What foods take a long time to digest? Digestion time in the human stomach

Questions for a specialist

How long does it take for food to be digested in the stomach: food table

The process of digesting food lasts from 2 to 10 hours, sometimes up to 2 days. The duration of digestion is influenced by the type of food, the presence of heat treatment, time of food intake, its quantity, the age of the person, as well as the individual characteristics of the gastrointestinal tract, health status digestive organs. In this case, the gastric phase - the breakdown of products in the stomach cavity - usually lasts 3-4 hours, but can be longer, up to 10 hours.

How long does it take for food to be digested?

The digestion process consists of breaking down food into its simplest components - amino acids and sugars. Gastric digestion is carried out by gastric juice. It contains a mixture of hydrochloric acid and pepsin. Gastric juice breaks down crushed food into a homogeneous mass - chyme.

Food products differ in calorie content and digestion time. This must be taken into account when drawing up food menu. First, you need to eat foods that are easily digestible. And after that - those that are absorbed for a long time.

Foods that are easily and quickly digested include fruits and fruit purees, juices, as well as vegetables, leafy greens, salads. Most of them are absorbed within 15-20 minutes.

Easily Digestible Food

The fastest absorbing product - plain water. It does not linger in the stomach and immediately enters the intestines. Liquid food is digested more slowly. So, juice, fruit pulp, milk are broken down in the stomach from 15 to 25 minutes. Thus, liquid food - juices, compotes - are the fastest and most easily digestible products.

Absorption time watermelon pulp comparable to the absorption time of juice or liquid fruit puree and is 20-25 minutes. Melon pulp also takes a relatively short time to digest - 30-40 minutes.

Almost all fruits require half an hour to digest. Oranges and grapefruits, grapes and cherries, apricots, peaches are digested in 40-45 minutes. At the same time, fruits with a thinner pulp consistency are digested faster. And denser apples and pears are digested more slowly.

Also quickly, in 30-40 minutes, vegetables with juicy pulp are digested - tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet bell pepper, greenery. Vegetables take a little longer to digest medium density– cabbage, radishes, zucchini, broccoli. Their digestion time in the stomach is 40-50 minutes.

Vegetables with a dense structure, root vegetables, are broken down in the stomach in about an hour. Such “long-digesting” vegetables include carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, and Jerusalem artichokes. Time from digestion in the stomach is 60-70 minutes.

All of the above is true for the process of assimilation raw vegetables. Their pulp contains a large number of enzymes, which are also involved in digestion. But boiled, baked, heat-treated vegetables take longer to digest. Heat treatment deprives foods of most of the vitamins and enzymes, so their breakdown time increases.

Foods that take up to 1 hour to digest are called easily digestible. In addition to the above vegetables and fruits, products quick absorption include liquid kefir, fermented baked milk, broth.

Note: it is important to know and take into account when creating a menu - adding to vegetables vegetable oil increases the time of their breakdown in the stomach by more than an hour.

Now let’s describe the features of the rapid assimilation of some products.

Banana

It differs from other fruits in its high calorie content. You can successfully gain weight on bananas, since every 100 g contains 90 kcal. At the same time, banana pulp is absorbed quite quickly. Due to the combination of natural sweetness and rapid absorption, bananas are not recommended for diabetics.

How long does it take to digest a banana? If the fruit is ripe, the digestion time in the stomach is 30 minutes. If it is unripe and green, it will take 40-45 minutes to split. The prolonged digestion time of unripe fruit is explained by its more complex absorption.

Apple

Persimmon

Contains more dietary fiber(fiber) than an apple. This means it takes longer to digest. How much persimmon is digested also depends on its ripeness. The pulp of ripe fruits breaks down in the stomach in 40-45 minutes.

Chocolate

Natural and sugar sweets, honey and caramel candies, chocolate are also quickly digestible foods. At the same time, they are a source large quantity carbohydrates that enter the human blood fairly quickly. All of the above is true for sugars without fats. If you add vegetable or animal fat to sweets - sour cream, cream - then such sweetness will take a long time to digest.

How long does it take to digest chocolate? Pure chocolate without additives, filling, or cream passes through the stomach in 20-25 minutes. But milk chocolate with filling and nuts takes longer to break down, up to 40 minutes to an hour.

“Average” products in terms of digestion time

Medium digestion times include those foods that are digested from 1 hour to 3 hours. As a rule, they contain almost no fat, because fat components significantly lengthen digestion time. These are cereal porridges, bread, as well as dairy and vegetable proteins– cottage cheese, nuts, legumes. This also includes eggs and dishes based on them.

