Teenage girl has stomach removed after drinking cocktail

[lordlundar]

A reasonable amount of nutrients you get from foor are taken out in the intestine, it's possible to live without a stomach, but it usually requires liquid nutrient diets or similar and very little solid food.

This is true. The stomach is there to break materials down for easier extraction of the nutrients and energy. It's the other organs in the body that extracts and process those parts of the food.

[Panacea]

She can only eat small amounts of food at any one time, but otherwise she may be on a liquid diet.

A reasonable amount of nutrients you get from foor are taken out in the intestine, it's possible to live without a stomach, but it usually requires liquid nutrient diets or similar and very little solid food.

This is true. The stomach is there to break materials down for easier extraction of the nutrients and energy. It's the other organs in the body that extracts and process those parts of the food.

All three statements are essentially correct. This girl is at risk for "dumping syndrome"; her GI tract will literally dump large amounts of partially digested food out the other end as diarrhea. It's one of the risks that does along with Bariatric surgery, btw.

Everything she eats will have to be completely chewed. She'll need to focus on softer, even pureed food, to make digestion easier. She can eat some regular foods, but she may have digestive problems from it. It will be a lifelong battle, and may include some problems with malabsorption of food.

I don't envy her.

The article said the whole trend was started by a celebrity chef who used this process on a cooking show. It also said the liquid nitrogen boils in the stomach, which startled me. Maybe Greenday can explain the chemistry of that (I have no idea of its boiling point, or how something so cold can boil internally).

This is one trend I'll skip, thank you very much.

[Greenday]

The article said the whole trend was started by a celebrity chef who used this process on a cooking show. It also said the liquid nitrogen boils in the stomach, which startled me. Maybe Greenday can explain the chemistry of that (I have no idea of its boiling point, or how something so cold can boil internally).

Nitrogen, at room temp and normal pressure, is in the gas phase. Nitrogen, at normal pressure, is only a liquid between -346F (-210C) and -320F (-196C). So anything above the latter temperatures and it will boil. Our bodies are in the upper 90sF (37C) which are well above that boiling temperature so the instant liquid nitrogen is ingested, it is going to begin to boil.

[lordlundar]

It also said the liquid nitrogen boils in the stomach, which startled me. Maybe Greenday can explain the chemistry of that (I have no idea of its boiling point, or how something so cold can boil internally).

Not Greenday but I can answer that. Nitrogen's boiling point is -195.8C so simply having it out in open air can cause it to boil. How it doesn't boil away immediately in a container is that a layer of the gas which is still far colder and more dense than the air around sits above the liquid causing an insulation effect. Given enough time it will boil away completely. If that insulation layer of gas doesn't exist however it will boil away in a matter of seconds.

A person's stomach is actually a fair bit warmer than open air (usually. It can be colder than a really hot day for example) and the stomach is a mass of muscles that will move whenever it's breaking down food. As such there's no way for a undisturbed layer of gas to settle so whatever liquid nitrogen goes inside the stomach is going to boil extremely fast. So fast in fast that the release valves that the body has (aka belching) can't respond in time and the rapidly expanding gas causes ruptures.

Edit: Goddamn it he beat me to it.

[draco664]

I sense some doubt in this statement. Why don't you dump it on your arm?

I've had some splash on my arm. The hairs were the only real casualty, but it felt really weird expecting some intense cold and not getting it. The thing is that it doesn't take a lot of energy to boil nitrogen, and there's plenty of energy in your arm. And once it's a gas, it won't really harm you.

That's not to say it's entirely safe. The lab had rules about not taking it in a lift for instance. If you dropped it, it would displace all the oxygen in the lift as it boiled. Game over, if that happened.

[fireheart17]

The article said the whole trend was started by a celebrity chef who used this process on a cooking show. It also said the liquid nitrogen boils in the stomach, which startled me. Maybe Greenday can explain the chemistry of that (I have no idea of its boiling point, or how something so cold can boil internally).

This is one trend I'll skip, thank you very much.

I'm wondering if that was Homaru Canto (guy owns Moto and does some VERY weird things with food and liquid nitrogen)

[Panacea]

I'm wondering if that was Homaru Canto (guy owns Moto and does some VERY weird things with food and liquid nitrogen)

No, it was someone else; I'd have to look at the article again.

Thanks guys for the explanation of how nitrogen boils. Guess it should have been obvious, but chemistry has never been my strong suit