Balanced split meals are by far the most scientifically proven and medically indicated type of diet. The theoretical basis for this dietary regime is widely presented in the press, on television and on the web. But when, having decided to try this system, a person switches to practical application, then an important technical problem arises - the question of the speed of assimilation of certain products.

Unfortunately, too little attention is paid to this issue, although it is fundamental in this power system. After all, separate intake does not mean sequential consumption of food divided in time, but the intake of one group of foods after complete digestion (assimilation) of another. At the same time, the speed and time of assimilation of different products can differ significantly.

Digestion and assimilation of food

Food is vital to our body, from which it receives nutrients and biologically valuable substances necessary for life. But in order to get them, first, you need to digest food, breaking it down into chemical constituents, and then assimilate. This is a long process, starting with the enzymatic and mechanical processing of food in the mouth and ending in the distant parts of the intestine. In time, the "journey of food" in our body, schematically, looks like this: from half an hour to 6 hours, food is digested in the stomach, then up to 7-8 hours it continues to travel in the small intestine, along the way continuing to be broken down and absorbed, and only then, all that not digested, gets into the large intestine, where it can stay up to 20 hours.

Time of digestion and assimilation of foods

Of course, although it is customary to call this the time or speed of digestion (assimilation) of food, in fact it is the time that food is processed directly in the stomach. What is actually important for separate power supply, which, unlike some other systems, does not strictly refer to the separation of complete cycles of digestion and assimilation. However, enough words, let's move on to the technical side:

Liquids

1. Water is absorbed almost instantly if there is no other food in the stomach. (To be more precise, it goes into the intestines)

3. Broths, depending on saturation, 20-40 minutes

4. Milk up to 2 o'clock

Vegetables

1. Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, herbs - 30-40 minutes (the same vegetables dressed with oil up to one and a half hours)

2. Green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, corn - boiled, digested in 40 minutes, and seasoned with oil 50.

3. Carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips - absorbed in 50-60 minutes

4. Sweet potatoes, potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, pumpkin, chestnuts, yams - in 1 hour

Fruits and berries

1. Watermelon and berries are absorbed in 20 minutes

2. Citrus, melon, grapes and other juicy fruits in 30 minutes

3. Pears - apples, apricots - peaches, cherries - cherries and other fruits will be digested in 40 minutes

4. Fruit and fruit and vegetable salads up to 30 - 50 minutes

Cereals, grains and legumes

1. Buckwheat, polished rice, millet will be digested in 1 hour to 80 minutes.

2. Oatmeal, pearl barley, corn flour - 1 - 1.5 hours

3. Common peas and chickpeas, lentils, beans (white, red, black) - are digested in an hour and a half.

4. Soy - 2 hours

Nuts and seeds

1. Seeds of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, and melon pear are digested up to 120 minutes.

2. Peanuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, Walnut- digested in 150 - 180 minutes.

Eggs

1. The yolk is absorbed in 30 minutes

2. Protein for 45

Milk products

1. Fermented milk drinks - 1 hour

2. Cheese, low-fat cottage cheese and homemade cheese - 1.5 hours

3. Milk and fat cottage cheese - 2 hours

4. Fatty hard cheeses such as Dutch and Swiss will take 4 to 5 hours to digest.

Fish and seafood

1. Small and lean fish is digested in 30 minutes

2. Oily - 50 to 80 minutes

3. Protein from seafood is absorbed in 2-3 hours

Bird

1. Chicken and chicken without skin - 90 to 120 minutes

2. Turkey with skin removed a little over 2 hours

Meat

1. Lamb is digested in 3 hours

2. Beef in 3-4 hours

3. Pork is digested up to 5 hours

Most people do not monitor their diet, and also do not adhere to such important rules as regimen and portions. Also, few of them know how long food is digested in the stomach, so they often overload the digestive tract. Because of this, a person can develop various pathologies in the gastrointestinal tract, the treatment of which will include adherence to a strict diet and special nutritional rules.

What affects the speed of food digestion

The following factors directly affect the rate of food digestion:

1. Drinking liquids during or after meals. Experts do not recommend people to drink food, as the liquid reduces the concentration of gastric juice, which causes an increase in the time of its digestion. After a meal, you can drink no earlier than half an hour.
2. If people eat cold foods, they digest them much faster.
3. A person's digestive processes occur faster at lunchtime than during morning and evening meals.
4. Foods that have been subjected to thermal processing, for example, stewing, frying or boiling, are absorbed much longer.
5. The process of digestion of food is influenced by the volume of portions. That is why experts strongly recommend that people switch to fractional meals, which provides for up to six meals a day.