Protein food: cottage cheese

This protein is absorbed almost completely in the human body. How long does it take to digest cottage cheese? Typically, the time it takes to break down in the stomach is 1.5-2 hours. But liquid dairy products - milk, kefir, are digested faster, in 40 minutes, and are easily digestible foods.

Grain foods: bread, rice, buckwheat

Complete absorption of porridges, cereals, bread lasts about 6 hours. Moreover, the time for their breakdown in the stomach is up to 2 hours. This long-term absorption is explained by the need to break down, “disassemble” the resulting food into simple carbohydrates.

How long does it take to digest buckwheat and rice? The digestion process differs by 20-30 minutes. Buckwheat breaks down in 2 hours. Rice is “heavier”; it is digested in 2.5 hours.

Bread moves faster from the stomach to the intestines, but lingers longer in the intestinal cavity. Yeast bread causes imbalance intestinal flora. It causes fermentation, delayed evacuation of intestinal masses, as well as gas formation, bloating, and incomplete digestion of food.

How long does it take for bread to be digested in the stomach? Up to 2 hours.

Starches

Starch and starchy vegetables – potatoes take longer to digest than grain porridges.

Thus, the digestion time of potatoes in the stomach is 3 hours. However, jelly is a liquid food that contains potato starch, is absorbed faster, about an hour.

“Heavy” long-digesting foods

Long-digesting foods include those whose digestion time in the stomach exceeds 2 hours. These are animal proteins and vegetable and animal fats.

How long meat is digested depends on its type. During digestion, protein is broken down into simple amino acids, a process that takes several hours. Poultry and fish are digested faster. Slower - beef, lamb, pork. The meat of large animals is more difficult to digest than poultry.

Fish, chicken, beef, pork

The time it takes for fish to break down in the stomach can be quick—a little over an hour—if the fish is raw and lightly salted. Boiled and even more so Fried fish It takes longer to digest – up to 2 hours (boiled) and up to 3-4 hours (fried in oil).

The bird is digestible longer than fish. The time for its breakdown in the stomach is about 2-2.5 hours - provided that the chicken or turkey is without cartilage and skin.

The maximum time for gastric digestion is in beef (4 hours) and pork (5 hours - and this is only in the stomach, not counting the time of further absorption in the intestines).

Long-term breakdown of protein components explains the effect of saturation. After a heavy meat meal, a person does not want to eat for 6-8 hours, and animals after have a good hunting– do not feel hungry for 1-2 days.

Features of animal protein digestion

The peculiarities of the digestion of any meat include its ingredient to the splitting effect of saliva. Thus, the protein enters the stomach without pre-treatment with enzymes - unlike carbohydrates, which are broken down in the mouth during chewing.

In the stomach cavity, meat is also not completely digested. It contains difficult-to-digest components - veins, cartilage, skin.

Digestion time meat products– for a long time and not always fully. You can shorten it shared use greens and vegetables.

Table - how much food is digested in the human stomach

Digestibility class	Product	Absorption time
Easily digestible	Fruit and vegetable juices	15-20 minutes
	Milk
	Bouillon
	Orange, tangerine, grapefruit	20-25 minutes
	Grapes, raspberries
	Watermelon
	Peaches, apricots, plums	35-40 minutes
	Melons
	Tomatoes cucumbers
	A raw egg
	Apples, pears, cabbage, broccoli	40-50 minutes
	Carrots, beets, sweet potatoes	50-60 minutes
Average learning time	Raw salted fish	1 hour
	Fish caviar	1 hour
	Cottage cheese	2 hours
	Cereal porridge
	Legumes
	Nuts
Long-term absorption	Bird	2.5 hours
	Beef, lamb	4 hours
	Pork	5-6 hours

Digestion of food, depending on its type, takes from 15 minutes to 6 hours, however, these time frames have individual fluctuations. Maximum activity digestive tract occurs in the middle of the day, the minimum - at night, accordingly, the time of food absorption changes. In children and persons young Digestion is accelerated, in the elderly it is slowed down. Slow down digestion and distort it with diseases and digestive disorders. Combinations of products also affect speed - if they have different terms digestion, total time stay in the gastrointestinal canal increases.

