Re: How long does it take to digest completely??

Dear Tracy,

As you already found out there is no good answer to your question. The best 
answer that I can give you is to tell you the approximate times the food 
remains in various regions of the digestive tract;

Esophagus:          5-7 seconds

Stomach:            2-6 hours 

Small intestine:    3-5 hours

Large intestine:    3-10 hours


As you well know, if you have diarrhea it is much less than these times. On 
the other hand, if you're constipated it is much longer. 

Normal circumstances also vary, since there are individuals who have 2 or 3 
bowel movements per day, whereas others may have only a single bowel 
movement in two days. And of course one can repress the desire to empty 
one's bowels (for example if there is no bathroom around) and that would 
also increase the time that the food remains in the digestive tract.

An excellent way of testing yourself is to eat corn and watch for its 
appearance in your feces. You can experiment by having corn with a fatty 
meal (which slows down digestion) and some days later have corn with a 
carbohydrate-rich and fat poor meal (which speeds up digestion). 

I hope this helps. Good luck.


Leslie P. Gartner, Ph.D.
Anatomy, Dental School
University of Maryland, Baltimore