• Question: When our stomache rumbles why does it make a noise?

    Asked by jewlz to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      I think it’s bubbles because your stomach is preparing itself for food by producing more stomach acid. Perhaps someone else has a better answer?

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 30 Jun 2012:

      Our stomach works like a cement mixer, routinely swishing our food (called chyme by the time it gets to here) around to help the chemicals and enzymes break it down. This swishing it stimulated by even the idea of food, so when our stomach is empty and we think about food, it can rumble, as well as just after we have eaten.

      The rumble is bubbles swishing around in the liquid chyme, as Tim says. The bubbles are produced when your body breaks down food, as a waste product from the bacteria in your stomach and upper intestine for example. I believe sugary foods produce the most bubbles in the upper digestive tract (and brussel sprouts in the lower!)

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