Every living organism, be it a bacterium, a reptile or a person, has adapted to life in the course of its development largely due to the ability to assimilate nutrients from environment. What are the features of food digestion in humans and animals, what are the principles based on? separate power supply? You will learn about this from our publication.

For digestion various kinds food needs different times.

AT different ages the functioning of the human digestive tract has its own characteristics, which is most pronounced when comparing infants, older children and adults. The work of the digestive system begins in a child in the womb. In the second half of fetal development, the fetus begins to absorb the so-called amniotic fluid with the nutrients present in it, which are absorbed into the blood in the stomach and intestines, and the secretory cells of the pancreas and stomach are already starting to produce a small amount of enzymes.

In a newborn baby, all digestive organs are tuned to absorb mother's milk. The salivary glands are still poorly developed, and active production of saliva begins only by 4-5 months of age, but even at this time its volume is only 10% of that of an adult. The enzymatic activity of saliva is small, but it is enough for the milk casein to be well absorbed.

Infants have a short esophagus and a horizontally located stomach with poorly developed sections, which explains the phenomenon of regurgitation after feeding. In addition, in young children there are fewer glands in the stomach than in an adult, and the acidity of the digestive secretion is also lower. The digestive enzyme pepsin in infants is able to process only milk protein. For digestion mother's milk the baby needs about 2-3 hours, and the cow - up to 4 hours, which is why the latter is absorbed worse.

By the age of seven, the number of glands in the stomach increases, and the volume of the stomach increases to 1 liter. In children under the age of 10-12, intensive absorption of nutrients occurs in the stomach, while in adults this process mostly occurs in the small intestine. The acidity of gastric juice, corresponding to an adult, is achieved by the age of 15 due to an increase in the production of of hydrochloric acid. The activity and concentration of digestive enzymes is highest in the period from 20 to 40 years, then it decreases. In men, the concentration of hydrochloric acid is higher than in women, but after 75-80 years this figure levels off between the sexes. In old age, both the activity of pancreatic secretion and the intensity of absorption of digested food decrease.

Digestion time for different foods

Consider the time it takes to digest various foods in the stomach of an adult. Knowing it, you can competently build your daily menu and prevent intestinal clogging. The data is summarized in the table below.

Food is digested in the following order: carbohydrates, proteins, fats. Raw proteins animal origin processed much faster than boiled. The longer the heat treatment takes, the it gets worse digestion process, which is why a soft-boiled egg will digest faster than a hard-boiled one. This table will help you correct compilation your menu. For example, potatoes are healthier to eat with lean fish, chicken with lentil porridge, etc. In addition, if you follow the rule that you can’t eat until the stomach is free of food, you can lose weight without strict diets. overweight and restore normal work gastrointestinal tract.

Principles of a separate type of power supply

The ideal option for the stomach and the body as a whole is to eat foods with the same digestion time at one meal, and each next move should be carried out after the complete assimilation of the previous portion. An inconsistent diet containing dishes with many ingredients is not considered optimal and leads to cluttering of the intestines and an increase in the processes of putrefaction in it, to the accumulation of toxins.

Eating food with certain time digestion, it is necessary to wait until this process is completed completely, and the stomach and intestines are freed. During this time, the food will have time to go through a full cycle of decomposition. Only after that it is allowed to eat foods that are digested slowly, and vice versa. If you do not follow the sequence of use of products with different times digestion, then fruits, cooked and raw vegetables, starchy and protein food start wandering together. In this case, gases, acids and even alcohol molecules are released, indigestion and blockage occur.

The principles of separate nutrition are based on the use of only one serving compatible products, and between meals it is necessary to withstand at least 2 hours. The exception is fruits, after which you can eat other food after 20-30 minutes.

An important rule is that first of all it is necessary to eat liquid food, and avoid drinking drinks during and after meals. You need to chew food thoroughly, to a consistency close to liquid. Remember that the fewer types of food you mix, the better it is digested, and the less likely you will be to overeat.

Features of digestion in animals

In different animals, the process of digestion and assimilation of food occurs in different ways, let's see this in the example of rabbits, birds, dogs and hamsters.

Rabbits are animals that need a large number of fiber, and per day they can eat up to 30 times, while young individuals are more voracious, for example, small monthly rabbits can eat up to 55 times a day. The structure of their gastrointestinal tract is also very interesting, since the cecum is 7-9 times larger than the stomach. This feature makes it possible to process a huge amount of plant fibers, since microorganisms that decompose cellulose live in such a large appendix of rabbits. Rabbits have a high acidity of the gastric secretion, and its production occurs constantly, even at night, and not just during meals. An interesting feature is coprophagia - this is the eating by rabbits of their night feces, which differs from daytime. Thanks to this phenomenon, the body of animals receives more vitamins of group B. Time complete passage feed on the gastrointestinal tract of a rabbit is up to 48 hours.

