# Persorption

Category: Metabolism

Persorption refers to a process in which relatively large particles pass through the intact wall of the intestine and enter the blood or lymphatic vessels. It can be demonstrated easily, but food regulators prefer to act as though it didn't exist.

11 passages · 1 author · 1995–2021 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/persorption

## Synthesis

**Persorption** is the process by which **solid particles**—sometimes up to ten times the diameter of a red blood cell—pass intact through the intestinal wall directly into the bloodstream or lymph, a phenomenon Peat emphasized was first demonstrated over a century ago and rediscovered by German immunologist Gerhard Volkheimer in the 1960s. [Source 1, 2, 5] Peat argued that this transit does not occur merely through gaps between cells; particles can enter the *cytoplasm* on one side of a cell and exit on the other, a flexibility he noted was consistent with microscopic films showing ameboid cells moving through one another without resistance. [Source 1, 5] He maintained that the biomedical establishment’s rigid belief in a *semipermeable plasma membrane* has made it essentially impossible for the culture to assimilate the facts of persorption, despite the ease of demonstrating starch granules in blood or urine with an iodine stain shortly after ingestion. [Source 2, 5]

The primary pathological consequence Peat identified is **arteriolar obstruction**. Once in the bloodstream, a persorbed starch grain or other hard particle can lodge in a small artery, shutting down circulation to the downstream capillary bed and creating a localized region of ischemic cell death. [Source 1, 4] Volkheimer’s foundational experiments showed that mice fed a diet high in raw starch aged prematurely; upon dissection, every organ contained little nests of dead, deteriorating cells downstream from starch-grain-blocked arterioles. [Source 1, 5] Peat extended this concern to modern processed foods, warning that microparticles of **fumed silica**, **titanium dioxide**, and even Teflon from food-grade lubricants can contaminate food and undergo persorption, with larger particles also acting as carriers for carcinogenic volatile organic compounds like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. [Source 4, 7]

Peat identified the energetic state of the intestinal cell as the critical determinant of persorption susceptibility. He explained that a *leaky intestine* is not simply a matter of holes between cells, but a condition in which the individual cell is weak and becomes tolerant of particles passing through its substance. [Source 7] He noted that stress and anxiety sharply reduce circulation to the intestine, damaging the ability of cells to exclude large molecules, and that local irritation and inflammation similarly increase permeability. [Source 6] This mechanistic view led him to conclude that consuming starch on an empty stomach, without sufficient food to energize the intestinal cells, was particularly hazardous, and that the increased peristaltic pressure from a vigorous digestive response could actually force more particles into the bloodstream. [Source 1, 7, 10]

To mitigate persorption, Peat recommended several practical strategies. He stated that the presence of **fat** and **fiber** in a meal reduces the absorption of particles. [Source 8, 10] His most definitive personal solution, however, was to stop eating starch entirely, a decision he attributed directly to Volkheimer’s findings and the observation that coffee—while important in the diet—could not fully eliminate the risk when natural fats already contained some polyunsaturated fatty acids. [Source 10] He also advised that very well-cooked starches are safer because cooking breaks down the granular structure, though he cautioned that natural starches are often embedded in materials that resist both cooking and digestion, allowing them to support bacterial growth. [Source 3, 11] Regarding other particulates, he suggested that charcoal with a particle size around half a millimeter would be safe, while acknowledging that persorbed starch grains accelerate aging by killing off small areas of cells throughout the body. [Source 9]

## People also ask

### How do solid particles cross the intestinal wall during persorption?

Peat argued that particles can enter the cytoplasm on one side of an intestinal cell and exit on the other, rather than passing only through gaps between cells, a process he linked to the cell's energetic weakness and tolerance of substances moving through its substance.

### What damage does persorbed starch cause in the body?

Peat identified arteriolar obstruction as the primary harm, where a starch grain lodges in a small artery, shuts down circulation to the downstream capillary bed, and creates localized regions of ischemic cell death that he said accelerate aging.

### Why did Peat recommend eating fat or fiber with starchy foods?

Peat stated that the presence of fat and fiber in a meal reduces the absorption of particles, and he warned that consuming starch on an empty stomach was particularly hazardous because intestinal cells lack the energy needed to exclude large molecules.

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## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Diabetes Type 1 KMUD the Herb Doctors 2014

