Is It Bad To Eat While Standing Up?

Although the act of standing up while eating isn't inherently harmful to your body, it has been linked to some unpleasant drawbacks. While research is limited, standing while eating may actually increase stress and affect your ability to taste food (via Livestrong). One study found that standing up while eating stimulates the production of the stress hormone cortisol, which may cause you to become less perceptive to a food's temperature and taste. 

Eating while standing up may also lead to overeating. This is because standing can cause you to eat faster than you normally would if you were sitting down, which may result in overeating (via Healthline). On the flip side, standing up may also leave you feeling hungry and unsatisfied. If you stand up while you're eating and continue to move around afterwards, your stomach will increase its speed of digestion by up to 30 percent. This may lead to increased feelings of hunger shortly after finishing a meal.

While standing up may cause you to overeat or make your meal less enjoyable, there is no evidence that it's inherently bad for you. In fact, standing up while eating has its upsides. For example, standing up while eating can actually increase digestion (via Healthline). This is because your posture can affect your ability to digest food. When you're standing, food leaves your stomach at a quicker pace, increasing the speed of digestion. 

Standing up while eating may also reduce gastric reflux and heartburn. Gastric reflux occurs when the acidic contents of your stomach go back up your esophagus, which can often lead to heartburn. This is more likely to occur when you're slouching than when you're standing upright. Slouching puts pressure on the valve between the stomach and esophagus, or the lower esophageal sphincter, while standing up reduces this pressure, decreasing the likelihood of gastric reflux. 

Standing up while eating may have its upsides and downsides, but at the end of the day,the way you eat comes down to your own personal preference. As long as you're mindful of what you're eating and how fast you're eating it, there should be no cause for concern.