Sunday, April 16, 2006

Grape Juice

Does grape juice and wine stain the inside of our bodies, like it stains our skin and clothes?

11 comments:

Kiwi the Geek said...

First, think about this: Does grape juice stain a glass? Nope. Probably because glass isn't porous, meaning it doesn't absorb liquids. The grape juice can't get inside and hang on.

The inside of your stomach or other organs is very different from skin. I don't know how to explain it, but you could look at pictures on the internet or watch a medical program on cable TV. I'm not sure, but I don't think your insides would be affected by the color of your food or drink.

Kiwi the Geek said...

Okay, your mom asks: "Wouldn't you think the inside of the body is porous too? I would imagine that it's line with a semi-permable membrane too?"

Yes, much of the inside of your body is semi-permeable. Just like your skin can absorb water and get like a raisin, some parts of your insides absorb water, nutrients, or other components of food.

It's possible that your insides are stained by grape juice, just like your tongue can get stained by some kinds of candy. (maybe by grape juice, I never checked.) My hunch, though I can't explain it, is that all the different foods, saliva, stomach acid, and whatever else is down there would probably prevent stains, and if there was a stain, would probably cause it to wear off quickly. But I'm not sure.

Talia said...

Thank you for telling me about if grape juice stains the inside of your body.

Anonymous said...

Well I think it does stain the insides too! but not for long.
'cause if you noticed we swallow all the time and like Mr Kiwi said regarding saliva, it washes everything away, including grape juice stains.

Talia said...

Fact Checker: thank you for telling me that grape juice dusen`t stain the inside for a long time.

Shelli said...

Grapes and wine CAN stain our teeth. Enamal is a porus material, and much of hte food we eat stains them.

The insides of our bodies do not get stained by foods because of...

drum roll please....

Mucous!

Mucous acts as a barrier between our insides and food.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
a fellow science geek who ended up going into theatre, but still LOVES science,


Shelli

Talia said...

Shelli - Daddy of Talia wants to know if mucous prevents getting stain on the insides, then how do we absorb food?


Shelli - (from Talia) thank you for telling me if grape juice may not stain the insides of our body and outside of our body.

Shelli said...

mucous prevents the initial staining of our insides. Then the stomach acid takes over. first, we chew and chew our food, called mastication. This is where our teeth get stained by things like blueberries, wine, coffee, etc.

Then the food travels down our esophogas, and into our stomach. Enzymes and stomach acid take over, and break the food down into things like proteins and sugars. By this time, there's not much left of things that could stain us on the inside...

Sometimes, there are things we simply cannot digest - for example corn. We actually digest the INSIDE of the corn kernel, but the cellulose outter shell of the kernel of corn cannot be infiltrated by stomach acid and enzymes, which is why it sometimes appears, that um, "later on," that we didn't digest the corn. We actually DID, but it's the outter hull of the kernel that we cannot digest.

Come up with some more questions, I'm SO happy that you are loving science! Way to go!

Talia said...

thank you Shelli

Talia said...

I'm also glad I like SCIENCE!!Thanks for the comment.
Love,
Natalie

Patsy said...

Though grape juice and red wine might not stain the insides of your body, but they can stain your teeth. As an avid wine drinker, I learned it the hard way, but luckily, I know of a Bloomington dentist that offers dental whitening services. Having it whitened by the Bloomington, IL dentist sure made me control my intake of food and beverages that can stain my teeth.