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Some Sephardim have this toward the end of the after-meal prayer:

מַה שֶּׁאָכַלְנוּ יִהְיֶה לְשָׂבְעָה וּמַה שֶּׁשָּׁתִינוּ יִהְיֶה לִרְפוּאָה

In my own, loose translation:

May what we ate be for satiety, what we drank be for health

Why are drinks connected with health? Surely what one eats is as relevant to health as what one drinks is. I could understand something like "May what we ate be for satiety, what we drank be for hydration", but that's not what's said.

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  • Often doctors recommend that patients drink lots of water, that keeping hydrated helps to flush out any germs.
    – DonielF
    Jan 21, 2019 at 22:43
  • I think Rambam in Hilchos Deos talks about the importance of drinking after a meal for Refuah. I think they had no idea of hydration, so drinking water in a meal would be considered as a Refuah for digestion of the food.
    – Al Berko
    Jan 22, 2019 at 13:01
  • I've never heard this version, but I have heard ומה ששתינו יהיה לצמא or something like that. But admittedly my limited observations may not be statistically significant
    – Double AA ♦
    Jan 23, 2019 at 7:01

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See mishle 3.8

רִ֭פְאוּת תְּהִ֣י לְשָׁרֶּ֑ך וְ֝שִׁקּ֗וּי לְעַצְמוֹתֶֽיךָ׃ ‏

shall be health to your navel, and marrow to your bones.

And see Ralbag:

והמשל בזה אל מה שיקח הולד מהמזון בעת היותו במעי אמו, שיקחה דרך הטבור

The blood from the mother circulate to the the embryo's body by umbilical cord. The blood is a liquid food. And the verse called its effect rif'ot, a recovery, despite that this is not a medicine against some disease.

So I assume that from this analogy, used in Mishle, the BHM authors wrote the Bakasha that what we drank (liquid, with no need for mastication, as parenteral feeding received by the embyio) be for health.

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