Breathing your food!

J

John Connellan

Valued Senior Member
Everyone has heard the phrase "breathing ones food" at some stage, meaning 'gulping down ones food so fast' it could be considered breathing. Does anyone know if it is actually POSSIBLE to breath in food. For example, can a vapour of glucose and other nutrients be made which might be effectively absorbed straight into the bloodstream? An effective temporary therapy for people with indigestion methinks :D
 
i've heard of inhaling your food. also known as choking for people who are not my brother (who apparently can absorb solid food through his lungs)
 
Imagine never having to eat again! Your stomach might waste away completely :D . There ARE some animals who have to rely on this method of ingestion right?
 
I doubt it. The smell receptors lead up to the olebulb factory joined at the brain and is quite small because it is designed solely for recognition of smell. The inhaled glucose wouldn't register in the first place and never reach the blood stream. Oxygen gets through to the blood because it is a lighter molecule

Even if it could pass through it wouldn't be nearly enough. Glucose is heavier and is used in great quantity...inhaling simply wouldn't be enough because at the same time oxygen needs to be inhaled so bandwidth is shared and amount of space is lessoned for Glucose to get through...not to mention all the other vitamins and minerals that need to get through.

Also Glucose needs to be stored in ample amounts for the time we won't be eating...inhaling doesn't seem like a feasible solution to inhale enough glucose to serve energy needs and storing needs.

Also the inhaled glucose would shoot straight to the lungs...not a great idea. The nose would be under a great strain. Advanced cilia would be needed to filter out foriegn objects and recognize new objects.

Those are my conclusions...I don't know how right they are but I don't think your idea would work in practicality. It could work but modification of the lungs would be needed...maybe when the stomach wastes away the lungs can grow bigger and evolve more than bronchial tubes.

But still, I am iffy about the idea.
 
chunkylover58 said:
So...when you sneeze, you'd be throwing up?
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Nope. When you sneeze you do not throw out oxygen so if it was possible to take in Glucose vapors you would not throw them out. Can't stick finger down the throat either to lose weight either
 
I think it could work, lets say you breath in a liquid (say a oxygenating fluid that also carries nutrients) the nutrients will most definitely be absorbed in lungs. Heck our body starts absorbing glucose right on the mouth’s mucus membranes (though be it not much) I doubt that we could ingest a life sustaining quantity of nutrients from a gas but if we used a liquid I think it very possible… though bacteria would also love it.
 
Can't stick finger down the throat either to lose weight either
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Yes you can. If you discharge your stomach contents shortly after eating, then your body won't have time to digest and absorb all the nutrients from the food.
 
Idle Mind said:
Yes you can. If you discharge your stomach contents shortly after eating, then your body won't have time to digest and absorb all the nutrients from the food.
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Well that was under the impression that the stomach wastes away and the lungs expand since nutrients go directly to the blood stream...no digestion.
 
No the lungs are a two way membrane, our lungs give off alot of nutrients (and waste) that have vapor pressure.
 
sargentlard said:
The inhaled glucose wouldn't register in the first place and never reach the blood stream. Oxygen gets through to the blood because it is a lighter molecule
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No, there are plenty of heavier molecules than oxygen and even glucose that can get to the bloodstream. Nicotine is one of them.

Even if it could pass through it wouldn't be nearly enough. Glucose is heavier and is used in great quantity...inhaling simply wouldn't be enough because at the same time oxygen needs to be inhaled so bandwidth is shared and amount of space is lessoned for Glucose to get through...not to mention all the other vitamins and minerals that need to get through.
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Well I did mention that the gas could be composed of other nutrients if necessary.....!

Also Glucose needs to be stored in ample amounts for the time we won't be eating...inhaling doesn't seem like a feasible solution to inhale enough glucose to serve energy needs and storing needs.
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This is true but why would u need to store glucose any more when you are breathing it in?

Also the inhaled glucose would shoot straight to the lungs...not a great idea. The nose would be under a great strain. Advanced cilia would be needed to filter out foriegn objects and recognize new objects.
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I doubt the cilia would even register the gas as long as it wasn't contaminated with particles. They could also as u say, adapt to the new situation.[/QUOTE]
 
Wouldn't it be so much easier to just inject the nutrients into the bloodstream for people with indigestion? And unless I'm mistaken, that's already in use today ... :bugeye:

-- Long live the Female Messiah!
 
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