Mix kratom with food? Kratom as an ingredient in baking or smoothies? Will kratom’s effectiveness decrease when blended with breakfast? Is it better to take kratom on an empty stomach? Or should you eat a little something to keep your stomach calm?
Can Kratom Be Taken With Food? is a topic that comes up a lot on the online kratom forums.
Let’s get right to it: mixing kratom with food will decrease kratom’s strength.
Yes, you can take kratom while eating food, but you may be unhappy with the results.
So take kratom on an empty stomach, if you can tolerate it.
But, if you like eating a meal, then a little later, taking kratom, it’s okay. Or you feel queasy if you take kratom without first having a bite to eat, you may prefer to take kratom along with a bit of food. You’ll easily determine what’s best for your system in a short while.
It’s a subjective, personal preference thing, but there are a few tips to keep in mind.
On all Leaf of Life Botanicals kratom product bags, it is explicitly stated: “Suggested Use. Blend/mix with orange juice or any acidic beverage. Or mix with yogurt or applesauce. Take on empty stomach, or one hour after your last meal.”
If you seek fast, powerful, long-lasting kratom effects, don’t dilute the effects by combining kratom with food. But if you have a stomach that’s fussy about bitter tasting substances, you may find some alternative methods of using kratom with food to be a real blessing.
But first, let’s finish our discussion of what happens in your body when combining kratom with food.
Eating food right before, during, or closely after taking kratom will subdue its effects. Kratom will not be assimilated by your system as well as it would be on an empty stomach. You’ll notice a lessening of how fast it works, and how long it works, by a little. Whether that reduction is considered to be significant and not fortuitous depends on the individual.
Chances are, you’ll experience the reduction in effectiveness, but not enough to not be bothered by it. You could compensate by increasing your dose by 2 to 4 grams or by sprinkling a little kratom resin or granular extract in with the regular powder, thereby fortifying it.
If you use the toss and wash method, swallowing teaspoons of kratom powder, and washing it down with water, juice, tea, or other liquids, you’re hitting your stomach quickly with a bomb of bitterness. Many people need to steel themselves mentally, preparing their inner resources to accept and appreciate the beneficial qualities of kratom for the human body.
If you’re sensitive to the bitter payload of your kratom dose, first understand that each bag of kratom can vary rather greatly in taste. Some strains, lots, and batches have a very mild, almost pleasant, chalky flavor that’s easy to swallow. Other kratom products can have a strongly bitter taste that requires the person to grimly accept reality and get it over with.
On the other hand, you may not be troubled by slight reduction in effectiveness and potency, when you mix kratom with food. You may have great reasons to use kratom with food, especially if your stomach has trouble adjusting to how bitter kratom is.
Some people mix kratom powder directly into a bowl of applesauce, often adding some organic cinnamon powder to it. This can be a more pleasant way to get kratom into your system, but for some, it’s not a good combination, considering it a disturbing mud and no improvement taste-wise. A very subjective spectrum of reactions. You’ll probably enjoy doing a little experimenting, mixing kratom with applesauce, pudding, or some other creamy substance that helps mask the bitterness of kratom.
Your system will get confused by having to do two things at once: digesting food vs. distributing medicinal substances. They are two somewhat separate processes. Its generally best to let one process proceed, then after a few hours, start a different process. When your system can focus on one process, with a few items to deal with and use synergistically, the body benefits greatly.
In practical terms? If you take your kratom dose first thing in the morning, wait one or two hours after the dose before eating breakfast. Let that kratom plant material, and its wondrous alkaloids, work uninterrupted, in simplicity and purity, unobstructed and free to get things done.
After a couple of hours, your stomach will be empty enough to accept gladly any new substance that you need to process. This is just respecting our body’s organs and gaining insightful understanding of how they work.
Here’s yet another approach: using grapes, berries, cherries, melon, and other flavorful soft fruit to scrub away kratom residue from tongue, gums, and teeth. It’s not really a meal, but it is solid food. It’s doubtful that small amounts of easily digestible natural plant substances will interfer with getting kratom into your bloodstream.
Some people using the toss and wash method will wash the kratom powder down with grapefruit juice. The strong tart, sour taste of the juice seems to counteract the strong bitter taste of the kratom, overpowering it, and also potentiating (boosting) its effects. Grapefruit juice is good also for digestion.
So we each develop our own personal kratom practices. We may vary widely in dose amount, dosing frequency, rotation of strains, and other issues. But the same is true for so many things in life. We many have certain interests in common to share, but we also have our own peculiar, idiosyncratic ways of doing things and thinking about things.
Science is divided on some of these issues, what’s good for one person is not so good for someone else, and sometimes scientific research results confirm the wisdom of ancient lore, the traditions of many generations.
So, as with many issues regarding kratom use, it really comes down to personal experience and results. Once you gain good understanding how an empty stomach makes it easier for your body to process the kratom, and thus, it will work more powerfully, you can then decide if going the route of strongest effects is more important than accommodating a possibly sensitive stomach.
It is hoped that these simple guidelines will illuminate the road you are on, as our beloved herbal companion smoothes over some of the bumps and holes as we progress – hopeful, thankful, and helpful to others.
