Its not what you eat its how you eat it

Well ok thats not strictly true, however, I read this statement (ironically on the backing of some Rock Tape which Im currently using to assist with my ankle injury) anyway it started me thinking.

First some helpful facts:
Your intestines are 6.5 metres long. That's nearly as long as a double decker bus!

Your intestines are made up of the small intestine and large intestine.

After food is churned up in your stomach, a muscle at the end of your stomach squirts small amounts of food into the top of your small intestine.

As food is squeezed along the small intestine, it is broken down into even smaller parts. Most of the nutrients in your food pass through the lining of your small intestine into your blood.

Anything that can't be absorbed into the blood goes into the large intestine. Water is reabsorbed in the large intestine.

This is alsos is why hydration issues plague Ostomists. We dont effectively absorb water from our foods. But thats for a different blog ;)

As an ileOstomist I have no large intestine. Meaning the time for food to 'digest' is reduced.

Anyway back to my original point. This reduced digestive system means food passes semi undigested.  Often an ileo output is of a porridge consistancy, sorry if that puts you of your porridge (especially if your reading this on a winters morning)

As an Ostomist you definatley become more intune with your body and what you are eating! What I have also noticed is my "output" is masively affected by what I eat. Im not talking about corn or other normal hard to digest foods. Although tbh often no point me even wasting my money to eat these!

I mean if I eat fast foods, takeaways or fry ups etc. my output reflects the contents of these "unhealthy" often greasy food types.

They process through my digestive system quickly, very quickly!! One shocking side effect is you also become VERY aware of all the preservatives and colouring that are used in these foods.

Healthier foods are harder to break down (side effect is they make you feel fuller for longer) In my reduced digestive system I question "do I really get the benefit from these foods?" Sorry to be crude but some digest well....undigested! ;)

This can be compounded by not chewing properly. Think I recall somewhere you are supposed to chew each moutful 20times.....who has time to do that!

Interestingly I also have a thought regarding why fastfoods can make you easily gain weight. They digest very differently. Im no nutritionlist but they fats etc seem to be absorbed in our digestive system far easier.

which brings me full circle to my original thought.  I'm not saying I'm a saint but it really does make you think about what we put into our bodies. ;)