‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what better way to spread some holiday cheer than by feasting on a delightful Christmas dinner? But hold your reindeer – before you dig into that extra portion of roast potato, let’s take a closer look at what truly happens to your body when you consume large amounts of food. Adam Taylor, the Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre and a Senior Lecturer in Anatomy at Lancaster University, is here to guide us through this festive journey of overeating and feeling stuffed.
The digestive system is like your body’s very own personal currency exchange centre, transforming food into a form that your body can burn for energy, use for growth, or store for later. This remarkable process begins in the mouth, where your teeth, tongue, and salivary glands work together to break down food and form a bolus, or a ball of food, that can travel down the oesophagus and into the stomach. Imagine trying to swallow a tortilla chip without chewing it first – ouch!
The stomach is a stretchy muscular bag in your abdomen that can expand to accommodate a larger volume of food. It produces acid to help break down the food and mechanically smashes it up. Normally, the stomach contains about 40ml of liquid when empty, but it can hold up to 800-1,000ml of food when full. Once the food passes through the stomach, it continues its journey into the small intestine, where digestion and nutrient absorption happen. The waste that remains then moves into the large intestine, where most of the water gets absorbed, leaving behind waste that forms into faeces.
Now, as Taylor uncovers the science behind the feeling of fullness, it becomes clear that our body has an intricate way of letting us know when we’re hungry or full. The delay in signalling from the stretching stomach to the brain explains why we suddenly go from feeling hungry to feeling like we can’t eat another bite. This involves a complex interplay of hormones that are produced in response to the presence or absence of food in the digestive system. One of these hormones is ghrelin, which increases appetite, while another, leptin, decreases appetite.
Before you reach for that last wafer-thin mint, consider the aftermath of feeling full to bursting. Overeating can lead to indigestion, where stomach acid irritates the oesophagus, causing acid reflux. The body also expends a significant amount of energy to digest the excessive food, leaving you feeling tired and drowsy.
If you’ve ever pondered whether it’s possible for your stomach to burst from overeating, the answer is yes. Some rare cases have seen stomachs rupturing from excessive food volume, requiring emergency surgery. In fact, there are instances of people dying from overeating, further highlighting the importance of moderation.
To put the calories consumed during Christmas into perspective, consider the gargantuan meal consumed by an American woman in 2010, which amounted to a whopping 30,000 calories. This makes the average UK Christmas dinner, with approximately 6,000-7,000 calories, seem downright quaint. It’s no wonder that many people find themselves committing to New Year’s gym memberships come January 1st.
So, as you prepare to celebrate this festive season, remember to be mindful of your limits and enjoy your Christmas dinner without going overboard. After all, the holidays are a time for cheer, not for emergency surgeries.
