What’s Your Bowel Transit Time!

Transit time is the time between food entering the mouth, and exiting your body. It is important in learning about the health of your gut and will give you an idea how well your digestive system is working. Having a healthy gut means you can absorb nutrients and keep out toxins, allergens, and microbes. There are 500 species of bacteria in your gut and they are important in digesting the food, regulating hormones, excreting toxins, and producing vitamins and other compounds to help maintain the health of the gut and the body. Slow transit time indicates suboptimal colon health and it can lead to constipation and increase the risk of bacterial overgrowths and other chronic diseases. 

To have a healthy gut, on top of being consistent and frequent with your bowel movement, having an optimal bowel transit time is important. 

So what is a healthy transit time?

12- 24 hours is optimal!

There are a number of ways to check your bowel transit time. Here are some ways you can easily do at home. 

The Sesame Seed, Corn or Grated Carrot Challenge

1. Mix 1 Tbsp of hulled sesame seeds (the white/yellow ones) in half a glass of water or juice and drink, or consume a moderate serving (1/2 to 3/4 cup) of corn or grated carrots. Make sure not to chew the them as they need to remain whole and avoid them being digested.

2. Wright down the time.

3. Next time you go to the toilet visually examine your stool and see if there are any sesame seeds, corn or carrot in it. Note down the time when you see the first seeds, corn or carrot appear in your stool.

4. Note time when sesame seeds, corn or carrot is last seen in stool.

5. Compare to the time you consumed sesame seeds, corn or carrot and calculate your bowel transit time. 

If your transit time is not hitting the mark, the first place for you to start at is to increase your fiber and water intake 🙂

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872693/

The Institution for Functional Medicine 2015 Colon Transit Time Version 2