Thankfully, the holidays are officially over, which means for many of us at least, overeating at meals times was inevitable. But what happens to our bodies when we stuff ourselves to the gills?
A cool slideshow in this month’s issue of Women’sHealth breaks it down:
- In the first minute, our taste buds are sending signals to our brain — eat more!
- Within five minutes, our stomachs are churning up that food and ferrying it to our small intestines, where nutrients are absorbed into our blood stream.
- Within 15 minutes, your stomach and small intestines are talking to your brain — “Stop! I’m full!” That is, unless you’ve helped yourself to seconds before the cable is delivered.
- Within the first hour, your body is boosting its insulin production in an effort to get a handle on the sugar that has flooded your blood stream. If you ate a lot of salt, your blood vessels may be a little less supple.
- After the first hour, you…may…be…getting…sleepy. That’s because your body is diverting all of its energy to digesting that whopping huge feast you gobbled down. And if you really overdid it, you may feel nauseated as your stretched stomach competes with surrounding organs for space.
- After a couple of hours, your liver has done its job and converted your food to all of the nutrients your body can use. If you haven’t totally gone overboard, most of it will be used up as short-term energy. If, on the other hand, you had three pieces of apple pie too many, the excess may show up as fat on your thighs, backside, and belly.
- Relief! After two hours, your stomach is back to normal.