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I know that the pH of the acid in an empty stomach is higher than a stomach with food.

I was trying to understand how water passes through stomach to intestines with the absence of food.

But this webpage : Acid reflux mythbusters has this bizarre claim :

Drinking water on an empty stomach does not dilute stomach acid because it was never released in the first place.

How is this possible? Ok sure, not "more" acid is released because it's just water. But there is still acid already present in the stomach, right?

Note : I'm not concerned about diluting the acid or not. I just want to know if there is acid in the empty stomach or not. Or if there is any possible scenario where the stomach is actually completely empty.

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When an individual is fasting, acid secretion is inhibited by somatostatin from gastric D cells (some helpful stomach acid secretion scientific papers, and an article on stomach acid regulation). This causes there to be a minimal amount of stomach fluid (aka stomach acid) around, but due to the nature of the stomach a pH of 1.5-3.5 must be maintained and so there is always going to be some amount of stomach acid even if it is not the 1L pool of acid some people imagine there to be. In order for more stomach fluid/acid to be produced, neurological stimulus must occur that somehow relates to food or drinks (such as smelling food or thinking of food or obviously, consuming food/drinks).

Hope that helped!

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