Birds are endowed with a two-chambered stomach, which is divided into two sections. Each performs its own function: the first produces gastric juice, and the second works like a millstone, it always has a lot of small pebbles and grains of sand. In time, grains are absorbed the longest - 6-12 hours, it takes 30-60 minutes to process insects. In a chicken, for example, grain can be digested up to a day, and in sparrows - up to 6 hours.

But in ruminants, the digestive system is more complex, and the stomach consists of several chambers at once: a scar, a mesh, a book, and the stomach itself, which is called the abomasum. The scar is the largest part, and certain types, for example, in cows, can reach incredible volumes - 110-145 liters. Digestion of food is also not complete without burping, when food that has entered the rumen again enters oral cavity for finer grinding. It takes up to 4-6 hours to digest food.

And what interesting things can be said about dogs? For the complete processing of the food they eat, they need from 6 to 16 hours, depending on the type of food. These four-legged friends have a peculiarity, which is that the concentration of acid in the gastric juice will be different depending on what kind of food you offer your pet. The most sour secret will be when eating meat, less when eating bread. But the power of the juice, due large quantity enzymes are higher when the dog eats bread, and for meat, although the acidity is the highest, there are fewer enzymes in the juice. It is also interesting that dogs produce liquid saliva for bread, and thicker saliva for meat.

Animals with very sensitive digestion are everyone's favorite hamsters, which cannot be fed with anything. For example, soybean that has entered gastrointestinal tract hamster, can cause ascites disease, and the acid of citrus fruits is harmful to the gastric mucosa of these animals. Persimmons can cause diarrhea in a hamster, sugary foods often lead to diabetes, and salty foods disrupt kidney function. Vegetables and not very sweet fruits, raw nuts and corn, beans, cereals on the water and even children food. Interestingly, the teeth of hamsters are devoid of a protective layer of enamel, this is another reason why animals should not be given sweets. A hamster's stomach is good with raw apples, pears, and carrots. Also digestive enzymes the animal copes with protein food, and every three to four days the animal can be fed with protein chicken egg, low-fat boiled fish or beef without salt. On the assimilation of products in digestive system hamster leaves 3-4 hours.

It is interesting

The process of digestion of food begins even before it enters the stomach, since salivary and digestive glands are activated when you are hungry or smell or see a delicious dish. This phenomenon is based on conditioned reflexes.

Per day salivary glands human produce more than 1.5 liters of saliva. Incredibly, the average person consumes up to half a ton of food per year. The total surface area of ​​the small intestine is 250 m 2 .

The main percentage of the hormone responsible for joy and high spirits is produced in the stomach, and it is called serotonin. digestive juices unable to digest chewing gum, therefore, when passing through the stomach and intestines, it remains unchanged, and can cause or blockage of the intestinal lumen.

Video about separate nutrition from the Malakhov + program

Most people do not watch their diet, and also do not adhere to such important rules, as regimen and portioning. Also, few of them know how long food is digested in the stomach, so they often overload digestive tract. Because of this, a person may develop various pathologies in the digestive tract, the treatment of which will include adherence to a strict diet and special rules nutrition.

What affects the rate of digestion of food

The following factors directly affect the speed of food digestion:

1. Drinking liquid during or after meals. Experts do not recommend people to drink food, as the liquid reduces the concentration of gastric juice, which causes an increase in the time of its digestion. After a meal, you can drink no earlier than half an hour.
2. If people eat cold foods, they are digested much faster.
3. In humans, at lunchtime, they occur faster digestive processes than during morning and evening meals.
4. Products that have been exposed heat treatment, for example, stewing, frying or boiling, are absorbed much longer.
5. The process of digestion of food is affected by the size of portions. That is why experts strongly recommend that people switch to fractional nutrition, which provides for up to six meals a day.

How much water and other drinks are digested

How much soup is digested

How much beer and other alcoholic drinks are digested in the stomach

How much millet, rice, buckwheat porridge is digested

How much is borscht digested

Borscht cooked on meat broth, digested within 60-180 minutes. If it contains pieces of meat, then this period may increase to 2 hours. Some housewives add beans to borscht, which take up to 3 hours for the stomach to digest. The body spends the same time digesting cabbage and potatoes.

How many seeds, nuts and dried fruits are digested

Fruits and berries

Legumes

Dairy

Meat and fish products

Other products

Does the stomach digest food during sleep?