From several factors:

chemical composition - carbohydrates are absorbed fastest, their digestion begins already in oral cavity, followed by proteins, and the last of the list is fats, the breakdown of which requires many enzymes and the entire surface of the small intestine;
water content in the product - the more water, the faster the absorption;
food temperature - cold food is digested several times faster;
cooking method - raw foods are digested within an hour, and the assimilation of complex dishes with multi-stage preparation can take many hours;
combinations of products - dishes made from products with approximately equal digestion time are quickly digested;
uniformity of food intake and portion sizes - the most physiological is recognized fractional meals with a break of no more than 3 hours and a volume of about 1 glass;
habits of eating without feeling severe hunger– if the previous portion of food is not digested, the absorption of the next one slows down, and fermentation processes develop.

Easy and difficult to digest foods

According to the time of assimilation, all products can be distributed as follows.

Category	Products	Digestion time, hour
Easy to digest	Fruit and vegetable juices, vegetable broth	15 – 20 minutes
	Juicy raw fruits, eaten separately - watermelon, melon, cucumber, tomato, orange, grapes	from 30 to 60 minutes
	stone fruits – cherry, apricot, peach	up to 50 minutes
	raw vegetable salads without dressing	40 minutes
	boiled vegetables - zucchini, squash, cauliflower	30 – 40 minutes
	fatty fish, salted, boiled or baked - herring, salmon, trout	from 45 to 60 minutes
	lean fish – boiled and baked	up to 40 minutes
	eggs	50 minutes
	root vegetables - beets, carrots, turnips
	poultry meat without skin – turkey, chicken	up to 1 hour
Moderately digestible	avocado	up to 2 hours
	boiled whole grains– rice, buckwheat, millet, corn, pearl barley, oatmeal	up to 90 minutes
	legumes – peas, beans, chickpeas, lentils	up to 90 minutes
	sunflower seeds, sesame, soy	up to 2 hours
	meat broth, cocoa	up to 2 hours
	dairy products - milk, low-fat cottage cheese and cheese	up to 2 hours
	nuts – peanuts, cashews, walnuts	up to 3 hours
	raw vegetable salad with butter	from 1.5 hours
	rye bread and potatoes, ham
Hard to digest	hard fatty cheeses	4 hours or more
	fatty and fibrous meats - horse meat, beef, lamb	5 or more hours
	fried meat and mushrooms	from 4 hours
Indigestible	vegetable fiber, fruit skin, hard cartilage

How to speed up food digestion time?

It is necessary to speed up digestion only when there are problems and the presence of the disease has been confirmed by a doctor. In all other cases, it is better not to interfere with processes regulated by nature itself, so as not to harm yourself with rash actions.

If there is such a need, you can use the following methods:

When I eat I am deaf and dumb

This saying is true in all cases. When a person eats, he should not do anything else. Nutrition - the most important process maintaining life. Food is the “fuel” on which each of us lives. Anything that interferes with digestion should be put aside:

Food swallowed “under stress” cannot bring any benefit. When a person is involved in emotions - no matter positive or negative sign– the whole body reacts to this. The heart speeds up, the lungs breathe faster, and the stomach and intestines contract. Normal digestion against the backdrop of a scandal it is completely impossible. The food “stays too long” and rotting begins with all the ensuing consequences.

What about other countries?

For many peoples, food laws are dictated by climate. The Jews were especially successful in this. Their food is divided into 3 types: meat, dairy and neutral - cereals and fruits and vegetables. In the kitchens of many restaurants, and some at home, there are 2 refrigerators - separately for meat and dairy products.

Before the invention of the refrigerator, the separate consumption of meat and milk protected the Jews from food poisoning in 24-hour heat. Over time, it acquired religious sanctification, but the principles remained unchanged.

For those whose digestion is slow, it makes sense to adhere to this division. Meat and milk are digested completely differently because the proteins have completely different structures, different enzymes are required and digestive juices. Simultaneous "loading" digestive system heterogeneous proteins and fats can significantly disrupt digestion in those who already have a defect. Therefore, it is advisable to consume meat and dairy foods separately, mixing them only with neutral ones - cereals, pasta, vegetables.

You can also avoid complex gravies and sauces that contain a lot of superheated fats. It is convenient to bake meat with fruit - organic acids not only make it soft, but add flavor and are an excellent substitute for sauce.

To “tune” digestion, not much is required - just don’t throw anything into your mouth.

The digestive system in the human body has different motor properties depending on age. The mechanisms of digestion of the child in the mother's womb are launched, when the time of life has not yet actually begun to count down. As history progresses, food in the stomach of an adult begins to be digested more and more slowly.

