At about 4:30pm today I ate a bowl of soup. At 12:45am I went to the bathroom, and lo and behold what do I find? In my excrement I find clear traces of the soup I ate. This is only 8 hours and 15 minutes after I ate it! I suspected my digestive system worked fast, but THAT fast? Is that normal? How long does it usually take from the time food enters the body to when the waste products of the same food are expelled? If this is abnormal, what could be the cause, and what are the possible reprocussions?
I do not have diarhea, so that is out as an explaination.
Any info anyone can give me would be a help, and sources to back up facts would be great, especially concerning the time it takes the digestive system to work. Thanks and God bless!
2007-02-25 18:22:43 · 2 answers · asked by The Link 4 in Health ➔ Other - Health
After putting the yummy stuff into your mouth, it (the bolus) then has to travel through the entire gastrointestinal tract before coming out the other end. The gastrointestinal tract for the purposes of this exercise includes the oral cavity, the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon.
Food travels down the oesophagus at a rate of approximately 3 to 4 centimetres per second (1 to 2 inches), and the entire process takes about 5 to 6 seconds. In the stomach, food tends to hang around for a little longer and this depends on a variety of factors including the amount of food you have consumed, how much fat it contains, and also the acidity of the stomach. However, all food should have left the stomach within 2 to 4 hours.
In the small intestine, digestion continues and absorption occurs. From here on, the time to defecation will vary depending on the time it takes to adequately digest and absorb in the small intestine. This will usually take 5 to 6 hours. The "food then enters the colon for further digestion and water reabsorption before defecation. The time from it’s entering the colon to defecation is about 12 to 24 hours.
Thus, the time for food to travel from one end to the other probably ranges from about 20 to 30 hours. Foods high in protein and fats probably would probably take a little longer to pass through than if it were carbohydrate.
Hope this helps!
2007-02-25 18:32:49 · answer #1 · answered by GiggleFairy 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Sounds fine to me. It can take 3 hours for you stomach to empty then food goes through the intestines so I'm guessing 8 hours is fine
2007-02-25 18:28:19 · answer #2 · answered by hwall 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