Digestion of meats and vegetables

March 21, 2006 6:42 PM

What digests better and quicker, veggies or meats?

Any evidence and references gladly appreciated

posted by Knigel to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

What does better mean--absorption of nutrients, time through system, ease, implications for type of cooking.etc. What is it you are looking for, or have I made this to complicated?
posted by rmhsinc at 6:51 PM on March 21, 2006

I don't have any references for you, but generally, vegetables will go through a bit faster than meats. Meats are made up of proteins and fats, which slow down their absorption rate significantly. Most vegetables are either made up of carbohydrates and a lot of water, and so speed through your system much faster. Some vegetables with high fiber content stick around a little longer, but comparison wise, a salad will not keep me as satisfied as a hamburger or steak would.
posted by cajo at 7:02 PM on March 21, 2006

This kid did made some interesting observations comparing the digestive systems of herbivore rabbits to carnivorous cats.

Beaumont is credited with some of the first scientific experiments directly observing human digestion. Cooked beef dissolves in gastric acid completely in about 2 hours. Raw cabbage basically never completely dissolves, and must be eliminated after passing through the intestines. That's kind of the point of eating fruits and vegetables; they have loads of indigestible fiber, which passes through you, carrying water and nutrients into your colon for reabsorption, and giving you something to eliminate. But for digestive efficiency, meat proteins and simple sugars, which dissolve and are aborbed easily in the stomach or duodenum are far more effective sources of nutrition.
posted by paulsc at 7:58 PM on March 21, 2006

There's digestion, the breakdown of complex macromolecules into simpler molecules via physical and chemical means, and then there's absorption. Simple sugars and amino acids get absorbed through your gut and make their way directly into your liver, where most of them are extracted. Meanwhile, fats are absorbed through your lacteals into your lymph system and make their way via the heart into the bloodstream and then to the liver.

Undigested sugars that have managed to make their way through the mouth, stomach, and small intestines get broken down in your gut by symbiotic e coli and other bacteria, yielding some valuable vitamins and some gas.

Cellulose is just going to pass right through you - its rate of hydrolysis is very low and we lack the specific enzymes required to digest it or the right kind of symbiotic bacteria that would do the job for us. So in a sense, you could say that vegetables with high cellulose content are the slowest to digest - the rate of hydrolysis/digestion of cellulose within the human body is minute.
posted by meehawl at 7:58 PM on March 21, 2006

My ex had Crohns and the prevailing wisdom with all the doctors he ever had was that well cooked meat/ broth is the easier thing to digest. Then cooked grains, cooked veggies, fruit then finally raw veggies. Most Crohns sufferers are advised not to eat raw veggies at all and both people I know who've had it have significantly increased their health by eating some well cooked meat with every meal. This is quite a PITA but means the difference between their bodies starting the digestion process or just passing the food whole.
posted by fshgrl at 10:03 PM on March 21, 2006