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Gut Transit Time and Why It Matters for Your Health

16th May 2025

Gut health may begin with what we eat, but what happens after that first bite plays an equally important role in our overall wellbeing. One often, overlooked indicator of digestive health is gut transit time, a simple and insightful measure of how efficiently your digestive system is working.

Stephanie Moore, Celebrity Nutritionist and Goodwood Gut Health Programme Lead, helps us explore what a healthy gut transit time is, what impact a sluggish gut transit time has on our health and how you can test yours.

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What is gut transit time?

Gut transit time refers to the time it takes for food to travel through your digestive tract from the moment you eat to when the waste leaves your body. This journey includes three main stages:

Gastric emptying: how long food remains in the stomach while being broken down by hydrochloric acid

Small intestine transit: the movement of food through the small intestine where most nutrients are absorbed

Colonic transit: the time it takes for food to move through the large intestine and be excreted

On average, a healthy gut transit time is between 24 and 48 hours.

“Gut transit time is a really valuable but often overlooked measure of gut health,” says Stephanie Moore, Lead Nutritionist on the Goodwood Gut Health Programme. “It gives us insight into how well your body is processing food, absorbing nutrients and clearing toxins.”

Why is gut transit time important?

Gut transit time isn’t just a technical measure, it’s a vital sign of how well your digestive system is functioning. It affects:

Nutrient absorption: a balanced transit time allows your body to extract the vitamins and minerals it needs.

Toxin elimination: efficient transit supports waste removal, preventing toxins from being reabsorbed.

Microbiome balance: transit time influences your gut bacteria. A sluggish gut can lead to fermentation and harmful bacterial overgrowth while a too,rapid transit can disrupt the balance of beneficial microbes.

Disease risk: chronic constipation or fast transit may be linked to conditions such as IBS, IBD, diverticulosis or colorectal cancer.

“If your transit is too fast it can mean nutrients don’t have time to be absorbed. If it’s too slow, waste sits in the gut and can cause fermentation, inflammation or bacterial imbalance,” explains Stephanie.

How to measure your gut transit time

Measuring your gut transit time at home is easier than you might think. Try one of the following methods:

Sesame seed or sweetcorn test: eat a tablespoon of whole sesame seeds or sweetcorn and monitor how long it takes to appear in your stool.

Beetroot test: eat cooked beetroot and note when your stool turns red, don’t be alarmed by the colour!

Activated charcoal test: take activated charcoal capsules and watch for dark colouring in your stool.

A healthy transit time is ideally between 24 and 48 hours. Less than 12 to 18 hours may be too fast, while more than 72 hours may indicate slow or impaired digestion.

What gut transit time can reveal

Your transit time can offer important insights into your digestive and overall health:

Fast transit (less than 18 hours) may suggest malabsorption issues, food intolerances or inflammation, often seen in conditions like IBS,D, SIBO or lactose intolerance

Slow transit (more than 72 hours) may indicate dehydration, low fibre intake, hypothyroidism or sluggish gut motility, raising the risk of constipation and inflammation

Optimal transit (24 to 48 hours) usually reflects a healthy balanced microbiome and efficient digestion

“Transit time can tell us so much about how well your digestive system is coping with your current diet and lifestyle,” Stephanie adds. “It can even act as a red flag for issues that might otherwise go unnoticed.”

What influences gut transit time

Several factors affect how efficiently food moves through your digestive system:

Diet and fibre intake: the Goodwood Gut Health Programme focuses on gut-nourishing foods including seasonal vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. We also champion our organic grass-fed meat which comes directly from Goodwood Home Farm as part of a balanced microbiome-supportive diet.

Hydration: drinking plenty of water is essential. We also encourage ‘structured hydration’ including water-rich fruits and vegetables, aloe vera water or adding a pinch of natural salt or citrus juice to your water.

Herbal support: green tea, especially matcha, and probiotic-rich drinks like kombucha and kefir are great additions to your daily routine.

Age: transit time tends to slow as we get older due to reduced muscle tone in the intestines, making diet, hydration and movement even more important.

“As we age gut motility slows down, which is why it’s so important to stay hydrated and keep our meals rich in fibre and diversity,” says Stephanie. “At Goodwood our menu is thoughtfully designed to reflect that, with plenty of whole foods that naturally support gut motility.”

A holistic approach at Goodwood

At the Goodwood Gut Health Programme we take a comprehensive approach to digestive wellbeing. As part of our collaboration with Randox Health, we’ve developed The Goodwood Panel, a test covering 31 health markers including metabolic, liver and kidney function, nutritional balance and inflammation.

You can also explore the Randox At Home Gut Microbiome Testing Kit to gain a clearer picture of your gut health, ideal for those who want to understand how their diet, lifestyle and gut bacteria are impacting their overall wellbeing.

“Gut health is the foundation of so many other aspects of our health,” Stephanie concludes. “Understanding and improving gut transit time is a simple yet powerful step in taking better care of your whole self.”

 

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