Food Transit Time to Bowel

PaddyJules

I have recently had some bowel problems and my GP reckons I couldbe suffering from IBS. So he has suggested that I keep a food diary and monitor what foods cause 'nasty' results. What I forgot to ask him, was how long does the food take to enter the bowel?

For example if I eat breakfast and then lunch and then get the symptoms in the afternoon - is it due to the foods I ate for breakfast or lunch or even the food I ate the day before. I know that everyones body digests food at different rates, but just wondering if anyone knows how I would identity the actual foods that are causing the problems.

Thanks.

Wonkagirl

I would say that it's different for everyone- i have heard before that it's 3-4 hours. certainly if i eat white bread, i'll know about it a lot quicker than that- within 90 mins or so, less even. it'll be trial and error, i would imagine.

Kimia

That's a really good question Paddy and one that I've wondered myself at times. It's true that sometimes you feel the effects earlier than you would have thought. Does anyone know the answer to this one?

Khannie

Different foods transit at different rates. The amount of liquid in your stomach and the amount of carbs in the meal has an effect too. I'd say keep the diary and let your GP figure the rest out. I've never found a reliable answer on the internet (and I've looked a few times). The numbers you find vary wildly.

Red Cortina

If I eat something that doesn't agree with me then I know about it in 20 mins...

El_Dangeroso

There was this guy I read about called Alexis St. Martin that had a hole in his stomach from a musket shot and William Beaumont a surgeon tied food to a string, put it straight into the stomach and measured how long it took to digest. Ew.

It was not until August 1, 1825 that Dr. Beaumont — now stationed at Fort Niagara — began his experiments with St. Martin, becoming the first person to observe human digestion as it occurs in the stomach. Beaumont tied quarter-ounce pieces of food to the end of a silk string and dangled the food through the hole into St. Martin's stomach. (The food items were "high seasoned alamode beef," raw salted lean beef, raw salted fat pork, raw lean fresh beef, boiled corned beef, stale bread, and raw cabbage.) St. Martin went back to his household duties. Beaumont pulled out the string one, two, and three hours later, to observe the rate of digestion for the different foods. Five hours after he first put the food into St. Martin's stomach, Beaumont removed the food pieces because St. Martin was suffering stomach distress. The next day, St. Martin still had indigestion, which Beaumont treated.

On August 7, 1825, Beaumont had St. Martin fast for 17 hours, and then took the temperature of St. Martin's stomach (it was 100 degrees) Beaumont removed gastric juice from St. Martin's stomach, then observed the rate of digestion of a piece of corned boiled beef "test-tube" style, while also placing the same-sized piece of meat directly into St. Martin's stomach. The stomach digested the meat in two hours; the vial of gastric juice took 10 hours (maintained at about 100 degrees). The next day, Beaumont repeated the experiments using boiled chicken, which he found digested slower than the beef. The experiments showed that gastric juice has solvent properties. In September, St. Martin returned home to Canada (where he married and had children), so Beaumont was unable to experiment on him further at this time.

So at least we know corned beef digests quicker than boiled chicken :P

OP, I'd do food elimination tbh. Food diaries are very difficult to pull apart and sometimes you only get a cumulative effect from food and might erroneously blame something innocent for the reaction.

If it is IBS, then I'd go without wheat first for a good month, then try eliminating fiber for a bit (take coconut oil to keep things moving). I bet you a tenner it'll be one of those two.

teacosy

Here is a recent publication on IBS and diet from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence and the British Dietetic Asociation.

It is based on the best current evidence on the subject.