How much water and other drinks are digested

How much soup is digested

How much beer and other alcoholic drinks are digested in the stomach

How much millet, rice, buckwheat porridge is digested

How much borscht is digested

Borscht, cooked in meat broth, is digested for 60-180 minutes. If there are pieces of meat in it, then this period can increase to 2 hours. Some housewives add beans to borscht, which takes up to 3 hours for the stomach to digest. The body spends the same time digesting cabbage and potatoes.

How much seeds, nuts and dried fruits are digested

Name	Unit measurements	Assimilation time
Prunes
Cedar
Sesame
Pumpkin
Sunflower

Product name	Unit measurements	Time to assimilate food
Boiled potatoes
Boiled young potatoes
Jerusalem artichoke
Fried potatoes
Fresh carrot
Fresh white cabbage
Sauerkraut
Boiled beets
Tomatoes
Lettuce leaves
Bell pepper
Boiled corn
Boiled zucchini
Canned corn
Vegetable salads seasoned with vegetable oil

Fruits and berries

Name	Unit measurements (minutes / hours)	Assimilation time
Oranges
Grape
Grapefruit

Legumes

Milk products

Name	Unit measurements	Assimilation time
Homemade cheeses
Kefir and other fermented milk drinks
Skim cheese
Hard cheeses
Fatty cottage cheese
Ice cream

Meat and fish products

Name of types of meat, fish and poultry	Unit measurements (hours / minutes)	Time to assimilate food
Dumplings
Mutton
Chicken
Beef
Lean fish
Fatty fish
Shrimps

Other products

Name	Unit measurements (minutes / hours)	Assimilation time
Pasta
Bakery products
Egg white
Egg yolk
Fried eggs
Boiled eggs
Bee Honey

Whether food is digested by the stomach during sleep

Studies carried out by scientists have shown that at night in the body, lipolysis processes are activated, due to which the breakdown of fats is carried out to replenish the spent energy. That is why the human stomach must be empty during sleep. Otherwise, all the food present in it will be processed and deposited as fat.

During the night's rest, the body slows down the digestive processes. If a person eats before bedtime, then all the food will not have time to digest.

This can lead to:

• to the development of dysbiosis;
• to weight gain;
• to a decrease in immunity;
• to hormonal disorders;
• to the development of various pathologies, for example, hypertension, osteochondrosis, strokes;
• to depression and other disorders of the central nervous system;
• to premature aging.

To prevent such serious consequences of evening meals, people should eat for the last time no later than 4 hours before bedtime.

Questions to a specialist

How much food is digested in the stomach: food table

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

How much food is digested

The digestion process consists in the breakdown of food into the simplest components - amino acids, sugars. Gastric digestion is carried out at the expense of gastric juice. It contains a mixture of hydrochloric acid and pepsin. Gastric juice splits crushed food into a homogeneous mass - chyme.

Foods differ in calorie content and absorption time. This must be taken into account when drawing up a food menu. You must first - eat foods that are easy to digest. And then - those that are absorbed for a long time.

Foods that are digested easily and quickly 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 product in terms of digestibility is plain water. It does not stay in the stomach and immediately enters the intestines. Liquid food is absorbed 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 foods.

The assimilation time of watermelon pulp is comparable to the assimilation time of juice or liquid fruit puree and is 20-25 minutes. Also, the melon pulp is absorbed for a relatively short time - 30-40 minutes.

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

Vegetables with juicy pulp - tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, greens - are also quickly absorbed, in 30-40 minutes. Medium-density vegetables - cabbage, radishes, zucchini, broccoli - are digested a little longer. The time of their digestion in the stomach is 40-50 minutes.

Vegetables with a dense structure, root vegetables, are broken down in the stomach for about an hour. Such "digestible" vegetables include carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke. The time from digestion in the stomach is 60-70 minutes.

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

Foods that are digested for up to 1 hour are called easily digestible. In addition to the aforementioned vegetables and fruits, liquid kefir, fermented baked milk, broth are referred to products of rapid assimilation.

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

And now we will describe the features of the rapid assimilation of some products.

Banana

Differs from other fruits in high calorie content. Bananas can successfully gain weight, since every 100 g contains 90 kcal. At the same time, the banana pulp is absorbed quickly enough. Due to the combination of natural sweetness and fast absorption, bananas are not recommended for diabetics.

How much banana is digested? If the fruit is ripe, the digestion time in the stomach is 30 minutes. If unripe, green, it will split for 40-45 minutes. The prolonged digestion time of unripe fruit is explained by its more difficult assimilation.

Apple

Persimmon

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

Chocolate

Natural and sugar sweets, honey and caramel candies, chocolate are also quickly digestible products. Moreover, they are a source of a large amount of carbohydrates that enter the human bloodstream quickly enough. All of the above is true for fat-free sugars. If you add vegetable or animal fat to the sweet - sour cream, cream - then such sweetness will be digested for a long time.

