I had a very interesting chat with a phys ed trainer yesterday.
I stopped drinking beer and switched to red wine when I started working out in February.
I had always thought that beer guts were caused purely by the sheer volume of beer expanding the stomach wall, which is only 50%(ish) true.
What I didn't know is that if you have ANY undigested starch in you (rice, cereals, pasta, potatoes, bread, etc), beer expands those as well.
This comes from the Mayo Clinic:
Digestion time varies between individuals and between men and women. After you eat, it takes about six to eight hours for food to pass through your stomach and small intestine. Food then enters your large intestine (colon) for further digestion, absorption of water and, finally, elimination of undigested food.
In the 1980s, Mayo Clinic researchers measured digestion time in 21 healthy people. Total transit time, from eating to elimination in stool, averaged 53 hours (although that figure is a little overstated, because the markers used by the researchers passed more slowly through the stomach than actual food). The average transit time through just the large intestine (colon) was 40 hours, with significant difference between men and women: 33 hours for men, 47 hours for women.
Chin, chin.