How efficient is the digestive system in absorbing nutrients from food?
Depends on a ton of things. How inflamed is the gut? (Alcohol, inflammatory foods, celiac disease, other drugs/toxins, etc.) Is there bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine? Are you making the appropriate digestive enzymes in your pancreas? Is there a problem with stomach acid production? Any issues with intrinsic factor production or intrinsic factor antibodies? (Intrinsic factor helps to chaperone Vitamin B12 through the stomach undamaged and then allows us to absorb B12 much more easily in the small intestine than we otherwise would.)
In a healthy individual, the body is really really efficient in everything it does. The body generally won’t waist time and resources on anything extra. In anyone who is not completely healthy, it totally depends but I’d hazard a guess that it’s still really efficient
Very it takes almost all the nutrients that is bioavailabile to your cells and body and all the waste byproduct comes out as poo. Simply biology, if your body is getting to much food you’ll create excess fat and if too little you can starve, it’s all about balance, homeostasis.
Depends. Like which nutrient, which source, with what other foods, anti-nutrient content of the meal? All these factor into effectiveness. For example, vitamin A from plants needs conversion and isn’t as easily converted, but get it from Liver or Eggs and it’s highly bio-available and in its preformed condition.Protein: plant protein is harder to assimilate compared to animal protein, by a large gap. You need to consume way more plant protein in order to compensate.Magnesium from almonds or spinach will vary as there anti-nutrient content may prevent absorption.Pesticides content of food (for example Glyphosate) can inhibit absorption of certain nutrients.Some foods aren’t even broken down fully (seeds, which are litterly designed to not be broken down can easily make it through the body, easily seen in your own waste).I could go on but the main starting point is food quality and nutrient source. The digestive system itself? Well depends but vaguely speaking we waste a different amount of calories just digesting macronutrients (protein takes the most).If the gut microbiome is in poor condition (like most have) then you’ll probably absorb less nutrients there too. I won’t go on longer or I’ll be typing till I die.
Your gut has the surface area of a tennis court. It’s all wriggled up inside. Your food passes through your gut, contacting all that surface area. Absorption for most people is quite good. As you get older or sicker, it may decrease, but it’s still pretty good.
I’d always been taught that nutrient absorption becomes more efficient if your body is deficient in said nutrient. But I can’t find an actual source for this so that might be BS.
If anyone does have a source for that, it would be appreciated.
Absorption efficiency depends on various factors including gut dysbiosis, inflammation, the microbiome bacterial flaura, fauna and health. Gut issues like leaky gut, IBS etc that a person may or may not have. The state of the food before it reaches the gut.. so how much stomach acid is present, etc. The quality of the food itself being ingested. The amount and variety of digestive enzymes present to break the food down. There’s a lot of moving parts…
it’s about your stomach acid, if it’s strong, then your body will absorb the best amount of nutrition from food, to make it stronger, or fixed, take apple vinegar, 1 tablespoon for 80ml of water 2 to 3 times a day after every meal.