# Does meat really stay in your body for 7 days? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 6, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603 "2002-05-06T19:36:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/21 "2002-05-07T11:09:20Z")
Guys, please don’t think that because one vegetarian told the OP this, that all vegetarians think the same way. I feel like the replies are leaning that way. I certainly don’t believe that, and I betcha a lot of vegetarians on this board don’t believe that. I don’t think that eating meat is bad for a person, I just don’t want to eat it for myself (it’s a personal ethical thing). I believe that since I’m a human being with freedom to choose, I can either choose to be omnivore, carnivore, or herbivore. Um…or ovo-lacto vegetarian (whichever category that fits into…LOL) . And if you’re making good food choices (getting all the calories, protein, carbs, and fats you need), then eat what you want to eat. Lorie ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/22 "2002-05-07T14:13:45Z")
A hilarious and frank Guardian article on the matter (the topic of a recent Fathom thread). _Something_’s in there. > [@](#): > > [The enema within](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4369605,00.html) > When photographer Anthony Cullen heard the clank of glass on porcelain, he didn’t need to examine the contents of the toilet bowl between his legs. He instinctively knew he had just passed the marble he had swallowed as a five-year-old; the small coloured sphere - “I think it was a bluey” - had lodged in his colon for 22 years. His nonchalance was understandable. Having flushed 400 pints of coffee and vinegar solution around his large intestine through 10 enemas, and taken 100 herbal laxatives, he had become hardened to extraordinary sights. He had already excreted yards of long stringy mucus “with a strange yellow glaze”, several hard black pellets and numerous pieces of undigested rump steak. Like an iceberg breaking away from a glacier, the marble was simply the latest object to drop off the furred up wall of his colon. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/23 "2002-05-07T14:27:59Z")
OK, according to my New Age source, the meat doesn’t just sit in the colon but rather attaches itself to the lining of the colon walls as a “mucoid plaque”. Personally, I think it’s all BS, but at least that would explain how other stuff would pass through the colon while the meat remained. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/24 "2002-05-07T15:47:23Z")
And according to a friend who had found it at some other New Age site, that’s into intestinal cleansing, (unfortunately the site is only in Swedish) it takes around 24 hours for a meal to pass your body. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/25 "2002-05-07T15:52:55Z")
Well, the problem is that there isn’t evidence that “mucoid plaque” exists. Mucoid plaque is a pet theory of Dr. Richard Anderson. Anderson is a professor of natural medicine in Arizona(I think it’s Arizona). Anderson believes that when a person ingests toxins, they form a “mucoid plaque” in the large intestine, which contributes to disease. He therefore reccomends things like high colonics, to cleanse the mucoid plaque. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/26 "2002-07-05T15:32:45Z")
Bullshit. On an almost daily basis, I see pics of the lining of the bowels. It’s called colonoscopy. I have even gazed upon the wonder that is my own colon. I was unimpressed. Not a trace of the prime rib I had the week before or even the pork chop I had the day after that. Unless you suffer from severe obstipation or possibly diverticuli, nothing is still in your colon a week after you eat it. ---
**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:** [July 5, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/27 "2002-07-05T16:44:27Z")
From Merriwether Lewis’ journals: > [@](#): > > …each [Indian] had a peice of some discription and all eating most ravenously. Some were eating the kidnies the melt [spleen] and liver and the blood running from the corners of their mouths, other were in a similar situation with thte paunch and guts. … one of the last [to arrive] had provided himself with about nine feet of the small guts one end of which he was chewing on while with his hands he was squezzing the contents out at the other. excerpted from Stephen E. Ambrose, _Undaunted Courage_. [Just read this page today, so I had to share.] These Indians, who had been living on berries, were undoubtedly not unique. Stories of the frontier, of explorers, and of people who just wind up lost and starving will have untold numbers of incidents in which people eat raw meat. If you go back far enough in human history you will find a time before fire, in which all meat eaten was raw. It’s not likely that all of our more recent ancestors had fire on hand at all times for their convenience, either. It is as much a certainty as we can know about history that human digestive systems evolved to handle raw meat as a normal diet of the diet. I’ve written books in which digestion played a large role, so I’ve done a fair amount of research into the subject. The above posters are of course correct in debunking the OP’s vegan friends. I am constitutionally against proselytizing of all kinds, because it almost always leads to people telling outrageous lies (conscious or not) as part of the process. There are many vegans who live lives of conviction without inflicting falsehoods on others, but, as always, the few tarnish the many. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2002, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/28 "2002-07-05T18:11:37Z")
