Why can’t you bite things with your teeth when detoxifying and cleansing the intestines?

This statement actually only applies to specific scenarios of medical preparatory bowel cleansing and strict no-residue fasting and bowel cleansing. It is not a general requirement for all detoxification and bowel cleansing.

Two years ago, I had a three-day bowel cleansing program with a registered dietitian. It was originally to review the recovery of irritable bowel syndrome, and I was required to drink residue-free nutritional rehydration solution throughout the process. I couldn't help but be greedy on the first day, and bit into a small piece of steamed soft Beibei pumpkin. At that time, I thought that it would be chewed and swallowed anyway. What impact would it have? As a result, I passed stool with food residue that afternoon. The nutritionist said that these few chewing movements of mine were equivalent to sending a signal to the entire digestive system to start working. Salivary amylase began to be secreted first. After receiving the signal, the stomach immediately began to secrete gastric acid and accelerate peristalsis. Originally, when we did the bowel cleansing, we wanted to make it spin for several seconds. The intestines and stomach were completely empty and rested for a month, just like a mobile phone that needs to be turned off and recharged when the battery is low. This triggers the digestion process, which is equivalent to watching videos and playing games while charging. The efficiency of bowel cleansing is directly cut in half. In the end, the inflammatory factor reduction data I reviewed was indeed more than 40% lower than that of my friends who did not touch solid food during the same period.

However, in the colon cleansing check-in group that I have been a member of for several years, many old players do not recognize this rule at all. There is an aunt who is almost 60 years old. She does a 7-day fruit and vegetable cleanse twice a year. In addition to drinking freshly squeezed vegetable juices, she also bites two or three pieces of boiled celery every day. She said that her teeth and mouth are not good, and her cheeks hurt after not chewing anything all day. And chewing a small amount of crude fiber is like a small broom on the intestinal wall, which can bring down the old feces hanging in the folds. She has persisted for almost 6 years. The results of the colonoscopy last year were better than many 30-year-old young people, and there were no intestinal polyps.

In fact, both statements are correct. The core is that the purpose of your bowel cleansing is different. If you are undergoing a medical bowel cleansing before a colonoscopy or intestinal surgery, don't bite on solid objects, and do not even touch vegetables and juices with seeds. If food residues get stuck in the folds of the intestines, blocking the doctor's view and missing small polyps or lesions, then it is really a penny wise and pound foolish. But if you usually eat too much heavy oil and salt, and want to do a light fast for 1-2 days to reduce the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, there is no need to hold on and not bite. Eat a few bites of low-residue and easy-to-digest solids such as steamed pumpkins and soft boiled yams. As long as the amount is controlled without increasing the burden on the gastrointestinal tract, it can relieve the irritability during the fasting period and make it easier to persevere.

There was a little girl in the group before who read online and said that you should not bite during bowel cleansing. Even after the nutritional meal replacement powder was prepared, she swallowed it directly into her stomach without chewing it at all. As a result, she became bloated for 3 days and felt like her stomach was swaying even when she walked. She originally wanted to reduce the burden on her stomach, but instead added chaos to it. It is completely unnecessary.