You’ve probably heard it your whole life. Don’t swim for at least thirty minutes after you eat. Because if not, you’ll cramp. So, is it true? Turns out, not at all. It’s just another thing our parents did to instill a deep level of anxiety within us.
So where did it come from? It was first seen in the original Boy Scout manual from 1908 called “Scouting for Boys” by Robert Baden-Powell.
It said, “Never bathe in deep water very soon after a meal, it is very likely to cause cramp, which doubles you up, and so you get drowned.”
And recently, a physician, who also was a competitive swimmer in high school, spoke out about the hypocrisy of this claim. Mostly because parents encourage their kids to eat BEFORE playing soccer to prevent cramps.
He said, “I could physically tell the difference if I had two pieces of toast and then went and swam an hour at 6:00 a.m. in high school, versus if I didn’t eat it, I would be dragging.”
And back in 2011. The American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Committee concluded that, “eating before swimming is not a contributing risk for drowning and can be dismissed as a myth.”
What other things did your parents tell you that turned out to be WRONG?
