How fast can food pass through the body?

Question

I have read somewhere that it is normal to defecate about once a day. This leads me to think that it takes about 24h for food to pass through the body under normal circumstances.

Now lets say you eat some bad sushi that triggers “the runs” within an hour.
When you then defecate, is it the actual sushi that comes out or is it just the food you ate before the sushi?

Also, how fast could food theoretically go from mouth to anus?

In: 935

Answer 1

Technically, a fraction of a second. Load an 18 pounder Napoleonic-era cannon with dried beans instead of grapeshot.

You did ask “how fast can food pass through the body?”, not “what is the shortest time it can take for the food you ate to come out as shit?”.