I’ve never seen before anstatt together with other prepositions. Is it possible to use it in conjunction with the others i.e. anstatt + vor?
Es ist ratsam, Mineralwasser beim Essen zu konsumieren, anstatt es vor der Mahlzeit zu trinken.
I’ve never seen before anstatt together with other prepositions. Is it possible to use it in conjunction with the others i.e. anstatt + vor?
Es ist ratsam, Mineralwasser beim Essen zu konsumieren, anstatt es vor der Mahlzeit zu trinken.
Your sentence is an answer of a Question like:
“When should one drink Water …?”,
“Wann ist es ratsam Mineralwasser zu trinken …?”
with the addition (or focus on the timing)
vor dem Essen oder beim Essen?
and maybe the exact Question was:
Ist es ratsam Wasser vor der Mahlzeit zu trinken oder kann man es beim Essen trinken?
So as you may see the preposition vor has nothing to do with anstatt in your case! The preposition is related to the time when one should drink water, before the meal or at the meal!
It’s advisable, to consume water during meals, instead of drinking before meals.
anstatt/instead is referring to the whole part vor der Mahlzeit trinken, while vor/before is part of it indicating the temporal relation.
Es ist ratsam, Mineralwasser beim Essen zu konsumieren, anstatt vor der Mahlzeit trinken.
It’s fine this way, but the sentence lacks a zu before trinken.
Es ist ratsam, Mineralwasser beim Essen zu konsumieren, anstatt vor der Mahlzeit zu trinken.
In any way, it sounds translated, because konsumieren is rarely used in conjunction with water.
There are two prepositional phrases that are in contrast to each other:
"beim Essen" versus "vor der Mahlzeit"
I shorten the sentence for simplicity
Verb | Prepositional Phrase | Conjunction | Prepositional Phrase
Trinke beim Essen anstatt vor dem Essen.
So, anstatt and vor are not joint to a single preposition. They are completely independent from each other.
This is where you use the so-called da-compounds:
Es ist ratsam, Mineralwasser beim Essen zu trinken anstatt davor.
I think you parse this sentence wrong. "anstatt" is not used here with "vor". "Anstatt" is used here with "vor der Mahlzeit trinken". Compare: "... instead of drinking before meal".