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Food Isn’t That Important … really.
Food stays 2–4 hours in the stomach and up to 2–5 days before leaving the body as excrement. Why then do we eat as much?
I was pleasantly surprised to know that food stays for up to 5 days in our bodies from when it enters our mouths to when it is passed out.
5 whole days.
In that period, as we eat more, the contents of one meal spend 2–4 hours in our stomachs, 2–6 hours in our small intestine and about 36 hours in our large intestine before being passed out as excrement. Even though the time food is retained in our system varies from person to person, and the activity we are engaged in, the above breakdown provides a reference point against which our consumption cycle can be better appreciated.
Why Then Do We Eat as Much as We Do?
One day, I shared my observations with my younger brother who unlike me, eats sparingly. As an analogy on why he eats so little, he contrasted how animals (mostly big cats) eat with human feeding regimes. In his opinion, once animals eat to satisfaction they remain fine for extended periods of time before eating again. Hibernating animals on the other hand, that know they won’t have access to food for extended periods, pile on fat to keep them alive…
