Metabolism And Poop

I recently read an article from Huffington Post where someone wrote in asking the question, “How long does it take for the food I ate to add weight to my body?” Before I tell you what Huffpost’s answer was, I’ll tell you what I think about me. Within five minutes! Ok, I know that’s not true but after the great 2 slices of chocolate cake, it sure seems like it. Then, after eating it, I start getting upset with myself because I didn’t really need the cake in the first place. I think that’s called “comfort eating”. Be honest, we all do it. Wouldn’t it be great if we turned down the chocolate cake and said “No, I’d rather have 2 carrots”? If you do that, I am impressed and think you are extraordinary and I want to grow up to be like you.

Dr. David Katz is a  Huffington Post Healthy Living contributor and director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. His response to the question was, “By the time the residual waste of food is passing out of us, the usable parts have all been put to use — for energy expenditure, as heat generation, or placed into storage, as either glycogen [from carbohydrate], or fat.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, the food we eat passes through our stomach and small intestines in about six to eight hours. Dr. Michael F. Picco states that “Elimination of undigested food residue through the large intestines usually begins after a total of 24 hours. Complete elimination from the body may take several days.”

In medical school, we were taught a simple inexpensive test we could tell our patients to do at home to see how fast their metabolism worked. The test consist of eating cooked whole kernel corn. Mark down the date and time you ate the corn. Then, each time you go to the bathroom to poop, get up and look before flushing. The trick is to see how many days go by before you do not see any corn left in your poop.

The corn trick works because it has been found that normally we do not digest corn well, therefore it will go in us and come out whole. That’s true, test it yourself. The other problem with corn is that it seems that it all is now genetically modified which I do not feel is healthy for us.

Try the corn trick and see how fast your metabolism is working. If it takes more than two or three days to get rid of the corn, supposedly that means you have a slow metabolism. If so, you may want to have your doctor check your thyroid to be sure it’s not running too slow. You may also consider exercising a little like simple movement such as a short walk every day.

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