Activity After Eating

Activity after eating might be better than it sounds. After eating a meal that is heavy in fats, the diameter of our arteries gets smaller (constriction) for a period of up to 8 hours. Recent research has shown that if you walk or do some type of physical activity right after eating, you prevent that constriction. When arteries constrict two very important things happen: your heart has to pump harder (increase in blood pressure) and less blood gets to the organs, e.g. the heart. That explains the phenomenon that is occasionally seen of people having a heart attack after eating a big fat-filled meal.