Eating too often or "snacking" between meals is an unhealthy practice for our digestion. On the one hand, if we eat while we are digesting the previous meal, more and less digested food will be mixed in our stomach, which may favour the passage into the duodenum of more whole foods, with the consequent overload of the pancreas and liver, which will favour incomplete digestion and the fermentation and putrefaction of some foods, as we have seen in the article on digestion: How digestion takes place and why certain foods should not be mixed.
On the other hand, frequent food intake inhibits the occurrence of the so-called "migratory motor complex" (MMC). The MWC are movements of the intestine that occur after digestion is complete, during the fasting period, when the stomach and the first portions of the small intestine are free of food, and are inhibited when we eat again. These are the famous "rumbling noises" when we feel hungry. These movements serve to eliminate the waste products of digestion and transfer them to the colon, so that they can then be used by our large intestine bacteria, and what is left over is eliminated in the faeces. If we don't allow our gut to run the MWC often because we don't give it rest periods, we are encouraging the accumulation of waste products and subsequent inflammation, as well as bacterial overgrowth in places like the small intestine, called the SIBO, where in theory there should be a limited number of micro-organisms. This is why many people who do intermittent fasting or longer periods of fasting report that one of the first things they notice is an improvement in their digestive system (less bloating, for example). This improvement is also partly due to the simple fact that fasting allows our digestive tract to rest and helps repair the intestinal wall damaged by the large number of aggressors.
Bibliography:
Perez R (2020). Les combinaisons alimentaires. Lanore.
