Time for Digestion? page

[LisaH]

I was talking to a couple friends at work today who informed me that beef sits in your stomach for up to 2 days (and pork up to 3) while your body digests it. According to one of them, this "rotting meat" was one of the leading casues of colon cancer. Does anyone have a link to anything that would shed some light on this?

[Pitter]

Why don't you ask them how meat rotting in your stomach would cause colon cancer anyway since the colon is way at the other end of the GI? Or maybe how you would be able to be hungry and eat again every few hours if your stomach is still full of last weeks pork chops? Or how anything, anything at all really could rot in an acid bath of HCl?

[carlh]

And chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years, and if you swallow watermelon seeds little watermelons will grow in your belly.

[DianeThePurple]

I'd actually be interested in finding out about digestion times (but maybe I'm just weird). I was reading in some men's magazine where they tossed out some random figure of "It's supposed to take 60 hours for your food to fully digest, but for the average British man it only takes 48" or some such. This raises more questions than it answers!

1. Is a shorter time bad? Why?
2. Who the hell measures these things?
3. How big was their sample size?

I mean seriously, is this one of those things you can actually know....?

[Prime]

From the American Journal of Digestive Diseases:
The normal emptying time of the stomach of 9 young adult males was determined fluoroscopically, under carefully controlled conditions. The standard meal used consisted chiefly of carbohydrate; the preparation of the meal is described in the body of this paper.
A total of 77 tests was made. The arithmetic mean (average) of the emptying time of the 9 subjects was 2.07 hours. The arithmetic mean for the 77 tests was 2.08 hours. The extremes for the subjects were 1.03 and 2.81 hours respectively. The extremes for the tests were 0.75 and 3.50 hours respectively.
It was found that the emptying time of the stomach of any individual remained strikingly uniform from day to day, but that great individual variations exist.


It's hard to find any studies that didn't use a meal of carbohydrates (go figure) but I think it's safe to say that meat doesn't sit in your stomach for DAYS. Anyone who's ever vomited can tell you they didn't see yesterday's meal in the toilet bowl. Gross, but true. Also, patients fasting for surgery are typically told not to eat anything after midnight the night before a morning procedure, and are sometimes allowed a light breakfast if their surgery is scheduled for the afternoon.

[brahnamin]

And chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years, and if you swallow watermelon seeds little watermelons will grow in your belly.

Actually, I think that second one is true. I swallowed watermelon seeds as a skinny 5 year old and grew up to have a watermelon shaped belly. In fact, at this point I could probably win a ribbon or two at the state fair.

[erikJ]

well, we know corn passes right through, Clearly viewable the next day, yet vegans and vegetarians still eat that. Try eating a really spicy chicken curry for dinner and then have a nice strong cup of coffee the next morning, Tell me how many days it takes.
According to to Beverly hills cop it takes Two years for red meat to be digested. So much crap so little time, All puns intended.

[mayness]

An excellent blog post: Does Meat Rot In Your Colon? No. What Does? Beans, Grains, and Vegetables!

[LisaH]

Thanks for the link Mayness, it was very informative.
And thanks to everyone else as well

[Noctiluca]

I'd actually be interested in finding out about digestion times (but maybe I'm just weird). I was reading in some men's magazine where they tossed out some random figure of "It's supposed to take 60 hours for your food to fully digest, but for the average British man it only takes 48" or some such. This raises more questions than it answers!

1. Is a shorter time bad? Why?
2. Who the hell measures these things?
3. How big was their sample size?

I mean seriously, is this one of those things you can actually know....?

Sample size! LOL! (you should SO be able to figure out where my gutter brain went with THAT!)