To maintain health, a person should know the nuances of his metabolism and how the digestion process occurs. This information becomes especially relevant when studying cooking methods. various dishes. Then the digestion time becomes optimal. At the same time, the stomach feels comfortable, it will not be tormented by waste from undigested food residues.

When we talk about digestion, we usually mean full cycle, that is, the period of time from food entering the human body until it is completely broken down into useful material. A gastroenterologist can say that even for heavy meat products, the digestion time does not exceed five hours. However, in this case we're talking about only about the moment the food is located directly in the stomach. Indeed, this is the average time a lump of food stays in it. Then she moves to small intestine for absorption, after which it reaches the thick, where the process of its elimination occurs. Of course, how long this cycle lasts depends on to a large extent from physical condition person, individual characteristics his gastrointestinal tract. In addition, food will be digested differently with different diets, the size of single portions of food, and the compatibility of foods with each other.

In the science of proper nutrition there are various tables with the division of products into certain categories. The main thing is to listen to your body and know general principles digestion of food. For ease of remembering, we can offer the following table.

Factors influencing absorption

When planning proper nutrition It is important to know what determines the time food spends in the stomach. The following factors influence this:

1. Temperature of finished products. Absorption rate cold food lower than hot. The digestion time of warm food is the most optimal for the stomach.

2. Method heat treatment, that is, exactly how a person prepares his food. So, when cooking or frying food, its original structure, characteristic of the raw state, changes, and some of the enzymes are destroyed. As a result of such transformations, the time required for digestion increases several times.

3. How much food is digested in the stomach also depends on the duration of the meal. Most optimal time for digestion occurs in the middle of the day (lunch). During the periods of morning and evening meals, a person needs to spend more resources of the body on the same process.

4. Mixing food is one of the most important factors for digestion time. Determined that different products characterized by unequal speed of assimilation. For example, hard cheese takes about 7 times longer to digest than an apple. There are types of food that are not digested at all, or you need to spend a lot of time and resources on it. Accordingly, the time it takes for food to be digested in the stomach will depend on what foods are delivered to a person.

Features of hot and cold food

When answering the question about digestion time, they most often talk about the variety of dishes on the menu and their usefulness, while forgetting to mention the importance of the thermal cooking mode. In this case, the most suitable is warm food average temperature. This is due to the peculiarities of the structure and functioning of the mucous membranes human body. In case of violation temperature regime epithelial tissue internal organs begins to suffer, negative processes are launched that can even lead to cancer.

Science knows the fact that cold and icy food can lead the body to obesity. This occurs due to impaired digestion time of chilled food in the stomach. Instead of the required 4-5 hours, it leaves it in half an hour, as a result of which normal digestion becomes impossible. It is much more difficult to get enough; a person is quickly overcome by hunger. In addition, this reduction in time leads to increased decay processes in the intestines, and the normal mechanism of absorption and utilization is disrupted.

How long the stomach takes to digest food is directly related to its temperature. Drinking even a glass after a meal cold water can do a lot of harm. The protein component does not have the ability to be correctly broken down into amino acids, and bypassing the stomach, it begins to actively rot in the intestines. Thus, food is digested incorrectly, which in turn serves as the basis for inflammatory diseases(for example, colitis, enteritis, dysbacteriosis). As a result, the person ends up in vicious circle when food is not digested properly.

Hot food is no less dangerous for the proper functioning of the organ. In this temperature state, the walls of the esophagus are burned and its mucous membrane becomes necrosis. This can lead to swelling of its tissues and difficulty swallowing. In the future, this situation leads to the formation of ulcers, which, when healing, cause a narrowing of the esophagus. Thus, at incorrect temperatures, food is not just digested incorrectly, but poses a danger to the functioning of the entire body.

Mixing

In order for the diet to be as balanced as possible, it is recommended to take into account not only calorie content, but also compatibility. There are three main categories:

1. The first contains easily combined foods that are digested the same number time. This category includes fruits and vegetables, as well as mixed salads and broths.

2. Products the following type They can also be mixed; they require approximately the same amount of time to be absorbed. However, sugar, spices and oils are added to them. Due to this, the stomach secretes a large portion of acid for digestion, which leads to an increase in the time spent in it. food bolus. Eggs, fish, and skinless chicken are included in this list.

3. The third category is characterized by different chemical indicators. They will be digested large quantity time, as they undergo additional processing during preparation. There are already more than wide choose: nuts, cottage cheese, cereals, potatoes, mushrooms and legumes.

Thus, food is digested depending on its physical properties, and from the products with which it is taken. The following list of foods will take the longest to digest in the body: pasta (mainly from durum wheat), hard cheese, canned fish, stewed meats, pates, tea and coffee with milk.

