# Do Asians really have longer intestines than honkies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126 "2003-06-16T02:18:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![regnad\_kcin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@regnad\_kcin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regnad_kcin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/1 "2003-06-16T02:18:15Z")
My Japanese girlfriend tells me that Asians have longer intestines than white people, which causes a higher frequency of constipation (a subject Japanese will publicly discuss unabashedly!) and high rates of cancer when western diets are adopted. Is this true? Has this been documented, or is it an urban legend? ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/2 "2003-06-16T02:30:01Z")
It looks like “[urban legend](http://www.mail-archive.com/fukuzawa@ucsd.edu/msg03942.html)”. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/3 "2003-06-16T05:15:27Z")
And the award for Most Culturally Insensitive Yet Strangely Funny Thread Title goes too… ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/4 "2003-06-16T05:47:17Z")
Not true, but it’s been trotted out at least once by Cabinet-level officials in Japan as justification for blocking foreign food imports. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/5 "2003-06-16T06:14:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by regnad kcin \* > \*\*My Japanese girlfriend tells me that Asians have longer intestines than white people \*\* Not true. However, maybe you can tell us about those sideways vaginas. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/6 "2003-06-16T07:39:53Z")
Goddammit, we’re Honky-Americans! ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/7 "2003-06-16T08:08:13Z")
hmmmm… HONKY… not sure if I should be insulted by that… yeah… what the heck… I am. ---
**Author:** ![regnad\_kcin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@regnad\_kcin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regnad_kcin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/8 "2003-06-16T11:17:00Z")
Now come on! I AM a honky! People who belong to a particular racial group are allowed to refer to themselves using a racially insensitive slur!! Havent you been paying attention? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/9 "2003-06-16T11:55:04Z")
Well, in this neck of the woods, “honky” refers to people from Hong Kong. And people from Hong Kong are generally Chinese, although you’ve got a fair amount of Philippino’s, people from the sub-continent and a few American style “honkies”. This is pure unadulterated bullshit that really surfaced in 1991 when the Japanese were being forced to open up their rice market. Funny how this whole long intestine thing went out the window following a typhoon in IIRC 1993 that wiped out a huge chunk of the rice crop that year. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/10 "2003-06-16T12:53:47Z")
I thought it referred to people who blow their noses too loudly in public. Still, not an inoffensive thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/11 "2003-06-16T13:48:34Z")
This won’t advance the OP, which as previously noted is almost certainly UL, but. . . On Dr. Dean Edell’s radio program some years ago he made note of a study that found that in Japan, stomach cancer is relatively high and breast cancer is relatively low compared to the US. For Japanese born in the US, though, the rates are comparable to the US rates. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/12 "2003-06-16T16:13:01Z")
Just to stomp the thing into the ground: I’ve done a lot of research into intestines and intestinal problems and I’ve never come across any reference to a special length for Asian intestines in any medical textbook or journal article. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/13 "2003-06-16T16:26:18Z")
**nick danger** I haven`t heard the term “honky” since I watched a re-run of “All In the Family”. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/14 "2003-06-16T16:33:37Z")
I had a Californian friend ask me what a “Cracker Barrel” was when she visited us in the Deep South. I informed her that it’s called that because only white people eat there and that it used to be called “Honky Barrel” but some people found it offensive. ---
**Author:** ![Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Satisfying\_Andy\_Licious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satisfying_Andy_Licious)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/15 "2003-06-16T16:56:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\*Not true, but it’s been trotted out at least once by Cabinet-level officials in Japan as justification for blocking foreign food imports. \*\* Heh, heh. He said trotted. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/16 "2016-11-08T15:53:22Z")
Possibly. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3571372](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3571372) > [@](#): > > To test his “surmise,” Dr. Scheube measured the intestines of 26 Japanese cadavers between the ages of 17 and 60. He compared the data he collected to the typical length of intestines in Europeans, which he learned from a European anatomy textbook was between 800 and 900 centimeters. Here are his findings: > > The 26 cases give a length of intestine of 953.7 cm. The maximum was 1203, the minimum 667; only 3 times the intestine was below 800…Accordingly, even the absolute length of the intestine is greater in the Japanese than in the European. > Dr. Scheube noted that the difference was even more striking when he considered the fact that, back then, an average European was 11 centimeters taller than an average Japanese. Relative to body length, he found that Japanese intestines were 20 percent longer. > [@](#): > > Then, in 2005, I met a Japanese gastroenterologist in Tokyo through a social connection, and I couldn’t help but try to tap his expertise. He told me that when he did colonoscopies in Japan, intestines were sometimes so long that he ran out of camera cable. > > “I doubt the same thing happens in America,” he said. > > I discounted his testimony as ludicrous until 2007, when symptoms I won’t elaborate on required me to seek the services of an American colorectal surgeon named Jeff Sternberg, in San Francisco. After my operation, I posed to Dr. Sternberg the question I had then been asking for 20 years. > > “I don’t have any data or anything,” Dr. Sternberg said, “but it’s kind of known in the field that when you scope Asian woman — especially a young Asian woman — their colons are, like, really freakin’ long.” ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/17 "2016-11-08T16:07:49Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Possibly. > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3571372](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3571372) > > “I don’t have any data or anything,” Dr. Sternberg said, “but it’s kind of known in the field that when you scope Asian woman — especially a young Asian woman — their colons are, like, really freakin’ long.” Their colons shrink as they age??? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/18 "2016-11-08T16:08:47Z")
> [@regnad\_kcin](#): > > I AM a honky! People who belong to a particular racial group are allowed to refer to themselves using a racially insensitive slur!! > [@elmwood](#): > > Not true. However, maybe you can tell us about those sideways vaginas. **Moderating** While these comments were made 13 years ago, this is just a reminder that they would not be acceptable in GQ now. I’m instructing that people should not respond to them as if they were current. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/19 "2016-11-08T16:13:41Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Possibly. > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3571372](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3571372) Do you have a link to this stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126/20 "2016-11-08T16:59:37Z")
Sorry. Here’s the correct link: > **[Are Japanese Intestines Longer?](https://medium.com/words-escape-us/are-japanese-intestines-longer-8a41ca3e7d89#.y0dalqaau)** > > Notes from my 30-year quest [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-asians-really-have-longer-intestines-than-honkies/182126.md?page=2)