“I’m not a vegetarian because I love animals. I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.” ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2002, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/29 "2002-07-05T19:23:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scotth \* > \*\*. > I guess you could say that at least some of everything you eat stays in your body effectively forever. For example, if you eat something containing calcium, it is quite possible that at least some tiny amount of that calcium would be integrated into your bones and stay there for life. It is reasonable that at least some of the individual atoms that make up a body at birth will still be in it at its death. Probably not a high percentage. But, with the countless number of atoms in your body at birth, it is a reasonable idea. What any of that has to do with you should eat is beyond me. > > \*\* Just a small nitpick. While nutrients in your body may last awhile, your body replaces the cells, bones everything every so often. From: [http://www.cybermacro.com/articles31.html](http://www.cybermacro.com/articles31.html) > [@](#): > > Every part of our body will replace itself, some parts faster than oth­ers. For example, approximately every 10 years, your entire skeleton has replaced itself. Contrast this rate to the replacement rate of the lining of the stomach. Because of the hostile environment contained by the stom­ach lining, it will replace itself approximately once every three hours. To illustrate the process of continual replacement of tissue, just think about your hair. It grows, and it is cut and trimmed, and it continues to grow ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/30 "2002-07-06T01:02:55Z")
**KKBattousai,** you are my new hero. ---
**Author:** ![violet9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea666f/32.png) [@violet9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violet9)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/31 "2002-07-06T02:25:21Z")
Just for the record = fire was discovered and used by hominids about 100,000 years ago by homo erectus - that gives plenty of evolutionary time to develop a constitutional preference for cooked food. If we were “bloody raw carnivores” it seems to me, we would have developed larger canine teeth for tearing. Neanderthals had much broader surfaces, a different cusp shape and heavier enamel on their teeth for grinding tough, raw foods. ---
**Author:** ![violet9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea666f/32.png) [@violet9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violet9)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/32 "2002-07-06T02:33:27Z")
Just for the record = fire was discovered and used by hominids about 100,000 years ago by homo erectus - that gives plenty of evolutionary time to develop a constitutional preference for cooked food. If we were “bloody raw carnivores” it seems to me, we would have developed larger canine teeth for tearing. Neanderthals had much broader surfaces, a different cusp shape and heavier enamel on their teeth for grinding tough, raw foods. Our teeth are delicate little things by comparison. I appreciate SuperLorie’s comments - we are perhaps the only animal that can consciously choose our diet - that’s a great thing. I’m not a vegetarian, but I do think there are a lot of ethical and socio-ecological reasons why eating less meat is a very good thing. I was reading Fanny Trollope’s “Domestic Manners of the Americans” written in 1828 and she marveled that “even the poorest among the Americans eat meat three times a day.” That in a time when most Europeans saw meat on the table once a week or less. We have always been richly blessed in this country, and I think that this historical legacy encourages many Americans to be vaguely suspicious of vegetarians and like types - as if they are somehow unpatriotic. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2002, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/33 "2002-07-06T03:09:28Z")
Humans are omnivores, not carnivores. Both our teeth and our digestive systems have evolved to fit. Didn’t Cecil have a column on this? Ah, [here](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_087.html) it is. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/34 "2002-07-06T03:39:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Colibri \* > \*\* > > Your skepticism is well founded. The idea that meat somehow “stays in the body forever” is is complete nonsense. Meat - which lacks indigestible cellulose - is much easier to break down and digest than vegetable matter. > > \*\* Just to dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s” on **Colibri’s** post here is what the _Britannica_ says about cellulose: “The basic structural component of plant cell walls, cellulose comprises about 33 percent of all vegetable matter (90 percent of cotton and 50 percent of wood are cellulose) and is the most abundant of all naturally occurring organic compounds. **Nondigestible by man,** [bold face added] cellulose is a food for herbivorous animals (e.g., cows, horses) because they retain it long enough for digestion by microorganisms present in the alimentary tract; protozoans in the gut of insects such as termites also digest cellulose.” It is also well to remember that the ruminants have an extra digestion compartment, the rumen, where the cellulose is held for a period to be partially digested and then brought up, chewed again to further break it down and then reswallowed. That cellulose is really, really tough stuff. The cell walls of trees are of cellulose and they manage to support trees over 300 ft. high in high winds. Isaac Asimov points out in one essay that strictly vegetarian animals have one type of bile salts that help break down vegetable matter, strict carnivores have a different type of bile salts for handling flesh, and man has both kinds. This indicates that people are biologically omnivorous. ---
**Author:** ![ratty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603/35 "2002-07-06T10:24:15Z")
Just another vegan checking to say that all vegans/vegetarians don’t think these things: meat staying in your body for some ridiculous time period is patent nonsense. But I would like to add some other “getting sick from food” info: You can get sick from eating raw vegetables. And not just from the natural poisons contained in sprouting potatos, raw beans, or certain mushrooms. Vegetables can also carry pathogens they pick up from the soil, from the groundwater, or even from the air. Overuse of pesticides can also make some people sick. Meat and dairy products seem more likely to carry microbial pathogens and other assorted gastrointestinal nasties such as protozoans and helminths, but vegetables are suspect as well. The important thing is food safety: good washing techniques, thorough cooking, and making sure you are not contaminating whatever food you are preparing with dirty hands, dirty utensils, or dirty kitchen surfaces. (Cutting boards are apparently a big source of microbial life.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-meat-really-stay-in-your-body-for-7-days/107603.md?page=1)