Approved factsheet on the stomach @ 26 April 2001 with Dr. Butt comments

• Our digestive system is a 9 metre long tube
• An adult's stomach can hold approximately 1.5 litres of food or liquid at a time
• The stomach is a J-shaped bag
• We eat about 500kg of food a year
• Every day approximately 11½ litres of digested food, liquids and digestive juices flow through the digestive system, but only 8% of it is lost in faeces
• Muscles contract in waves to move the food down the oesophagus. This means that food would get to a person's stomach, even if they were standing on their head
• The stomach produces up to five pints of digestive juices daily
• Food usually takes around 24 hours to be fully digested, although spicy or fatty foods can sometimes take up to 72 hours.
• The stomach's normal pH is between 1.5 and 3. This is very acidic. pH ranges from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. pHs less than 7 are acidic while pHs greater than 7 are alkaline. The pH of water ranges from around 5.5 - 7.
• There are about 35 million glands in the stomach alone
• Glands in the stomach produce hydrochloric acid. The hydrochloric acid of the stomach is so strong it will easily eat through a cotton handkerchief. In one case in California, a penny swallowed four days earlier by a two-year-old was found riddled with holes
• The stomach walls are protected from the acid by a thin film of sticky mucus
• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself
• Cows have four stomachs
• A frog throws up by dragging its stomach outside its body and cleaning it. Then it stuffs its stomach back in its body!
• Yaks produce pink milk due to chemical substances in their stomach