Studies conducted by scientists have shown that at night, the body activates the processes of lipolysis, due to which the breakdown of fats is carried out to replenish the spent energy. That's why human stomach during sleep should be empty. Otherwise, all the food present in it will be processed and deposited as fat.

During a night's rest, the digestive processes in the body slow down. If a person eats before going to bed, then all the food will not have time to be digested.

This can lead to:

• to the development of dysbacteriosis;
• to weight gain;
• to a decrease in immunity;
• to hormonal disorders;
• to development various pathologies, for example, hypertension, osteochondrosis, strokes;
• to depression and other disorders of the central nervous system;
• to premature aging.

To prevent such serious consequences evening meals, people should eat their last meal no later than 4 hours before bedtime.

In this article, we will consider digestion time various products . I think this will be interesting to many and everyone should have an idea about this. Know food digestion time very important for maintaining your health. If you will know food digestion time , then you can cook dishes that are normally digested in your stomach and will not poison the body with toxins from undigested food residues.

talking about food digestion time , we will understand the full cycle, that is, the period of time that is necessary for the products to be completely split into useful material. Many gastroenterologists will tell you that digestion time even heavy meat products does not exceed 4-5 hours. But they talk about digestion time in the stomach. In fact, food is not in the stomach for more than 4 hours. After which she goes first to small intestine , where the assimilation process takes place, and then in colon for withdrawal.
The figures below are average values. The time of digestion and assimilation also depends on individual features organism, on the diet, food composition, the amount of food eaten and on the compatibility of products with each other. So friends, let's take a look at which products pass through our stomach almost instantly, and which ones stay there for long hours.
Water - if your stomach is empty, then water passes immediately into the intestines

Digestion time of fruits and vegetables

Fruit on average, 30-60 minutes are digested. Energy and enzymes are almost not spent on the digestion of fruits.
fruit- vegetable juices and vegetable broths- 20-30 minutes.
Semi-liquid juices, such as pureed vegetable or fruit salad- 20-30 minutes. For example, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, will leave our stomach in 20 minutes, as you drink it.
Juicy fruits: oranges, apples, pears, plums and so on. For example, a couple of eaten juicy and fragrant oranges will leave the stomach in 30-40 minutes. Grapefruits, grapes - 30 minutes. Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, etc. - 40 minutes
Meaty fruits and dried fruits: bananas, figs, dates will pass the stomach for more time than juicy fruit, but still very fast compared to products that follow. Watermelon - 20 minutes. Melons - 30 minutes.
Raw mixed vegetable salads - tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, celery, green or red peppers, other juicy vegetables - 30-40 minutes
leafy vegetables- spinach, chicory, kale - 40 minutes
zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, pumpkin, corn on the cob- 45 minutes
Roots- carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, etc. - 50 minutes

Digestion timeh millet, cereals and legumes

Grain digestion time
concentrated carbohydrates- cereals and cereals. The time of digestion of cereals and cereals in the stomach increases dramatically. Therefore, it is recommended to eat fruits on an empty stomach, separately from cereals and cereals. A plate of ordinary porridge leaves the stomach only after 4-5 hours!
Brown rice, millet, buckwheat, cornmeal, oats, pelovka- 90 minutes
Durum wheat pasta: 3 hours
Semi concentrated carbohydrates- starches, Jerusalem artichoke, acorns, corn, potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, yams, chestnuts - 60 minutes

legume digestion time
Beans and legumes. Ordinary peas and chickpeas, lentils, beans (white, red, black) are digested in an hour and a half. Soya beans- 2 hours
Cereals or legumes of the same kind: 2.5-3 hours
A mixture of grains and / or legumes (no more than two types): 3-3.5 hours
A mixture of grains and/or legumes (more than two types): more than 4-5 hours.

Digestion timenuts and seeds

seeds- sunflower, pumpkin, sesame seeds - about 2 hours
nuts- almonds, peanuts (raw), cashews, brazil nuts, Walnut, pecan, brazil nuts digested - 2.5-3 hours.
Advice: if the seeds and nuts are soaked overnight in water, and then crushed, they will be absorbed faster.
Soaked Nuts: 1.5 hours

Digestion timedairy products

Slowly leaves the stomach raw milk, even slower pasteurized and even slower boiled. High-fat milk passes through the stomach more slowly than low-fat milk.
Skimmed milk, ricotta, low-fat cottage cheese, cheese, homemade cheese - digested for about 90 minutes.
Milk is completely digested in 12 hours. Tea or coffee with milk: 24 hours
Whole milk cottage cheese - 2 hours
Hard cheese made from whole milk, such as Dutch and Swiss cheese, will take 4 to 5 hours to digest.
Sour milk drinks - 1 hour

