Mythbusters: How long does it take for our stomach's to empty?

Okay, how many people were told, maybe by your NUT or your surgeon or just read it somewhere, that food stays in our stomach for 20-30 minutes?



Guess what? It's not true!

The half life of a typical meal is 90 minutes in our stomach. That is to say, 90 minutes after you eat a meal, half of it is gone from the stomach.

So where did that 20-30 minutes come from? It's a misunderstanding. When you eat a meal (vs. drinking water), the contents tend to sit in your stomach for about 20-30 min. with minimal gastric emptying.

Now, this 90 min. is not an absolute rule. Denser food will sit there longer, for example. Liquids tend to go right through us, though it depends somewhat on the calorie content, and also on the volume.

This came up at my 6 month check-up yesterday. I was questioning why we were told to wait 45-60 min. to drink after eating instead of the 30 min. that a lot of programs say. But, me being me, I didn't just take Dr. C's word for it, but looked it up on the internet and found this great article that explains it all with a graph and everything:

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/stomach/emptying.html

Btw, Dr. C told us at a support group meeting that the shape of the sleeve helps slow down gastric emptying compared to bypass. So I don't think this necessarily applies to a bypass or band patient. But it should for VSG and DS.

Interesting, didn't see anything that suggests that fluids affects how long food stays in the stomach for!

Ceelions

Well then, shouldn't we wait 90 minutes for it to process? 

Depends on why we're waiting, I guess.

If it's going down at a regular rate then 1/4 is gone at around 45 min, 3/8 at 60. (Er, assuming I did the math right.) So that's enough not to have pain. I can get a pain if I drink too soon.

But if you want to wait until your stomach is entirely empty, then 180 min would be better. I'm not sure that's necessary though. I think you just want enough out that you aren't speeding up gastric emptying by making your food too mushy. That textbook also says that the more liquid your food is, the faster gastric emptying is.

I do know from personal experience, that I feel less hungry and my meals stick with me longer, if I wait at least 45 min. vs. only waiting 30.

Thank you for sharing this!  Very interesting!!!

~Rana