A question about transit time.

[DD71]

Hello

I've been reading about time it takes for digestion to take place from input to output and see there is no real standard time so I was wondering if any sufferers have any insight.

Now I've found, for example, if i I eat a sandwich with mayo from shop at lunchtime, I suffer that evening. Would that sound right? Or is that too quick.

Basically I'm trying to figure out how to match symptoms with eating. Right now I'm experiencing some discomfort with wind and feel like I need to go. I think this is due to getting caught out yesterday evening and having to grab food from a takeaway (just a tray of chips and mushy peas) with a small chocolate bar. Not an ideal snack but I didn't feel too good and needed to eat.

Thanks

[Hidden]

Food can take anything from 2 - 48 hours to transit the digestive system, so what you eat at lunchtime could well be the cause of problems in the evening ... or it could be something you ate the day before. It's always tricky to work this out and it might help if you kept a meticulous food diary for reference.

If you're doing FODMAPs, your takeaway snack would have been okay as far as the chips went, but the peas were a definite mistake. Milk chocolate only contains a very small amount of lactose, but together with the peas could well have been the cause of the discomfort you now have.

[Tummypain]

I agree Peas are terrible avoid them at all cost.

[whiteladder42]

Actually it could have been the chips-takeaways often used mass produced frozen chips. Frozen and reheated potato products are incredibly likely to trigger issues for IBS sufferers due to the chemical changes that occur. I have been told this by just about every doctor/dietician/consultant I have seen and I agree it makes sense. I was also told to avoid toast and reheated leftovers for the same reasons.

[DD71]

Yes the peas were probably the mistake, what ever it was I'm still suffering a bit.

My brother in law has coeliacs and has to very wary of cross contamination. Has his own toaster etc and can't eat any fast food just in case the oil has had products with gluten in.

Fortunately most fish and chip shops use fresh potatoes.

I've been cooking extra on an evening and using leftovers for lunches, mainly cold but I will consider the whole warm up idea.

[PatV]

I saw for myself once a long time ago when my whole family had to take medication for pinworms. When the med took effect, the stool was red. One child's showed up red 5 hours later and I was the slowest of the 6--48 hours.

[Boogie]

If you wanted to know your transit time you could always eat something insoluble like sweetcorn and see how quickly it passes through your system. I do it periodically to monitor if improving and quite useful info to give to dietitian and GP plus can help you make sense of food diary.