Digestion time animal proteins

boiled eggs stay in the stomach longer than raw. The scrambled eggs stay there for a long time as well.
Egg yolk- 30 minutes
Egg (totally) - 45 minutes.
Fish– 45-60 minutes
Chicken- 1-2 hours (without skin)
Turkey- 2 hours (without skin)
Beef, lamb– 3-4 hours
Pork– 4-5 hours
On average, meat is digested in the stomach within 4-5 hours, and absorbed by the body for a very long time. Bacon is digested slowly, because of the fat it lowers stomach acidity. For most people, it is difficult to digest. Fat significantly prevents the release of gastric juice after eating, reduces absorption and delays the digestion process.

Digestion time fatty food

It can be like fat in pure form, for example, lard, or just fatty meat or fish, ice cream, and so on. Fat slows down gastric digestion. Exactly fatty food takes the longest time to digest. By the way, fatty fried meat, such as barbecue, is digested up to 72 hours, while our body spends a lot of energy on digesting such food. A person who regularly eats meat carries several kilograms stool, which turn into slags and release toxins that poison the body.
It is not important how long the food is in the stomach, but in what form, digested or not digested (digested or not fully digested), it will pass into the intestines, and what will happen to it next.

Food digestion time table

To date, a balanced separate diet is the most scientifically based and medically shown type of nutrition. The theoretical basis of this dietary regime is widely presented in the press, on television and on the net. But when, having decided to try this system, a person proceeds to practical application, then there is an important technical problem- the question of the speed of assimilation of certain products.

Unfortunately, too little attention is paid to this issue, although it is fundamental in this nutrition system. After all, separate intake does not mean consistent consumption of food separated in time, but the intake of one group of products after complete digestion (assimilation) of another. At the same time, the rate and time of assimilation different products may differ greatly.

Digestion and absorption of food

Food is vital to our body, from it it receives the necessary for life, nutritious and biologically valuable substances. But in order to get them, first, you need to digest food, breaking it down into chemical components, and then digest it. It is a long process starting from enzymatic and machining food in the oral cavity and ending in the far intestines. In time, the "journey of food" in our body, schematically, looks like this: from half an hour to 6 hours, food is digested in the stomach, then it continues to travel in the stomach until 7-8 hours. small intestine, along the way, continuing to split and assimilate, and only then, everything that is not digested, enters the large intestine, where it can stay up to 20 hours.

Digestion and absorption time

Of course, although it is customary to call this the time or speed of digestion (assimilation) of food, in fact this is the time of processing food directly in the stomach. What is actually important for separate nutrition, which, unlike some other systems, does not strictly apply to the separation of complete cycles of digestion and assimilation. However, enough words, let's move on to the technical side:

Liquids

1. Water is absorbed almost instantly if there is no other food in the stomach. (To be more precise, it passes into the intestines)

3. Broths, depending on saturation, 20-40 minutes

4. Milk up to 2 hours

Vegetables

1. Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, greens - 30-40 minutes (the same vegetables seasoned with oil up to an hour and a half)

2. Green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, corn - cooked are digested in 40 minutes, and seasoned with oil 50.

3. Carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips - digested in 50-60 minutes

4. Sweet potato, potato, Jerusalem artichoke, pumpkin, chestnuts, yams - in 1 hour

Fruits and berries

1. Watermelon and berries are digested in 20 minutes

2. Citrus, melon, grapes and other juicy fruits in 30 minutes

3. Pears - apples, apricots - peaches, cherries - cherries and other fruits will be digested in 40 minutes

4. Fruit and fruit and vegetable salads up to 30 - 50 minutes

Cereals, cereals and legumes

1. Buckwheat, polished rice, millet will be digested in 1 hour to 80 minutes.

2. Oatmeal, pearl barley, cornmeal - 1 - 1.5 hours

3. Ordinary peas and chickpeas, lentils, beans (white, red, black) - are digested in an hour and a half.

4. Soy - 2 hours

Nuts and seeds

1. Seeds of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, melon pear are digested up to 120 minutes.

2. Peanuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts - digested in 150 - 180 minutes.

Eggs

1. The yolk is digested in 30 minutes

2. Protein for 45

Milk products

1. Sour-milk drinks - 1 hour

2. Cheese, fat-free cottage cheese and homemade cheese - 1.5 hours

3. Milk and fat cottage cheese - 2 hours

4. Fatty hard cheeses such as Dutch and Swiss will require 4 to 5 hours to digest.

Fish and seafood

1. Small and lean fish digested in 30 minutes

2. Oily - 50 to 80 minutes

3. Protein from seafood will be absorbed in 2-3 hours

Bird

1. Chicken and skinless chicken - 90 to 120 minutes

2. Turkey with skinned a little over 2 hours

Meat

1. Lamb is digested in 3 hours

2. Beef in 3-4 hours

3. Pork is digested up to 5 hours

Balanced nutrition is the most reasonable type of nutrition today. The term "digestion" in medicine means the time that food is in our stomach. This time is enough to digest proteins and fats, since the time of their splitting is equal to the time of digestion in the stomach.

