Body not fully processing food?

**Orlando Rocket** · 08-19-2009, 09:58 PM

This is a totally off the wall question but I honestly want to know the truth. I like to eat steel cut oats twice a day, I just add a little water, cinnamon, and 1 packet of Splenda. I don't cook the stuff because I like to chew it when I eat it (it takes a lot of chewing). When I take a dump may sh*t is speckled whit oats that look basically the same coming out as going in. Is my body fully processing the oats or only extracting a % of the nutrients/cals in the oats? I know weird/dumb question but was wondering.

**MuscleScience** · 08-19-2009, 10:36 PM

Yes you only assimilate about 20-25% of everything you eat. Meaning most of the energy contained in the food you eat is lost as metabolic waste, to generate heat or not digested.

**MuscleScience** · 08-19-2009, 10:41 PM

Oh also forgot to mention that the human body can only derive very little energy from leafy or grainy plant matter. We do not have the proper enzymes in our digestive tracts to break down the cell walls of plant matter. Most of the plant material we eat is either part of bulk forming waste or is broken down by the intestinal bacteria that reside in our guts, to which we drive 1.2kcals(which I believe is still the text book number) of energy for every gram of fiber that we eat because the bacteria produce a waste product of fatty acids that we absorb and use.

**sizerp** · 08-19-2009, 11:18 PM

We're also bad at breaking down seeds.

Oats contain Avenin, which is a protein that closely resembles the gliadins found in Wheat.

So if you're celiac, this could be something to look into. Some really sensitive celiacs have trouble with oats. GL!