I have heard many rumors on this topic, and also heard to only eat red meat twice a week. Let's take a look at what is fact and what is fiction. Fortunately, I could live on just fish, but there are many steak lovers out there too.
Meat can take longer to digest than vegetables do, because breaking down the long protein chains into individual amino acids does take time. But I'd call that "digesting" rather than "rotting".
So how long does it take? Well let's first say how it works, Once your chewed food touches the stomach lining, it triggers a second release of gastric juice, along with mucus that helps protect the stomach lining from the action of the hydrochloric acid. Three layers of powerful stomach muscles churn food into a thick liquid called chyme, which is pumped gradually through the muscle that connects the stomach small intestine. I know this sounds technical but now we can answer the question ....How long does it take? Red meats on average take from 1 to 3 days to be completely digested and eliminated from the body. Red meats take much longer to digest than other foods because of their high protein and fat content. That high fat, cholesterol combined with the time it takes to digest is why the recommended amount is only 1or 2 servings per week.
Medical Center in Jerusalem, write that the stomach is better able to digest red meat in the presence of red wine. They found that red wine helps the stomach remove potentially harmful substances found in red meats, which are released during digestion, before the chemicals can do the body harm.
It has also been proven that eating vegetables with red meat aids in digestive process of red meat. The best vegetable with red meat is corn. So the next time you throw a steak on the grill make sure you add vegetables on the grill too!
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