Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Become an OU student

Download this course

Share this free course

The science of nutrition and healthy eating
The science of nutrition and healthy eating

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

1.3 Move along in there, please

To investigate certain medical conditions, tiny cameras have been developed that can be swallowed to send back pictures from inside the gut (the lower half of the digestive system).

Movements of the gut push the camera, in the same way that they would push food through the digestive system. In the next video you can see the route that a camera, and therefore food, would take.

Download this video clip.Video player: Please note, this video has no spoken audio.
Video _unit3.1.2 Please note, this video has no spoken audio.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

The length of time that it takes food to travel from mouth to anus depends largely on the components of the diet, particularly the amount of fibre. Fibre bulks out the contents of the gut, giving more for the intestines to squeeze on to move the food along. A typical time is 24 hours but it can be up to three days.