Basics separate power supply

It is optimal for the body as a whole and in particular for the stomach to eat one type of food per meal. Since the time required for its digestion is the same, this approach makes it possible to accurately calculate it and maintain the necessary pause, after which you can eat foods from another category. When a person eats inconsistently, it not only changes the time food spends in the stomach, but also clutters the intestines and leads to the accumulation of toxins.

How long should you wait before your next meal? The amount of time required for this process directly depends on the category whose products are consumed in this moment. How many hours then do you not eat at all? According to the principles of separate nutrition - about two. The exception is fruits: the time between taking them can be reduced to half an hour. It is also important to initially eat liquid meals and not drink during or after meals. Chew thoroughly until the consistency is as soft as possible. The fewer items a person mixes at one time, the better the food is absorbed and there will be less chance of becoming obese.

Consider digestion time various products. I think many people will be interested in this and every person should have an idea about it. Knowing the digestion time of foods is very important to maintain your health. If you know the digestion time of food, you will be able to prepare dishes that will be digested normally in your stomach and will not poison the body with toxins from undigested food residues.

When talking about the digestion time of food, we will understand the full cycle, that is, the period of time that is necessary for foods to be completely broken down into useful substances. Many gastroenterologists will tell you that the digestion time of even heavy meat products does not exceed 4-5 hours. But they talk about the time it takes for food to be digested in the stomach. In fact, food does not stay in the stomach for more than 4 hours. After which it enters first the small intestine, where the process of absorption occurs, and then into colon for removal.

The figures below are average values. The time of digestion and assimilation also depends on the individual characteristics of the body, on the diet, food composition, amount of food eaten and on the compatibility of products with each other. So, friends, let's look at which foods pass through our stomach almost instantly, and which stay there for many hours.

Water - if your stomach is empty, then water goes straight into the intestines.

Fruits and vegetables

On average, fruits take 30-60 minutes to digest. Digesting fruits requires almost no energy or enzymes.

Fruit and 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 within 20 minutes after you drink it.

Juicy fruits: oranges, apples, pears, plums and so on. For example, a couple of eaten juicy and aromatic oranges will leave the stomach in 30-40 minutes. Grapefruits, grapes - 30 minutes. Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, etc. - 40 minutes

Fleshy fruits and dried fruits: bananas, figs, dates will go through the stomach in no time. longer time, how juicy fruits, but still very fast compared to the products that follow. Watermelon - 20 minutes. Melons - 30 minutes.

Raw mixed vegetable salads- tomatoes, leaf salad, cucumber, celery, green or red pepper, others juicy vegetables- 30-40 minutes

Leafy vegetables - spinach, endive, kale - 40 minutes

Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, pumpkin, corn on the cob - 45 minutes

Root vegetables - carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, etc. - 50 minutes

Cereals, cereals and legumes

Digestion time for grains

Concentrated carbohydrates - cereals and grains. The digestion time of cereals and grains in the stomach increases sharply. Therefore, it is recommended to eat fruits on an empty stomach, separately from cereals and cereals. A plate of regular porridge leaves the stomach only after 4-5 hours!

Brown rice, millet, buckwheat, corn flour, oats, pearl barley - 90 minutes

Durum wheat pasta - 3 hours

Semi-concentrated carbohydrates - starches, Jerusalem artichoke, acorns, corn, potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, yams, chestnuts - 60 minutes

Digestion time for legumes

Beans and legumes. Regular peas and chickpeas, lentils, beans (white, red, black) are digested in an hour and a half. Soybeans - 2 hours

Grains or legumes of one type: 2.5-3 tsp.
Mixture of grains and/or legumes (no more than two types): 3-3.5 tsp.
Mixture of grains and/or legumes (more than two types): more than 4-5 hours.

Nuts and seeds

Seeds - sunflower, pumpkin, sesame - about 2 hours
Nuts - almonds, peanuts (raw), cashews, Brazil nuts, Walnut, pecan, brazil nuts digested in 2.5-3 hours.
Tip: If you soak the seeds and nuts in water overnight and then crush them, they will be absorbed faster.
Soaked nuts: 1.5 tsp.

Dairy

Raw milk leaves the stomach slowly, pasteurized milk even slower, and boiled milk even slower. Milk that is rich in fat passes through the stomach more slowly than milk that is low in fat.

Skim milk, ricotta, low-fat cottage cheese, feta cheese, and homemade cheese are digested in about 90 minutes.
Milk is completely digested within 12 hours. Tea or coffee with milk: 24 hours.

