Why is it that when we eat a meal, if we previously didn’t have to go number 2, we have to go number 2 very soon after the meal.
In: Biology
When your stomach is full, the pressure on the sides of your stomach causes the release of a hormone called cholecystokinin (or if you want to avoid the Greek: “gallbladder-moving-protein”). This hormone stimulates your intestines to “move things along”, as it were, and causes the release of bile from your gallbladder (hence the name) to help you digest your food.
Both bile and stomach acid are acidic, and the more acidic your intestines are, the more water tends to get added to them (which also encourages things to move along). The effect is even stronger if the foods you’ve eaten irritate your intestines somehow, like if they contain a food you’re sensitive to (say, gluten if you have celiac disease) – in this case, your body is trying to clear an irritant from your intestines, so it’ll do what it can to give you diarrhea.
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