The human body is an amazing machine, and every once in a while it does something to remind you about that. The stomach growl is one of these reminders.
Stomach growl refers to those noises made within the small and large intestines, typically during digestion in a process called peristalsis, a process through which the body gets food through waves of muscle contraction by continuously push the food continually downwards during digestion.
Why Does Your Stomach Growl?
In addition to the food and liquid that moves through the digestive system, gas and air also make their way into the mix. These pockets of gas and air are the reason that your stomach growls.
The sound from the gas and air is produced in the stomach all the time, but it is much louder when your stomach is empty. When your body has food inside, most of the sound is absorbed by the food; therefore, the growling sound is very low and hardly noticeable.
Why is the Growling Louder When You’re Hungry?
Hours after the stomach has been emptied, it sends signals to the brain, which tells the digestive muscles to get your digestive system working again by restarting peristalsis.
When the muscle contraction gets going again, Two results may occur: First, the contractions sweep up any remaining food that was missed the first time around. Second, if no remaining food was found, the gas and air bubbles generated by the contractions of the muscle make a louder noise, as there is no food inside to absorb the noise.
This noise that you (and others) hear is the stomach growling, and it is your stomach’s way of telling you that it’s hungry and needs to be fed.
Sources: healthline, howstuffswork, wikipedia, scienceabc