How much chocolate is digested? Pure chocolate without additives, filling, cream passes the stomach in 20-25 minutes. But milk chocolate with a filling and nuts takes longer to break down, up to 40 minutes to an hour.

"Average" time of assimilation of products

The average time of assimilation includes those products that are digested from 1 hour to 3 hours. As a rule, there is almost no fat in them, since fatty components significantly lengthen the digestion time. These are cereals, 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 in the human body almost completely. How much cottage cheese is digested? Usually, the time of its splitting in the stomach is 1.5-2 hours. But liquid dairy products - milk, kefir, are absorbed faster, in 40 minutes, and are easily digestible food.

Grain food: bread, rice, buckwheat

Complete assimilation of cereals, cereals, bread, lasts about 6 hours. Moreover, the time of their splitting in the stomach is up to 2 hours. Such long-term assimilation is explained by the need to split, “disassemble” the received food to simple carbohydrates.

How much buckwheat and rice are digested? The digestion process differs by 20-30 minutes. Buckwheat is split in 2 hours. Rice - is more "heavy", it is digested in 2.5 hours.

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

How much bread is digested in the stomach? Up to 2 hours.

Starches

Starch and starchy vegetables - potatoes absorb longer than cereals.

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

"Heavy" products of long-term assimilation

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

How much meat is digested depends on its type. In the process of assimilation, protein is broken down into simple amino acids, and this process takes several hours. Poultry and fish are absorbed faster. Slower - beef, lamb, pork. The meat of large animals is more difficult to digest than poultry.

The digestion time of fish in the stomach can be fast - a little over an hour - if the fish is raw, slightly salted. Boiled and especially fried fish takes longer to digest - up to 2 hours (boiled) and up to 3-4 hours (fried in oil).

Poultry takes longer to digest than fish. The time of its splitting 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 in beef (4 hours) and pork (5 hours - and this is only in the stomach, not counting the time for further absorption in the intestines).

Prolonged breakdown of protein components explains the satiety effect. After a plentiful meat meal, a person does not want to eat for 6-8 hours, and animals after a successful hunt do not feel hunger for 1-2 days.

Features of the digestion of animal protein

The peculiarities of the digestion of any meat include its ingredient in the splitting action of saliva. Thus, protein enters the stomach without pretreatment 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 hard-to-digest components - veins, cartilage, skin.

The digestion time of meat products is long and not always complete. You can reduce it by sharing greens and vegetables.

Table - how much food is digested in the human stomach by products

The process of digesting food lasts from 2 to 10 hours, sometimes up to 2 days.

Digestibility class	Product	Assimilation 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 assimilation time	Raw salted fish	1 hour
	Fish caviar
	Cottage cheese	2 hours
	Cereal porridge
	Legumes
	Nuts
Long-term assimilation	Bird	2.5 hours
	Beef, lamb	4 hours
	Pork	5-6 hours

Food Is a source of energy, useful microelements, vitamins, nutrients... However, in order for the body to obtain the required components, pre-processing of food is required, which begins immediately after it enters the oral cavity. The very first stage of processing is the soaking of food with saliva. After the food coma enters the stomach, gastric juice is connected to the case, then the products are transported into the intestines. Further, the liver is engaged in the production of enzymes that make it possible to neutralize possible toxins, but retain all the necessary substances. Of particular interest is how long food is in the human stomach and how long it takes to digest it.

The period of residence of various foods in the stomach

With an eye to what product or drink a person threw into the digestive system, the time that food is in the stomach is also determined. The average residence time of elements in this organ is from a couple of minutes to six hours. If we consider plain warm water taken on an empty stomach, it almost immediately enters the intestines. In general, food is divided into four categories for digestion:

• The first includes carbohydrates that enter the stomach the fastest - these are wax-fruits and squeezed fresh juices, plus berries and kefir.
• The second includes products with an average digestion period - these are proteins, that is, dairy products (just not cheese or cottage cheese), vegetables, seeds, dried fruits, all kinds of nuts, greens.
• The third category is products of long-term assimilation, which include fats and fats in combination with proteins. We are talking about cereals, legumes, mushrooms. This group also includes hard cheese curds.
• The fourth group is food that is practically indigestible, which includes meat, all types of fish, pasta, canned products, teas, coffee with the addition of milk.

Depending on the composition of the food, the time of food digestion in the human stomach changes:

• Protein food requires the most effort to digest, if it is cow meat, the process will take at least four hours. It will take at least five and a half or six hours to process lamb or pork. As the table on the processing of basic products shows, it takes fish an hour for assimilation, nuts and seeds for at least three. Dairy products will remain in the organ for two hours.
• With fruits and boiled vegetables, things are better, they will take 30-40 minutes to process, although the rule does not apply to potatoes, they will be processed for at least two hours.
• The shortest digestion time when it comes to raw vegetables, vegetables or fruit juices- 15 to 20 minutes for processing is enough for them. The period of stay in the stomach of vegetable fat, not seasoned with oil, is from half an hour to forty minutes, if there is an oil component - at least an hour.

