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Read on to
understand how your digestive system works,
how important it is and what digestive
transit really means.
 Sometimes
we take really important things in our life
for granted.
Digestion is
something our bodies do every day, but
rarely do we consider what’s going on, day
in, day out without our knowledge.
When you
decide to eat or drink something, this is
usually in response to a normal body process
to stop you feeling hungry and thirsty. No
doubt you love your food - from thinking
about what you’re going to eat, what you
fancy cooking tonight, who you might share a
meal with, and so on. All of this adds to
the enjoyment of daily life.
Yet in making
these everyday choices we often forget or
overlook that nature has designed us this
way to ensure our bodies are well nourished.
Without food
and drink you simply wouldn’t survive. Every
cell of your body needs its own daily
‘packed lunch’ to function properly, and the
only way your body cells get what they need
is if you put that food into your mouth in
the first place!
And here’s
where your digestive system becomes the
central hub of helping to maintain a healthy
body. You wouldn’t be able to make use of
any food in its original form, so your
digestive system is a really efficient ‘food
processing’ unit that breaks down what you
eat into tiny little nutrient particles that
can be absorbed. It also sifts out the
non-digestible parts of your diet and it
also gets rid of any waste products your
body doesn’t need.
So you need a
healthy tummy and digestive system to keep
the rest of your body healthy. There are no
two ways about it.
Now for some
technical stuff...
Intestinal
transit
‘Transit
time’ is the term given to how long it takes
food to travel through your digestive system
and out the other end as waste products.
Your digestive system helps to keep things
moving, and it also helps to flush
undesirable dietary components out from your
body. Getting rid of waste efficiently is
like your own internal de-cluttering device.
Did you
know?
1. The
digestive system and the nervous system are
closely related – that’s why you often feel
like you have ‘butterflies in your tummy’
when you are nervous or excited about
something!
2. It used to
be thought that we only produce bile salts
from our gallbladder when we have fatty
foods in our diet. But we actually produce
bile every time we eat. Simply chewing food
causes your gallbladder to contract – even
before the food reaches your intestines
where bile kicks into action.
3. You don’t
necessarily digest your main meal before
your pudding. What you eat sits in the
stomach where it’s tossed around, and then
small amounts of the mixture are squirted
into the small intestine.
4. Water is
important for our digestive system to
function, so drink 1L to 1.5L of fluid
throughout the day.
Transit
time
Digestive
transit time is the time taken from eating
something until the waste products are
eliminated at the other end.
This length
of time taken for our food to travel the
whole length of the digestive system varies
from meal to meal, but is affected by the
amount and type of food we eat. Passage of
food along the digestive system is not a
uniform speed as food may pass quickly along
one part of the digestive system, yet in
another part it may move along quite slowly.
The length of time for this process to take
place may vary, but it should normally take
less than 72 hours.
The rate at
which foods move along the digestive system
can affect how you feel. When digestive
transit is slower it may lead to feelings of
abdominal discomforts, such as bloating.
It’s common
for people to have the urge to go to the
toilet immediately after eating a meal -
especially breakfast. This is known as the
gastro-colic reflex, and happens when the
nerve receptors in the stomach sense stretch
as your meal is eaten. This sends signals to
the large intestine to promote peristalsis
(the rhythmic movement of food along the
digestive tract) – and results in the urge
to go to the toilet. What you pass is not
the food you’ve just eaten, but the remnants
of your food intake from hours earlier. |