Cottage cheese from whole milk- 2 hours
Hard cheese made from whole milk, such as Dutch and Swiss, will require 4 to 5 hours to digest.
Fermented milk drinks - 1 hour

Animal proteins

Boiled eggs stay in the stomach longer than raw eggs. Scrambled eggs remain there for just as long.
Egg yolk - 30 minutes
Egg (completely) - 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 is absorbed by the body for a very long time. Bacon is digested slowly, because of the fat it reduces stomach acidity. It is difficult for most people to digest. Fat significantly interferes with the secretion of gastric juice after eating, reduces absorption and delays the digestion process.

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 a lot gastric digestion. Exactly fatty food takes the longest to digest. By the way, fatty fried meat, for example, kebab, takes up to 72 hours to digest, while our body spends a lot of energy on digesting such food. A person who regularly eats meat carries around several kilograms. feces, which turn into waste and release toxins that poison the body.

It is important not how long the food stays in the stomach, but in what form, digested or not digested (digested or undigested), it passes into the intestines, and what happens to it next.

Sometimes, without being a doctor, it is worth delving into the details of the digestion process, assessing how long food passes through the gastrointestinal tract, and comparing the absorption of foods by duration. Why know how to digest food quickly? The body is good at this matter, let it deal with it itself. Because the unconscious choice of unsuccessful combinations makes the stomach harder and provokes complications. Let's see why it is important to know the digestion time of food.

How long does it take for a person to digest food?

Fuel consumed in the form of food is essential for the functioning of the body. Without necessary nutrients development, restoration and protection of cells are impossible. The foods you eat go a long way before they become building blocks needed by the body, but the energy required for processing and the time it takes to digest food greatly depend on the food class it belongs to.

The answer to the question of how long food is digested in the stomach may surprise you with its range: from half an hour to 6 hours. How long does it take for food to enter the intestines? After 7-8 hours of progress along small intestine with parallel breakdown, food passes into the large intestine, where it can remain for about 20 hours. Let’s summarize how long it will take for food fuel to be processed into feces (we apologize for the terminology “not for the table”): around 1.5 days.

Digestion time in the stomach:

It is worth separating the concepts of “digestion” and “assimilation”. The first determines how long food remains in the stomach, undergoing processing in the form of splitting into simple chemical compounds. The second involves absorbing the received elements and using them to replenish energy needs, regeneration of cellular tissues, maintaining the viability of organs and systems.

The completion date of protein processing differs significantly from the indicators of how much carbohydrates and fats are absorbed over the same period. For the first, the splitting process coincides with the moment of digestion, facilitating further absorption; for the second, digestion spreads to the intestines ( complex carbohydrates), delaying penetration into the blood.

It is important to understand how much food is in the stomach, to distinguish between the time of digestion of foods and the time of assimilation. Doctors do not recommend mixing meals, adding a new batch of “fuel” until the old one is completely processed. In our article, digestion will also mean complete assimilation for ease of orientation.

What is absorbed most quickly (table)

The period indicating how long it takes for food to enter the intestines after processing in the stomach is the rate of digestion. Products sometimes differ in directly opposite characteristics regarding this parameter.

A table of food digestion by time will help systematize indicators and divide food into groups.

Category	Products	Time
Fast absorption (carbohydrates)	Berries, fruit and vegetable juices, fruits(except banana, avocado), vegetables	No more than 45 minutes. How long does it take to digest fruits - 35-45 minutes
Medium digestion (proteins with some fat)	Eggs, seafood, poultry, dairy products (except cottage cheese and hard cheese)	About 1-2 hours. How long does it take for fish to be digested - 1 hour
Long-term absorption (complex carbohydrates)	Potatoes, cottage cheese, hard cheese, cereals, mushrooms, legumes, bakery products, nuts	Approximately 2-3 hours. How long does it take to digest porridge - 2 hours
Not digestible	Canned fish, stewed meats, pasta (from durum varieties), tea and coffee with milk, animal meat, mushrooms	More than 3-4 hours or it simply disappears. How long does pork take to digest - up to 6 hours

It became clear how much food is digested in the stomach. The table reflects approximate product grouping vectors, representing big picture. However, certain ways of processing and mixing ingredients can affect the absorption of food. Let us highlight three stages of complicating life in the gastrointestinal tract:

Same digestion time, no heat treatment, no added fats or sugar.
Same digestion time, added sugar or butter, spices.
Different time digestion, different processing and cooking methods, whether oils or fats are added.

