Digestive System Flow Chart w6b21

EATING AND DIGESTION A. Why do we eat? Food contains sources of energy that the body needs to stay alive and to repair itself. Food is the fuel that provides energy, just like gas is the fuel that provides a car with energy. B. What happens when I swallow my food? When a mouthful of chewed food is soft and pliable, your tongue squeezes off a portion and pushes it to the back of your mouth and down into your throat to the top of the esophagus. When you swallow, muscular waves, peristalsis, push the food along the digestive tract, from the mouth, down the esophagus to the stomach. From the stomach, it moves on to the small and large intestines. C. What is a balanced diet? Ask your Wellness teacher and let me know. D. So, what happens in my mouth while I’m chewing my food? Food in the mouth is mixed with a water-like substance called saliva or spit. Did you know that your salivary glands produce about 1.5 liters of saliva every day? As soon as you smell or look at food, saliva flows along tubes called salivary ducts into your mouth. This lubricates your food for easier chewing and swallowing. Your tongue pushes food around for thorough mastication. E. What happens to the food in my stomach and small intestine? Your stomach is a muscular machine that churns the food in an acid-and-enzyme bath. Now the semifluid substance in your stomach is called chyme [pronounced kime]. Chyme es from your stomach into your small intestine, where chemical digestion continues and most nutrients are absorbed. Food molecules through finger-shaped villi into the blood. Villi provide a large surface area for absorption of nutrients. F. What else can you tell me about digestion? Well, through the process of digestion starches and carbohydrates are turned into glucose. Glucose is “burned” to release energy. Some of this is released as heat energy and some of it is changed by muscle cells into energy of movement. Did you know that bacteria live in your intestine? Don’t worry; these are healthy bacteria which make vitamin K. G. What are the chemicals called that break down food? Enzymes.

How long does it take food to through my body? THE AGE OF DIGESTION MOUTH 0 seconds chewing

•a mixture of fats (e.g. butter), proteins (e.g. meat), carbohydrates (e.g. rice) and water

ESOPHAGUS 10 seconds

•food mixed with saliva es down the esophagus into the stomach (peristalsis)

STOMACH 4 hours

•food is mixed with chemical juices and churned in the stomach •LIVER •the liver produces a green liquid, bile, to help break down fats

SMALL INTESTINE 4.5 hours

•digestive juices (e.g. bile) break down food •the mixture es through the intestine wall into the blood

LARGE INTESTINE 716 hours

•water and undigested food into the large intestine •water is absorbed into the blood

RECTUM 1214 hours

•solid waste from the large intestine is stored

ANUS

•muscles push the solid waste out of the anus as feces