I'm a nurse. We usually recommend at least 350 calories, but ideally with a meal, but it also depends on the medication. For some, it's to slow how quickly the medication is absorbed and/or reduce side effects, and isn't necessary for the medication to work (e.g., stimulants, some antidepressants). For others, taking with food is necessary for the medication to be absorbed effectively so that it works (e.g., Latuda, used to treat mood and psychotic disorders).
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2024
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My doctor told me a couple crackers is enough. All you need to do is eat enough to line your stomach to keep your stomach from absorbing it too fast. Can also be to protect your stomach. Some medications eat away at your stomach lining so eating with food can help. Ibuprofen is one example.
Reactions and side effects are dependent on the person. I'm healthy so I don't typically take medications but this was my experience on Strattera, which you're supposed to take with food. That warning was no joke. I had to take it with a meal, because I'd risk feeling queasy with only a snack. But at low doses, it was fine. Very manageable.
As my dose was increased, the nausea started becoming constant. I couldn't do anything to relieve it. At one point I was at a restaurant and had to go throw up in the restroom. After that I decided to stop taking Strattera, because the nausea made for a miserable experience and was not worth it at all. I was instantly better once I stopped.
I was just in the hospital for some tests and needed to take some food with the meds they gave me, They gave me two pieces of toast.
I normally just have a price of fruit if its a time I would normally be eating anyway.
Something like an apple is easy, fast, and convenient.
Leftovers might also be an option if there is something like a sausage or chicken wing in the fritdge.
I know what you intended but I love the thought of you grabbing enough coins to buy an apple and eating them
C'mon man! You can't just be asking me questions like that!
Even without medicine I don't know what the right amount of food is.
Is it a 7 coarse meal eaten within 10 minutes?
Or is it nothing at all for days on end, as your stomach growls and mocks you for being so fat?
Who can say?
No, it's a three fine meal.
Once I had a wisdom tooth making me crazy and the pharmacist told me that one course (I'm Italian, he said a dish of pasta) would help, nothing less
Wait so you had to eat pasta to ease the pain or did he also recommend some pain relief medicine?
Lol, sorry, eating pasta would have helped the painkillers do their job!
Penne al aspirine
It depends on what pill your taking but usually it is 375 calories. I used to be on latuda and had to force feed myself. Until I stopped now im on geodone and all I have to eat is like a quarter of a sandwhich. So it very much depends on this pill
For adderall I was told to try to eat a full meal before taking simply because it's an appetite suppressant, and it helps avoid too much weight loss.
For vicodin I took it on an empty stomach once and pretty quickly developed a crazy brain fog. Ate a bit and it seemed to help.
It also causes your digestive track to process at a normal speed and so the absorption of the medicine is more spread out.
Important with something like an extended release medicine like Adderall XR which will build up and then stay somewhat steady and then taper off. And essential for a non-XR since it’s already going to be alot hitting you and then tapering down over time.
Usually just a small amount of food is enough, but your pharmacist should talk to you the first time you fill the prescription and tell you if more is necessary
The pharmacist did say that it was to reduce the queasiness since both the antibiotic and the steroid I was prescribed are apparently quite rough on the stomach, so I have to take the pills with food, which I inferred to mean as a meal. Which was fine when I took them with lunch and dinner yesterday since obviously that's gonna be tons of food to go with it, but then it came to this morning, and I don't normally eat breakfast. I wasn't sure if something simple like toast or a granola bar which I would take with the morning dose would be enough food to counteract it, since obviously I didn't want to spend my morning with a miserable stomach.
I'm not a doctor, so don't take my word for it, but I've heard the same as robolemmy. To be a bit less abstract, my understanding is you eat enough so that your stomach will digest normally instead of just handling the medicine as a tiny bit of something caustic. A granola bar should be fine, but you might do better with a slice of bread or something a tad easier to digest. Then again, I don't think it matters all that much.
So you trick your stomach like you'd trick a dog by hiding medicine in their food?
Nah, that's all about getting the dog to actually swallow the pill.
For us, it is about buffering the concentration. Even aspirin can upset your stomach (well, SOME people's stomachs) such that making "Bufferin" was once a big deal. It was just aspirin with a buffering agent, but having a buffer really mattered for some people.
Usually just enough to keep your stomach settled. I don't know if this is the case for all medicines like that, but every time I've had to take something with food, it was because it can make you queasy if you don't have anything in your stomach.
I agree. It's also probably person to person thing.
I've been told it's better to take ibuprofen with food as you can get indigestion. But I don't so I don't need to. Some people need to. Some people get indigestion so bad they can't take ibuprofen at all even with food.
Also I went to the doctors and he said "just take some ibuprofen that will help" and I said "oh I'm asthmatic I'm not meant to take that. But I have taken it before and I didn't realise"
And he said "oh its fine then. Some asthmatics might get any issue with it. That's why it's recommend not to take it. BUT seeing as you have and didn't have any issues, then you are fine to take it."
There is a huge theoretical improvement in medicine if it can be given individually rather than by demographic.
Yes, exactly, it's about controlling the dosing. If you haven't eaten for a while, or only had fluids, and then suddenly eat medicine, it's more likely to be vomited out, so nobody knows how much you had.
If you can't keep food in, medicine won't work that way either.
Eating pills on an empty stomach can easily cause acid reflux. Since about a fourth if all people have acid reflux issues, it's probably a good idea to advise people to down pills alongside other food that'll stay down.