In the third situation, it will be especially difficult for the body to assimilate the incoming fuel due to fats, which create a film that repels gastric juice, and the lengthening of the processing time of the “material”. As you can see from the table, meat and mushrooms take the longest to digest. Take this into account when planning a menu, especially for children: quickly digestible food is preferable for a child

The feeling of heaviness and lack of appetite will tell you how long the food is actually being digested. A simple combination of components according to the processing time and pacification of fanaticism from fats will improve overall well-being.

A competent analysis of data on how much food is digested will allow you to build an infallible nutrition system, ideally suitable for the body. There are a number general rules, following which will greatly facilitate the work of the gastrointestinal tract:

1. Try not to mix products of different time parameters so as not to burden the stomach.

2. Aim to create recipes and combinations within the same time group.

3. Adding oils increases the duration of food digestion by an average of 2-3 hours.

4. Dilution with any liquid undigested food will reduce the concentration of gastric juice, complicate the processing of the “material” and clog the intestines with undigested residues susceptible to fermentation.

6. Boiled and fried foods lose some useful properties and lose their original structure, so the digestion time increases by 1.5 times.

7. Cold food is processed faster and can lead to obesity due to disruption of the absorption process. The feeling of hunger returns faster, the processes of absorption and utilization are disrupted, and the intestines undergo rotting processes. Especially this rule concerns protein foods, which must be digested for at least 4 hours, and when cold leaves the body in 30 minutes.

8. Consider what's most important favorable time for processing “material” is lunchtime, so the thirst for mixing incompatible categories can be quenched without consequences. Breakfast and dinner are not characterized by such activity, so try to select foods that have the same digestion time and rapid absorption.

9. When asked whether food is digested during sleep, the answer will be a call to simple logic. Night time is a period of rest and recovery for the whole body, including gastrointestinal tract. Eating too much before going to bed is tantamount to filling your stomach with useless rotten food, since the body will only digest and absorb the fuel fermented overnight in the morning.

Despite the visual isolation and independence of the gastrointestinal tract, the indicators of how many hours food is digested in the stomach sometimes directly depend on our conscious choice. Make it easier for your body to work.

How the stomach digests food: video

Best time for different foods

The indicator of how many hours food is digested in the stomach directly depends on the nature of the material itself. This topic We have already touched on the above table “Time of digestion of foods in the human stomach”, now let’s look at the categories in more detail.

Cereals and legumes

Let's take cereals. Buckwheat - digestion time will stop at 3 hours.
The digestion time of rice in the stomach is 3 hours.
Digestion time for millet porridge is 3 hours.
How long does pearl barley take to digest? Also 3 hours.
Digestion time oatmeal is 3 hours.
How long does it take to digest oatmeal in water (from flakes)? Only 1.5 hours.
Is corn digestible in the human body? Yes, if there is enough weight in the body to secrete the necessary enzymes. The procedure will take 2.3 hours (corn grits).
Let's move on to legumes. How long does it take to digest lentils? The answer is 3 hours.
How long does it take to digest peas (dry) - 3.3 hours.
The digestion time of green peas will stop at 2.4 hours.
How long does it take for beans to be digested in the stomach? At least 3 hours.

Many people are interested in how much is digested rice porrige in the stomach - the same as regular rice - 3 hours. The absorption time of semolina porridge is slightly less - 2 hours. Boiled corn digests in approximately 2.5 hours, depending on the ripeness of the cob. And the most easily digestible cereals, as you probably already understood, include one familiar from childhood - an ideal, quickly digestible porridge for children and adults.

Meat

How long pork is digested depends on the part: tenderloin - 3.3 hours, loin - 4.3 hours.
The digestion time for lamb converges to 3.3 hours.
How long does it take to digest chicken breast? About 3.2 hours.
How long does it take for duck meat to be digested? Approximately 3.3 hours
How many hours meat (beef) is digested does not depend on the part. Approximately 3.3 hours.
How long do dumplings take to digest in the stomach - 3.3 hours.
The digestion time for lard can exceed a day.

The speed of digestion of meat in the stomach also depends on the method of its preparation. For example, the time it takes to digest ground beef will be reduced if you add pureed vegetables such as zucchini or carrots when preparing ground beef patties. But jellied pork feet will take a very long time to digest - more than 5 hours. Chicken jellied meat is digested a little faster - about 3-3.5 hours.

