I saw this sentence "Should you eat fish oil pills with meals or on an empty stomach? Which is better?" from this website.
What does it mean by saying "to eat fish oil pills with meals"?
does it mean, say, "we eat fish oil pills within a meal as if they are a part of our meal, like you eat some bread & then eat a fish oil pill & then eat some more bread before eating another fish oil pill... until we finish our meal"?
or
does it mean "we eat fish oil pills right after we finish our meal"?
Some medicines are meant to be taken (eaten) "with meals", usually because they would cause nausea or upset if taken on an empty stomach, or because they are absorbed better when taken with food. The exact method of taking does not matter. The instruction "with meals" is satisfied if the medicine is taken just before, right after, or during a meal. The intention is that the medicine does not remain a long time in an empty stomach.
There is not really any special, or subtle use of English here.
You have a meal, and you have a pill at about the same time. I'm not using English skills here, just thinking about how people take pills. It doesn't matter if you take the pill in the middle of the meal, or just after, or perhaps even just before. All those could be described as "with a meal".
Like I said, this is knowledge about pill taking. If you have some white wine with meal, you probably drink it during the meal. But if you have some port wine with a meal you have it after the meal. Port wine is too sweet to drink during a meal.
So think: How do you normally have a pill?
