Digestion of steak

[Lapaaan]

How long does it take to digest a steak? My mate reckons it can be up to 10 years - surely this can't be right?

[rumanshu]

I've heard that as well - that's why some people reccommends colonic irrigations as it clears out the gut.

[TommyC]

Suppose it depends what planet you're from..! :o) The average time period for human food digestion and passage is 24-48 hours.

[darth vader]

10 years? he must have a big belly. agreeing with TommyC it is around 24/48 hours - theorists say it does increase to around 3-4 days if mixed with carbohydrate at the same sitting. btw very little stays in the stomach for more than a few days - the system will "flush" itself out of anything that doesn't digest within a reasonable period (sometimes an emergency flush - diarrahoea). You don't expect that marble you swallowed when you were three, to still be rolling around in there do you?

[smudge]

Surely this question should have been posted under 'Myths' because it is one! If it took ten years to digest & with the amount of steak we eat, we wouldn't have enough room left to eat anything else & we'd probably explode!

[peanut]

if it took ten years to digest steak, many of us steak lovers would have a serious problem. if you think about how much steak an average person eats in a 10 year period your stomach would be so full you would be unable to eat anything at all.

[Canib]

Those that say that it takes years to digest red meat are just trying to frighten people that believe whatever they hear and do not investigate things for themselves into blindly following the food Nazis. Smudge is correct. If we eat just one pound per week, and it stayed in our system for 10 years, that would be at least 500 pounds of beef waiting to get out. Amazing!