Why does the digestion time change?

In addition to the composition, the processing of food is also of great importance - even during the meal. The smaller the pieces and the more thoroughly the chewing, the better the absorption and the faster the movement of the food bolus into the intestines. More thoroughly chewed food is better moistened by enzymes produced by the oral cavity, which facilitates the further work of the gastrointestinal tract. The drinking regimen is also important - during the meal or immediately after the intake of liquids is undesirable, since the dilution of gastric juice is observed, and the period of stay of food in the stomach is accordingly lengthened. The digestion period will also depend on:

• Food Processing - The longer you cook, the longer it will take to process your food.
• Temperature of the dish - the hotter it is, the longer the assimilation process.
• Meal time - at lunchtime, the digestive system is more active, while in the morning and in the evening, the processes are slowed down.
• Mixing food - each food has its own processing time by the digestive system. If the arrangement is incorrect, the assimilation of the dish will become more difficult.

Digestion time table

How much food is digested in the human stomach, the table compiled by nutritionists demonstrates quite clearly. Above, we have already considered some products, now let's talk about those that are used quite often when making menus:

• The vegetable broth will take 15 or 20 minutes to digest.
• It will take an orange or grapes about half an hour, apples, pears or peaches about 40 minutes.
• Zucchini and a variety of cabbage will be processed in 45 minutes.
• All root vegetables, including turnips and carrots, will take about 50 minutes to process.
• It will take 45 minutes to process the eggs.
• Assimilation of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds will take about three hours.
• The stomach can digest dietary poultry meat in more than two or three hours.
• The body can process a variety of nuts in three hours.

For cereals, including buckwheat, rice, millet, it will take about two hours.

Digestion processes in human body have long been studied and there is no doubt that the time of food digestion in the stomach is completely different for different types of food. What practical benefit can be derived from this information?
First, of course, this should be taken into account when
drawing up a daily menu so that one meal does not "meet" foods that have a very different digestion time. The term "digestion" in medicine means the residence time of food in the stomach. Further, the process continues in the intestines and is called "assimilation". In this article, we are talking specifically about the time of digestion, that is, about the time that food is in the stomach.

How long does it take to digest specific foods:

• Fluids are retained in the stomach for the least time. Water passes from the stomach into the intestines almost immediately after drinking it. Juices (natural) fruit and vegetable (not starchy) are digested for 15-20 minutes. Juices squeezed from starchy vegetables and fruits (bananas, pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke, potatoes) take much longer to digest (30-45 minutes).
• Vegetables and fruits... Raw non-starchy vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers) and semi-sweet fruits (apples, pears, citrus fruits) are digested faster - from 20 to 30 minutes. It takes more time to digest bananas, pineapple, dates, figs, melons, as well as pumpkin, Jerusalem artichoke, avocado - from 40 to 60 minutes. and more.
• Roots(turnips, radishes, carrots, beets) are digested raw for about half an hour, in boiled for at least 50 minutes.

An important point! Heat-treated vegetables and fruits (boiled in water or steamed, fried, baked, etc.) take longer to digest than raw! The digestion time of vegetables and fruits is significantly increased when oil (sour cream, mayonnaise) is added to salads

• They take a long time to digest foods high in starch... In addition to the aforementioned starchy vegetables and fruits, this list includes cereals (rice, millet, corn). Legumes (beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas) are on a separate list, since they contain both starches and proteins. These foods take one and a half to two hours to digest.
• Even longer digestion times are required for foods such as nuts and seeds(from 2 to 3 hours). However, if they are soaked for 10-12 hours before use, then the time for their digestion is reduced.
• Now about dairy products... Low-fat varieties of soft cheese, cottage cheese and feta cheese are digested for about an hour and a half. Fatty cottage cheese is digested in 2 hours, and hard cheeses in 3-4 hours (since they contain a large amount of fats and proteins).
• Boiled fish low-fat varieties (cod, flounder, halibut, pollock) are digested in 30-40 minutes. Fatter varieties (mackerel, herring, trout, tuna, salmon) are processed in the stomach for 45 to 60 minutes.
• For digestion poultry meat(chicken, duck, turkey) takes from one and a half to two hours. Lean boiled meat (beef, lamb) is digested for 3-4 hours, and pork - from 4 to 5 hours.

We repeat that in this article we are talking about the time of digestion of food in the stomach, in the future the process continues in the intestine, read about this in the next article on the topic