I was looking at digestion times of different foods and they had waters time as instantly. How?
In: 14
This has to do with the process called osmosis.
Simply put, osmosis is the movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane. Emphasis on semi, since this lets water pass through freely, so how does water know where to go? Well, it DOESN’T let other particles through (most importantly ions like sodium and potassium).
This creates a concentration imbalance (called a gradient) which “forces” water to move into or out of the cell, depending on the area of highest solute concentration (lowest water “presence”).
This means that when water is in contact with the intestinal cells, it freely (and “instantly”) flows into them; while other molecules like proteins or carbohydrates need to be digested first, aka broken down into simpler, smaller, more easily absorbed nutrients (aminoacids for proteins and monosaccharides for carbs).
Water doesn’t need such digestion, and it’s also the reason why lactose intolerant people get diarrhea: lactose (a carbohydrate) isn’t digested properly, thus increasing the concentration of insoluble particles and “forcing” water to come out of the cell and eventually come out of.. Uh.. You know.
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