With foodborne illnesses with incubation periods that exceed 12 hours, the “poisonous” substance (the contaminated food) is already through your stomach. Why do you still throw up? I understand diarrhea, but the continued vomiting doesn’t make sense to me.
In: Biology
Bacteria make toxins to help defend themselves. They also make waste by eating and basicly pooping out harmful substances, kind of like we do.
When a food sits for a little while, more bacteria populate it, but it hasn’t had long enough for waste products or toxins to build up.
So we can eat it and feel fine for a little while. But, it had a lot more bacteria on it than non-contaminated food. So those bacteria grow jn your belly instead of out on the countertop. Thr grow and grow, pooping and releasing toxins. And after a while, theres so much waste and toxin that you feel sick and your body tries to get rid id it by throwing up.
On the other hand, if a food sits out for a longer time, the bacteria grow on the food on the counter. Theres a lot of bacteria and a lot of waste and a lot of toxins. So you get sick much more quickly, because all the work they would do in your stomach in the above process, is already done.
Think of it like eating pistachios with the shells. You can eat them individually, taking the shell off and eating them one by one. Or you can take the shell off of a lot of them at once and pop a whole bunch in your mouth. If you do them individually, it takes longer for you to feel full. If you do them all at once, your stomach is more full quickly.
Your body isn’t smart enough to detect that. It just knows that sometimes throwing up helps when you’re sick, so it does it just in case.
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