Saturday, September 07, 2013

How Long

Mayo Clinic: Digestion: How long does it take? How long does it take to digest food — from the time you eat it to the time you excrete it?
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And here's something I've always wondered about: Does the drinking of liquids with a meal impede digestion; the absorption of vitamins and minerals? I've read that no liquid should be taken until an hour after dining, otherwise the digestive juices are diluted, and the vitamins go unabsorbed. Yet in our culture, and other cultures around the world, beverages are consumed with meals. Here in sunny california, people love juice with their food.
What is your opinion?

9:59 AM
Jim Sande said...

I have a lot of opinion on this - yes.

First off I think the "American diet" is fundamentally bad. What is bad about it - too many poor carbohydrates especially white flour, and sugar, along with too much grain in general. We eat too much bread, crackers, donuts, cookies, cakes, bagels etc. So eliminating those things helps digestion. Also we eat too much protein - too much muscle meat. The body does not need that much protein to thrive - one piece of chicken, not five. Also we eat too much dairy food and the way our milk is processed is weird. We eat too much dairy food. Fundamentally we need to eat way more organic vegetables and fruits - that is the basis of a good diet in my opinion. Also age comes into play. As we get older the digestive system is not quite so good, so might need some probiotics along with more fruit and vegetables and far far less grain especially white four and white sugar. As far as drinking with a meal - I say yes, rink water, good clean water. In fact water and maybe some tea, that's all you need. Drink water plenty of water.

Using myself as the model here, and this is my opinion, but eliminating the bad carbos, eliminating most dairy, I do eat some organic whole milk yoghurt, and cutting down on the meat simply because we eat too much protein, all these things help digestion. So to me it's more about this then if we drink with meals. One other thing - a simple way to improve digestion is too chew a lot and also to do regular deep breathing where you are aiding the parasympathetic nervous system - rest and digest system as it is also called. This too will help digestion as most people walk around with nervous stomachs tight with anxiety and restriction.

11:48 AM
Jim Sande said...

One more thing = how we eat and when we eat are also critical parts of the digestion. I eat usually five times a day but they are smaller meals and mostly vegetables. Vegetables do not have the characteristics of proteins like meat of making you feel full. This is the main reason why people eat so much meat, it makes you feel full and that is a sensation that people for many reasons think is good. You don't need that. One benefit of all this is that you remain slim. I weigh 150 lbs, 60 years old, and most of my friends are overweight and weight is simply not good on the body, you gey joint pain, digestion problems, all kinds of problems.

11:54 AM

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