Ray Peat · Interview · 2014

> **Caller:** I’ve heard Dr Peat in another podcast refer to starch molecules ( I think we call it molecule, maybe they are like crystal-like structure), but they actually block capillaries if they somehow get into the bloodstream. I just want him to elaborate on that a little bit more possibly one other research, he had mentioned one piece of research i don’t remember who that was specifically but I wonder if this is something that’s fairly well known in the scientific community?
>
> **Ray Peat:** No, it was something discovered 100 years ago. But in the 70’s, a german immunologist, Gerhard Volkheimer, wrote some papers on it, it’s called persorption. And I think there is an article of his on the internet called persorption; it has illustrations of some of the junk that can simply get squeezed right through the lining of the intestine. It isn’t being squeezed between cells necessarily: they can go right into the cytoplasm on one side, and out of the cytoplasm on the other side. Cells are much more flexible than people imagine. Particles as big as 100 microns, potato starch particles for example, if you eat a slurry of corn starch or potato starch or whatever on an empty stomach, a few minutes later you can draw blood and find these particles, which some of them are just the size of a red blood cell. But others are as much as 10 times the diameter of a red blood cell. And red blood cells are very flexible, so they can squeeze through capillaries with an opening that is only maybe 5 microns across, and their diameter is 10 microns. And even a 10 micron particle of starch will plug up an arteriole and shut down circulation to a whole block of capillaries fed by that arteriole. And the bigger the particle, the bigger the (small) artery that gets plugged up. And Volkheimer would feed mice a high content of free starch in their diet: and he found that they aged prematurely. And when he sliced them up, he found that all of their organs contained little nests of dead deteriorating cells, downstream from the plug of the starch molecules.

### Source 2 — Glossary

Ray Peat · Glossary

> Persorption
>
> Persorption refers to a process in which relatively large particles pass through the intact wall of the intestine and enter the blood or lymphatic vessels. It can be demonstrated easily, but food regulators prefer to act as though it didn't exist.

### Source 3 — Effects of Stress and Trauma Eluv Radio 2014

Ray Peat · Interview · 2014 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/eluv-effects-of-stress-and-trauma-on-the-body.mp4

> **Eluv:** So, this would be more difficult for vegetarians?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah. But if you concentrate on well cooked greens, the protein and minerals balance in cooked green leafy vegetables is essentially about the same as milk; it’s just less concentrated because of the high cellulose diluting it. A variety of cooked greens will provide the same type of protein that milk provides, as well as the very favorable balance of potassium, calcium, and magnesium in relation to phosphate. But you need to cook away or wash away, or skim away the anti-nutrients; for example too much spinach contains oxalic acid which tends to take the calcium out of your teeth, and some leafy vegetables have chemicals that block your stomach’s digestive enzymes.
>
> **Eluv:** What other vegetables would be better cooked as opposed to raw, besides spinach? Do you advocate raw foods or raw salads in the mix?
>
> **Ray Peat:** The very juicy fruits are best raw, but if they’re starchy, like plantains or bananas, they should be cooked by preference, because the starches can enter the blood stream and cause allergic reactions; it’s called persorption: the particles enter the bloodstream, and can block capillaries and arteries, causing cells to die, until the particle can be broken down. But it can stay in place long enough to kill cells in the heart, brain and lungs. Feeding mice on a very high raw starch diet, biologists in Germany found that they were very prematurely aged, because of the death of cells in all of their organs that were blocked by starch grains. Starches, like potatoes, are almost a perfect food if they are very well cooked, because you want to break down the starch. The non-starch ingredients of a potato have almost a perfect balance of nutrients (B vitamins, essential amino acids, carbohydrates in the right proportion) and the only thing that is lacking in a pure potato diet would be vitamin A and vitamin B12. Otherwise, they’re a very balanced food.

### Source 4 — One Radio Network: Natural Healing

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 29, 2019

> ## Nanoparticles and Persorption
>
> **Ray Peat:** Clothes are treated with silver nanoparticles that can pass through the skin. Toothpaste often contains particles. Salad dressings are thickened with fumed silica (glass particles) or titanium dioxide. Even if they aren't "nano," microparticles can still contain the pro-inflammatory nanoparticles. Processed foods are increasingly contaminated. For example, "food grade lubricants" containing Teflon microparticles are used on machinery and can contaminate food but don't show up on the label.

### Source 5 — Food-junk and some mystery ailments: Fatigue, Alzheimer's, Colitis, Immunodeficiency

Ray Peat · Article · 1995

> One of the reasons it has been easy to convince the public that persorption doesn't happen is that there is a powerful myth in our culture about the existence of a "semipermeable" "plasma membrane" on cells through which only certain specific substances may pass.
>
> About 30 years ago some biologists made a movie of living cells under the microscope, showing an ameboid cell entering another cell, swimming around, and leaving, without encountering any perceptible resistance; persorption of food particles, moving in one side of a cell and out the other, wouldn't seem so mysterious if more people had seen films of that sort.
>
> Also in the 1960s, Gerhard Volkheimer rediscovered the phenomenon of persorption, which had been demonstrated a century earlier. Starch grains, or other hard particles, can be found in the blood, urine, and other fluids after they have been ingested. The iodine stain for starch, and the characteristic shape of the granules, makes their observation very easy. The absorption of immunologically intact proteins and other particles has been demonstrated many times, but myth is more important than fact; all of my biology professors, for example, denied that proteins could be absorbed by any part of the digestive system.
>
> The accepted description of the absorption of chylomicrons, tiny particles of fat, helps to understand the way medical professors think about the intestine. These particles, they say, are disassembled by the intestine cells on one side, their molecular parts are taken up by the cells, and similar particles are excreted out the other side of the cells, into the lymphatic vessels. As they visualize one of these cells, it consists of at least four barriers, with each theoretical cell surface membrane consisting of an outer water-compatible phase, in intramembranal lipid region, and an inner water-compatible phase where the membrane rests on the “cell contents.” Endocytosis, for example the ingestion of a bacterial particle by a phagocyte, is described in a similar way, to avoid any breach in the “lipid bilayer membrane.”
>
> This mental armature has made it essentially impossible for the biomedical culture to assimilate the facts of persorption, which would have led 150 years ago to the scientific study of allergy and immunology in relation to the digestive system.

