Quote Originally Posted by FrostyPaws View Post
This concern is a myth, according to Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist Michael Picco. Picco says drinking water with a meal can help improve the body's digestion. He also says water helps the digestive system function correctly by working to break down food in the stomach. Picco suggests that people can get the same digestive benefits by drinking water shortly after meals. The breakdown process is hormonal and happens naturally, whether people drink water with their meals or not. No research suggests that digestive acids or enzymes are diluted by water intake, but even if they were, the system would still be able to do its job productively.

I haven't been able to find anything that pertains to dogs as of yet. You were right about the water bit. Of course when a dog drinks that much water, the stomach is going to have a say in it. Durh!! I was thinking about when water is pulled from the body to help with digestion, it is pulled mainly to the intestines.

Thanks for the response.

If the stomach produces 'x' amount of acid, and if you add 'y" amount water to that pure acid, then by default there is dilution going on by a factor of 'y'.

Thus the question of how much this dilution may (or may not) affect digestion would have to be contingent on how much water is being added. While I have not read the report by Dr. Pico, I am instantly wondering if there was any distinction made between "some" water being added to a man's diet (like a normal 8 oz drinking glass), and the entire day's ration of water being added to a man's only meal. To clarify, a 170-lb man needs 170 oz (10.5 lb) of water in a whole day ... and yet he only drinks maybe 8-16 oz of water with a meal ... having the rest of his water intermittently throughout the day. I believe this is what Dr. Pico was likely measuring, meaning "a" glass of water with a meal.

In what you're talking about, Frosty, you're essentially giving a dog ITS ENTIRE DAY'S RATION OF WATER in one setting, while it is also eating its only meal, so I am not sure at all whether Dr. Pico's report for a human having "a glass of water" with a meal means that a person can also drink his entire day's supply (170 oz) of water with his only meal of the day.

So, while I realize there are differences in the digestive tracts of dogs and humans, I sill would like to be able to ask an expert to help clarify this (rather large) distinction as it pertains to "the amount" of water at one setting we're talking about.

Jack