Seafood

How long fish takes to digest depends on the variety: low-fat (cod) takes 30 minutes, fatty (herring, salmon, trout) - 50-80 minutes. Hake is quickly digested in the stomach - no more than 2 hours.
How long does it take to digest shrimp? About 2.3 hours.
The absorption of sea cocktails will take approximately 3 hours.

When creating a menu, do not forget about such a factor as the compatibility of various products.

Vegetables

How long does it take to digest potatoes? Young - 2 hours.
How much is digested? fried potatoes? It's already 3-4 hours. Boiled - only 2-3 hours. How long does it take to digest a baked potato? Young - about 2 hours.
How are carrots digested raw? In 3 hours. The question of why carrots are not absorbed without oil is not entirely correct: vitamin A is poorly absorbed because it is fat-soluble. With oil, carrots take longer to digest, but the benefits are greater.
How long does it take to digest fresh cabbage (white cabbage) - 3 hours.
How much is digested? sauerkraut in the stomach? About 4 o'clock.
How long does it take to digest boiled beets? This will take approximately 50 minutes.
How long does it take to digest a cucumber? On average 30 minutes (like tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, herbs).
The corn vegetable cannot be digested for longer than 45 minutes (cook without oil).

Now you know which vegetables are poorly digested: cabbage, fried potatoes, and celery root will also take a long time to digest. The rate of absorption of lean cabbage soup also depends on the time of absorption of cabbage and will be approximately 3 hours. Why else can soup take a long time to digest: tough meat for the broth, using too fatty a piece of meat for the broth, great content vermicelli and long-digesting cereals.

Fruits

Consider the kiwi. Digestion time will be 20-30 minutes.
How long does it take to digest an orange - 30 minutes.
How long do tangerines take to digest - also 30 minutes.
Let's take grapefruit. Digestion time is 30 minutes.
How long does it take for an apple to be digested? The process will take 40 minutes.
How long does it take to digest a banana? Approximately 45-50 minutes.
Wondering how long it takes to digest pineapple? The answer is 40-60 minutes.
How long does it take to digest a mango? About 2 hours.

There are other types of fruits that take a long time to be absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. For example, do you know how long it takes to digest persimmons in the human stomach? Almost 3 hours! Therefore, you should not eat this product at night.

Animal products

How long does it take for milk to be digested? - 2 hours.
How long does it take for cottage cheese to be digested? Approximately 2.5 hours. Is the cottage cheese low-fat? About 2.4 hours.
How long does cheese take to digest - 3.3 hours.
I wonder how long it takes for kefir to be digested? From 1.4 to 2 hours (low-fat - fatty).
The digestion time for fermented baked milk will be 2 hours.
How long does it take to digest yogurt? Approximately 2 hours.
For gourmands: how long does ice cream take to digest? The process takes 2.3 hours.
How much is digested? boiled egg- 2.2 hours. A egg white? The same indicators.
How long scrambled eggs are digested depends on the volume. A dish of two hard-boiled eggs - 2-3 hours.
How long does it take to digest an omelet? A little over 2 hours.

Flour products

The time it takes for bread to be digested in the stomach depends on the type of flour: from 3.1 hours (wheat) to 3.3 hours (rye).
The question of how long the bread takes to digest is difficult. The product contains a lot of fiber (100 grams = 4 loaves rye bread), which takes a long time to digest.
How long does it take to digest pasta? Approximately 3.2 hours.

Sweets (honey, nuts, chocolate)

How long does it take for marshmallows to be digested - 2 hours.
The digestion time for chocolate will be 2 hours.
How long does it take to digest halva? Approximately 3 hours.
Peanuts, like other nuts, take an average of 3 hours to digest, but the process can be speeded up if the product is crushed and soaked.
Let's take dried fruits. Digestion time varies from 2 hours (raisins, dates) to 3 (prunes, pear).
The digestion time for honey is 1.2 hours.

Liquids

Coffee with milk is not digestible, since tannin and milk proteins form an indigestible emulsion.
The digestion time of tea in the stomach will be about an hour.
How long does water stay in the stomach? Together with food - about an hour. Liquid drunk on empty stomach, immediately enters the intestines. About 350 ml is absorbed at one time (applies to water and food).
How long does it take for soup to digest? Vegetable broth- 20 minutes, meat - depends on the base and ingredients, difficult to determine.

The time food spends in the human stomach is an extremely variable value, but it can easily be brought under control. Follow simple rules meal, combine ingredients that are appropriate in time to avoid overloading the gastrointestinal tract and causing fermentation, choose right time. It's easy to be healthy.