### Source 6 — Food-junk and some mystery ailments: Fatigue, Alzheimer's, Colitis, Immunodeficiency

Ray Peat · Article · 1995

> The sulfites (sodium bisulfite, potassium metabisulfite, etc.) have been used as preservatives in foods and drugs for a long time, even though they were known to cause intense allergic reactions in some people. Fresh vegetables and fish, dried fruits, ham and other preserved meats, hominy, pickles, canned vegetables and juices, and wines were commonly treated with large amounts of the sulfites to prevent darkening and the development of unpleasant odors. People with asthma were known to be more sensitive than other people, but the sulfites could cause a fatal asthma-like attack even in someone who had never had asthma. Even when this was known, drugs used to treat asthma were preserved with sulfites. Was the information just slow to reach the people who made the products? No, the manufacturers knew about the deadly nature of their products, but they kept on selling them. The FDA didn't answer letters on the subject, and medical magazines such as J.A.M.A. declined to publish even brief letters seriously discussing the issue. Obviously, since many people died from what the drug companies called "paradoxical bronchoconstriction" when they used the products, the drug companies had to be protected from lawsuits, and the medical magazines and the government regulators did that through the control of information.
>
> I think a similar situation exists now in relation to the effects of carrageenan.
>
> Stress and anxiety sharply reduce the circulation of blood to the intestine and liver. Prolonged stress damages the ability of the intestinal cells to exclude large molecules. Local irritation and inflammation of the intestine also increase its permeability and decrease its ability to exclude harmful materials. But even the normal intestine is able to permit the passage of large molecules and particles, in many cases particles larger than the cells that line the intestine; this persorption of particles has been demonstrated using particles of plastic, starch grains which are sometimes several times larger than blood cells, and many other materials, including carrageenan. One of the reasons it has been easy to convince the public that persorption doesn't happen is that there is a powerful myth in our culture about the existence of a "semipermeable" "plasma membrane" on cells through which only certain specific substances may pass.

### Source 7 — One Radio Network: Natural Healing

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 29, 2019

> ## Nanoparticles and Persorption
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Can you explain the connection between volatile organic compounds and nanoparticles?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Nanoparticles are efficient at activating inflammation, but larger particles—up to 10 times the diameter of a red blood cell—can pass through the wall of the intestine into the blood vessels. This process is called persorption. These particles can obstruct arterioles and kill a region of cells. Plastic particles are getting into our food supply. The larger particles can be coated with volatile organic compounds, especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogenic. They stick to the surface of particles and get carried into the bloodstream. This happens whenever you eat undercooked starch. Starch particles pass into the bloodstream unless they are in the presence of enough food to energize the intestine cells to keep them from being leaky. A leaky intestine isn't just holes between cells; it's that the individual cell is weak and becomes tolerant of particles passing through its substance.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** What is the takeaway for avoiding this?

### Source 8 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 87

Ray Peat · Email · Jul 10, 2013

> **Question:** I asked Ray Peat about persorption, and how to reduce it.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Particles absorbed from the intestine can pass from the blood into the lymph, cerebral spinal fluid, and urine. Having fat and fiber in the food reduces persorption.

### Source 9 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 480

Ray Peat · Email · Mar 30, 2018

> **Question:** In the past you have talked about potential issues from charcoal persorption, would these issues lead to clear immune reactions so that feeling better on it means there are no issues? Interestingly people have tried a product with bigger mesh size but reported less effects.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Volkheimer's experiments with mice showed that persorbed starch grains accelerated aging, killing off small areas of cells throughout the body.
>
> **Question:** Ok thanks, so I guess you think that applies to charcoal too, does that mean you recommend against it?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I don't recommend against it, but it's important to know exactly what the product is.
>
> **Question:** Thanks, are you talking about purity and source (coconuts) or are you talking about mesh size as well? Do you have an idea of the threshold for a safe mesh size?
>
> **Ray Peat:** I think half a millimeter would be safe. It has to be stored in a sealed container to prevent absorption of vapors.

### Source 10 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 505

Ray Peat · Email · Jul 7, 2018

> **Question:** Asked about Volkheimer's studies and the effect of coffee on starch persorption.
>
> **Ray Peat:** It’s why I stopped eating starch. [...] He thought it was the increased pressure from more vigorous peristalsis. He noticed that eating fat with it reduced persorption. Coffee is important in the diet, and since natural fats contain some PUFA, stopping starch eating most simply solves the problem of persorption.

### Source 11 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 665

Ray Peat · Email · May 30, 2021

> **Question:** Ray, is persorption a risk even with well-cooked starches? If not, what is it about starches (after cooking) that makes them hard on the gut?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Natural starches are often embedded in other materials that resist digestion as well as cooking; that can cause them to support bacterial growth.

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