Gut Facts
The gut is an amazing place! Did you know that:
- The human gut is home to 1-2 kg of bacteria - that is the same as 1-2 bags of sugar!
- There are 1000 times as many bacteria in our gut than there are stars in the milky way (100 trillion vs 100 billion)
- There are 3 times as many phage (bacterial viruses) in our gut than there are bacteria
- There are over 400 species of bacteria in the gut
- The surface area of your intestine is greater than that of a tennis court
- Food takes between 24-36 hours to pass through the Gastrointestinal Tract
- We produce between 1-1.5 litres (a large mineral bottle) of saliva in our mouths each day
- Saliva helps us swallow our food and starts the process of digestion
- To swallow food we use 22 muscles and we can even swallow standing on our heads
- The stomach can hold anything from 50ml to 4 litres of liquid
- The stomach is full of a very stong acid which would cause a serious chemical burn to the skin
- The liver is the body's largest gland
- Newborn babies pick up bacteria during their births, and during the first few days of their lives their gut becomes colonised by bacteria
- 100% of people have bacteria in their guts
- It is World Digestive Health Day on May 29th each year
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