Blog Post #3 For MCO 427
I can remember hearing the phrase that you must wait 30 minutes after eating before you can go swimming for basically my whole life. However, it’s always just been from word of the mouth advice, and I never heard it from a. doctor or looked into if it a proven “rule.” Whether it’s true or not, it is still a topic that circulates the media today in many different forms. Since this advice is commonly repeated, I wanted to find out where it came from and whether there is actually evidence to support it. I will be using the SIFT method to investigate the claim and determine whether it is something people should continue believing.
The first step I took was to stop and question the claim instead of immediately accepting it as fact. I found this Instagram post from @reallizcoleman, where she questions the advice that people should wait 30 minutes after eating before swimming. She claims that there is “no good evidence” that swimming after eating increases the risk of drowning and explains the belief came from a theory about digestion and blood flow. However, she doesn’t have any sources to back the theory in this post.
Therefore, I decided to investigate further into the source making the claim. The Instagram post was made by Liz Coleman, who describes herself as a life and personal coach. Her profile shows that much of her content focuses on mindset, wellness, and life coaching. While this doesn’t mean that the information in her post is incorrect, I noticed that her profile does not say that she has a medical and scientific backgrounds related to this topic. Since her post makes a claim involving health and drowning, I decided to compare her statement with information from qualified medical and safety organizations.
Next, I searched for other sources that discussed the same claim. I ran into an article from Welia Health called “You can’t swim after eating—fact or myth?” The article explains that there is no significant evidence that swimming after eating causes drowning or serious health risks. Since the article references the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, I decided to look further into that source to see what evidence they had found.
I then went directly to the American Red Cross website to see what their research says about the claim. The Red Cross explains that there is no current recommendation from major medical or safety organizations to wait before swimming after eating. It also states that swimming within one hour of eating does not increase the risk of drowning, which directly contradicts the idea that swimming after eating is a drowning hazard.
In conclusion, I think this statement was a rumor based off rumors and just got spread with no initial research into it. However, I did enjoy going through the whole SIFT process and taking each step into account for this blog.
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