With carbohydrates, things are more complicated. Two concepts are required here: "digestion", "assimilation". And they form the basis of the diet for a raw food diet, so clarity is important in this matter. It is when a person decides to switch to a raw food diet that the question arises, what is the rate of absorption of products.

Unfortunately, little attention is paid to this issue, despite the fact that it is fundamental in such a nutrition system. Separate intake means not just sequential consumption of food, which is separated in time, but the intake of one class of products after digestion (assimilation) of another. It is worth saying that the time and rate of assimilation various products may differ significantly.

Let's talk now about digestion and assimilation of food.

For our body, food is vital, it receives from it the substances necessary for life: nutritious and biologically valuable. But in order to get them, you must first digest food, first splitting it into chemical components, and then assimilate it.

The process of digestion takes a long time, it begins with enzymatic and mechanical processing of food in the oral cavity and ends in the last sections of the intestine. Such a journey of food in the body in time looks like in the following way: food is digested in the stomach from 30 minutes to 6 hours, continues to travel further in the small intestine until 7-8 hours, continuing to be split and absorbed along the way, and only then everything that has not had time to be digested enters the large intestine and there can be up to 20 hours.

Now let's move on to the time of digestion and assimilation of products. This time is also called the speed of digestion (assimilation) of products. But in fact, at this time, food is processed only in the stomach. So.

Vegetables:

1. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, herbs - 30-40 minutes (vegetables that are seasoned with oil - up to 1.5 hours).
2. zucchini, green bean, cauliflower, broccoli, corn - boiled are digested for 40 minutes, seasoned with oil - 50.
3. Parsnips, beets, carrots, turnips - will be digested within 50-60 minutes.
4. Potato, sweet potato, Jerusalem artichoke, chestnuts, pumpkin, yams - in 60 minutes.

Berries and fruits:

1. Berries, watermelon are digested for 20 minutes.
2. Melon, grapes, citrus fruits and other juicy fruits - 30 minutes.
3. Apples, pears, cherries, sweet cherries, peaches, apricots and other fruits are digested for 40 minutes.
4. Fruit, fruit and vegetable salads - 30 - 50 minutes.

Liquids:

1. Water is almost instantly absorbed if there is no other food in the stomach. It immediately enters the intestines in this case.
2. Fruit and vegetable juices are digested within 10-30 minutes.
3. Broths of various saturation - 20-40 minutes.
4. Milk - up to 2 hours.

Cereals, cereals, legumes:

1. Buckwheat, polished rice, millet are digested in 60-80 minutes.
2. Barley, oatmeal, cornmeal - 1-1.5 hours.
3. Peas, chickpeas, lentils, beans (red, white, black) - 1.5 hours.
4. Soy - 2 hours.

Nuts and seeds:

1. Sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, and melon pear seeds are digested on average in about 120 minutes.
2. Hazelnut, peanut, pecan, almond, walnut - 150 - 180 minutes are digested.

Eggs:

1. Protein is digested in 30 minutes.
2. Yolk - in 45 minutes.

Milk products:

1. Any sour milk drinks - 60 minutes.
2. Cheese, cottage cheese and homemade fat-free cheese - 90 minutes.
3. Milk, fat cottage cheese - 120 minutes.
4. Hard fatty cheeses such as Swiss and Dutch take 4-5 hours to digest.

Fish and seafood:

1. Small, lean fish will take 30 minutes to digest.
2. Oily - 50-80 minutes.
3. Protein from seafood is digested in 2-3 hours.

Bird:

1. Chicken, skinless chicken - 90-120 minutes.
2. Skinless turkey - just over 2 hours.

Meat:

1. Beef will be digested - 3-4 hours.
2. Lamb - 3 hours.
3. Pork is digested in about 5 hours.

We examined the rate of digestion in the stomach of food, as well as the processes that affect this rate. Now you know what digests faster and what is slower, and you can use this knowledge in the fight against extra pounds.