calories in our body. And the blame lies in the extra production of cortisol, which is the hormone classically related to stress. But the most interesting thing here is that in people who eat because of an “emotional” desire and not because of a physiological need, it was seen that when they already saw that a stressful situation was going to come (such as exam time for students), ghrelin levels increased. In this way, if you are nervous, bored or mentally tired, the brain will ask for food rich in fats and sugars, such as sweets, as a dopaminergic compensation mechanism. And here it is not that you are hungry, but that there is great stress. Images | Madalyn Cox Denny Muller In Xataka | We believed that a vegetarian diet guaranteed longevity. In extreme old age, the data says just the opposite

McDonald’s Happy Meals

January 1, 2026 by usatoday24

At the end of the eighties, batman It was not that perfectly oiled machine of franchises, shared universes and meticulous marketing, but rather a risky bet. Warner Bros decided to blow up the image camp inherited by Adam West and entrust the character to a guy like Tim Burtona director with a dark, gothic and deeply authorial imagery. The result was a success almost as famous as his fall into hell. When Batman stopped being sellable. As we said, the result of Burton’s hiring It was Batman (1989), a huge success that not only devastated the box office, but also legitimized superhero movies as more than just children’s entertainment. Burton not only redefined the character, he also laid the aesthetic and emotional foundations for everything. what would come next. Gotham became an architectural nightmare, Bruce Wayne a lonely and disturbed millionaire, and the genre took an irreversible leap toward maturity. Creative freedom and unbridled sequel. That success placed Burton in a unique position: almost total creative control for Batman Returns (1992). The director took advantage of the margin to go even further, delivering a film less interested in the hero than in his villains, more sexual if you will, but also more grotesque and uncomfortable. Danny DeVito’s Penguin was not a stylish eccentric, but an abandoned monster at birth, violent, repulsive and tragic. Catwoman, a broken and vengeful figure, and Gotham City a warped reflection of corruption, power and alienation. Batman Returns it wasn’t a children’s movie, and possibly I didn’t mean to be. Burton never conceived it as such, and in fact fought with censors and studios to avoid an even more restrictive rating. The clash with merchandising. The problem was not the movie itself, but everything that was built around. Warner Bros. activated a massive marketing campaign, supported by sponsors who had not seen either the script or the final cut. McDonald’s was the star partner. Gotham-themed restaurants, collectible glasses, toys and, above all, Happy Meals aimed at children between five and ten years old. The contradiction was total: a dark, disturbing film not recommended for children under 13 years of age sold as a familiar, colorful and sweetened product. The Penguin case was the breaking point. While Burton showed a villain on screen who bit noses and spit black bile, McDonald’s distributed a watered down version and almost endearing character in their children’s menus. The perfect storm: parents. The reaction it didn’t take long to arrive. Outraged parents, letters to newspapers like Los Angeles Timesreligious organizations and civic groups accusing McDonald’s and Warner of irresponsibility and deception. The question was always the same: how on earth was it possible for a movie full of nightmares to be actively marketed to young children? McDonald’s tried to defend himself claiming that the toys did not promote movie attendance, and Warner claimed that it had avoided using real elements from the film, something that was not entirely true. The damage, after all, had already been done. Batman Returns became a public relations problemnot because it failed at the box office, but because it didn’t fit the mold that marketing needed. Find a culprit. Fearing that the franchise would burn out in the long term, Warner Bros. opted to a radical turn. The solution was not to change the relationship between cinema and merchandising, but to change the tone and sacrifice the director. Tim Burton was removed from the saga on the grounds that his vision was “too strange” and unfamiliar. Michael Keaton, who did not want to continue without Burton, he also left. The message was clear: Batman had to be bright, accessible and, above all, sellable again. Joel Schumacher took over and the result was Batman Forevera film designed for please sponsors and fast food chains (and that today would embrace the algorithm), with bright colors, exaggerated humor and a tone that made any trace of Burton’s introspective and gothic Batman impossible. The Happy Meal as a symptom. Years later, Burton I would sum it up with irony and bitterness: he had upset McDonald’s. The famous phrase about “that black thing that comes out of the Penguin’s mouth” condensed the real problem. It was not just a fast food chain behind it, but the definitive clash between an artistic vision and an industry that was beginning to understand franchising. as merchandising platforms rather than as cinematographic works. In that sense, Batman Returns didn’t fail creatively, it failed as a children’s product, and that was inexcusable. The legacy. Burton’s departure marked a before and after. The saga entered into a drift that would culminate with the infamous Batman & Robin and their outfits with nipplesa cartoon that buried the character for years. Paradoxically, time has been generous with Batman Returns, today considered one of the films more personal and brave of the genre, and possibly one of Burton’s best works. Its “failure” was, in reality, the early demonstration of a conflict that would define Hollywood for decades: when superhero cinema stopped belonging to directors and began to respond, above all, to toys that had to fit in a Happy Meal box. Image | Warner In Xataka | In 1975 a party ended on the beach. What happened next was so chilling that people were afraid to swim in the sea In Xataka | The best advertisement within a movie is this science fiction classic: it was so good that it made us doubt the Nazis

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections