# If you swallow food at the very moment your stomach rumbles... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888 "2009-03-26T17:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/1 "2009-03-26T17:55:28Z")
does the rumble complete, or is it interrupted? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/2 "2009-03-26T19:02:04Z")
It takes food some time to pass down the oesophagus. If you swallowed food 2 and a half minutes before the rumble you might interrupt it, though since it will arrive in the stomach in small dribs and drabs, probbaly not. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/3 "2009-03-26T19:25:03Z")
The rumble is not from your stomach. Your stomach is high up on the left side of your chest, nowhere near your belly. It’s closer to where the heart is, which is why heartburn, which does come from the stomach, has that name. The rumble is air (sometimes water) moving through the intestines. That’s because of food you’ve eaten many hours before. Swallowing will have no effect on that. ---
**Author:** ![SharkB8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/4 "2009-03-26T19:36:50Z")
This says [borborygmi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borborygmus) can sometimes occur in the stomach. > [@](#): > > Although this muscle contraction happens whether or not food is present it may sometimes happen if you have too much gas in your stomach and you don’t have a chance to release it than it grumbles. It is common after the animal has gone several hours without eating. This may be why a “growling” stomach is often associated with hunger. This can occur when there is a little bit of water in an empty stomach, causing a bit of movement of the water, causing the stomach to make a growling noise. Like **Mapcase** said, the involuntary muscular contractions of your GI tract that move food (peristalsis) are not interrupted by swallowing. When I was in college, we did an experiment with an isolated frog GI tract. We added ACh, epinephrine, caffeine and something else I can’t remember to see the effect on the rate of muscle contraction. This question has me wondering if the speed is affected if food or an object is placed at, say, the opening of the esophagus, right as a wave of peristalsis is beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/5 "2009-03-26T23:47:12Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Your stomach is high up on the left side of your chest, nowhere near your belly. Only true if you’ve got the mother of all [hiatal hernias](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hiatal-hernia/DS00099). I would love to see this thread and [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=511807) occurring consecutively. :eek: ---
**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:** [March 27, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/6 "2009-03-27T00:42:25Z")
What I mean by higher than you think is illustrated by [this picture](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/images/ency/fullsize/8940.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/7 "2009-03-27T12:20:50Z")
Understood, but if your stomach is “high up on the left side of your chest, nowhere near your belly” you’ve got problems. It belongs in your upper abdomen, keeping company with the spleen and low-class organs like that. Stuff that lies in the abdominal cavity, whether or not it extends partially under the ribcage is part of the abdomen, not chest. Or else everybody I’ve done an autopsy on is actually a circus freak. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/8 "2009-03-27T15:55:41Z")
So are you guys saying that rumbling of the stomach has nothing to do with hunger? ---
**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:** [March 27, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-swallow-food-at-the-very-moment-your-stomach-rumbles/490888/9 "2009-03-27T16:03:46Z")
Cagey Drifter, Like the paragraph that SharkB8 quoted stated, yes, it can definitely be associated with hunger. It just doesn’t have to indicate hunger. Jackmannii, I’m trying to cure people of the notion that the stomach is behind the belly button. It’s not. It’s above it. The intestines are behind the belly button. I’m sure we both agree on that. Just a matter of emphasis.