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How Does Our Body Digest Food?

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Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered

The digestive system is made up of the digestive tract—a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus—and other organs that help the body break down and absorb food.

Organs that make up the digestive tract are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine—also called the colon—rectum, and anus. Inside these hollow organs is a lining called the mucosa. In the mouth, stomach, and small intestine, the mucosa contains tiny glands that produce juices to help digest food. The digestive tract also contains a layer of smooth muscle that helps break down food and move it along the tract.

Two “solid” digestive organs, the liver and the pancreas, produce digestive juices that reach the intestine through small tubes called ducts. The gallbladder stores the liver's digestive juices until they are needed in the intestine. Parts of the nervous and circulatory systems also play major roles in the digestive system.

Katie Harry Profile
Katie Harry answered
Our body digests food by both mechanical and chemical means. When we take a bite, we chew it. Chewing breaks the food down into smaller pieces. This is known as mechanical digestion. Saliva also contains amylase, an enzyme, which breaks down starch into glucose. This is the first example of chemical digestion through the digestive tract.
Then the food is swallowed and passes through the oesophagus and into the stomach. In the stomach, there is some more mechanical digestion. This happens by the contraction and relaxation of stomach wall muscles. The end product of all the churning is a liquid type mixture of the food we have eaten. This is known as chyme.
We need mechanical digestion to break down food particles into smaller pieces so that a maximum surface area is available for the enzymes to work upon. In the stomach, there is also the enzyme pepsin which breaks down proteins into amino acids. This is chemical digestion. This is followed by a series of chemical reactions in the small intestine where enzymes digest fat and carbohydrates. Bile is secreted into the small intestine. It helps in emulsification of lipids to maximize their surface area for the benefit of lipases.
After food has been digested, it is absorbed through the walls of the gut. Some substances like alcohol and aspirin may be absorbed in the stomach but a majority of absorption takes place in the small intestine. The large intestine is responsible for absorption of most of the water. Also, any material that is not digested collects in the large intestine and is removed from the body in feces.
The amount of time it needs to digest a meal depends on the quantity consumed and the composition of the meal. Some substances are digested quicker than the others.
Lily James Profile
Lily James answered

Digestion is basically the break down of chemicals into smaller parts in the body so that they are absorbed by the blood. The process of digestion in human beings is a complex process that involves many organs.

The food enters the body through the mouth which is also known as the oral cavity. In the oral cavity the food is chewed. Saliva is produced in the oral cavity by salivary glands and is mixed with the chewed food by the tongue. After chewing food is swallowed whereby it enters the Esophagus which consists of oropharynx and hypopharynx.

Through the esophagus the food passes through the cardiac orifice and then enters the stomach. Food is then broken down and mixed with gastric acis and digestive enzymes. Food takes on semi liquid form and the essential elements are absorbed in the blood stream.

From the stomach, the food is passed on to the small intestine through the Pyloric Sphincter. Major portion of digestion and absorption occurs here as the chyme enters the duodenum. It is mixed with bile, Pancreatic juice and intestinal enzymes. Most of the nutrients are absorbed through small intestine.

From the small intestine, the food is passed on to the large intestine. Water is absorbed from the Bolus and feaces is stored for egestion in the rectum. This food is egested through the anus.

Muddassar Memon Profile
Muddassar Memon answered
Digestion basically is the method of metabolism where by a biological body processes matter, in an effort to chemically and mechanically alter the matter for the body to utilize.

In humans, digestion starts of in the oral cavity where matter is chewed with the help of teeth. The procedure encourages exocrine glands in the mouth to discharge enzymes like salivary amylase, which assist in the breakdown of starch. Chewing also results in the discharge of saliva, which helps reduce food into bolus which can be simply passed via the esophagus.

The esophagus is approximately 20 centimetres in length. Saliva also starts the procedure of chemical catabolism, hydrolysis. As soon as the food is chewed, it is swallowed. The bolus is pressed because of the movement known as peristalsis, which is an instinctive wave-like tightening of smooth muscle tissue, distinctive of the digestive system.
Aun Jafery Profile
Aun Jafery answered
Digestion refers to the process by which food that is consumed is broken down into substances that are easy for the body to absorb or assimilate. The process is carried out in the alimentary canal in humans and animals where the food that is eaten goes through enzymatic and mechanical breakdown to form simpler chemical compounds. It is also used to indicate the ability of being able to digest food. The process by which bacteria decomposes organic matter in sewage is also called digestion. In application to the mind and not the stomach the word digestion implies the capacity to understand and assimilate knowledge.

Digestion is the process by which the food we eat gets absorbed by our body and provides it with much needed energy and nutrients. The remainder of the food that is unused and the wastes of the body are then removed by way of excrement. Without digestion we would all die as it plays a very important role in our life system.
Amman Aamir Profile
Amman Aamir answered
Yes, the body has its particular function in digesting or consuming food.
Our digestive system has two basic jobs to do with the food we take in. the first job is to break down large food molecules so that they can be carried through the body it is impossible large molecules to pass through the walls of the cells and tissues. Starch must be broken down to sugar, oil to soaps, and protein to amino acids before they can pass through the cell walls.

The second job of the digestive system is to transform the "foreign" molecules of food into human molecules. Don't forget that we take in food molecules of all kinds: milk, meat, coffee, potato, fish, and so on. While we can swallow a piece of chicken, we cannot replace any part of the body with chicken protein. The human body is made up of molecules of human protein, and they are usually arranged in a special kind of way. So the body must break down the molecules of butter, flour, fish, fruits, and so on, into their elements. Then human proteins, fats, and starches must be built up from them.

The process of digestion is quite complicated. It begins in the mouth with the saliva, which helps break down starches. It then continues in the stomach, where most of the process of digestion takes place. Here, juices from the stomach wall are mixed with the food.The food, now in liquid form, then goes into the small intestine. The breakdown of proteins is completed here; fats are split into their finer parts, and starch digestion is also completed here.

As the digested material passes over the surface of the small intestine, it is absorbed into the blood and lymph. In this way, nourishment reaches all the cells of the body.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Digestion starts right from the time we put the first morsel of food in our mouth and start chewing; a variety of organs and body parts are involved in the digestion process. The masticating action of the teeth and the saliva that gets mixed with it results in its partial digestion especially the starch and sugar content.

The food then reaches the stomach via the esophagus where it undergoes churning; here various digestive juices secreted by the stomach lining mix with the food rendering it to a semi solid mass of soup like consistency known as 'chyme'. The stomach digests nutrients like salt and sugar while other complex food products are digested in the small intestine where the food passes from the stomach.

In the small intestine the food mixes with vital enzymes secreted by the liver and the pancreas; fats and proteins are mainly digested in the small intestine. The inner lining of the small intestine is covered by projections called as villi that absorb the digested nutrients from the food and convey it to the blood stream.

The large intestine receives the end products of the digestion process where water and other nutrients are absorbed along with bacterial action inducing necessary fermentation; waste products to be excreted are stored in the end segment known as rectum. In all the whole process may take anywhere from 10 to 20 hours depending on the nature of food, one's level of activity as well as one's mood in general.
decoda Profile
decoda answered
Food enters our mouth where it is chewed up,rolled into a ball by the tongue and moistened by saliva for swallowing
food is swallowed and passes into the gulit which carries the food in the stomach.
The stomach breaks down food by muscles phisically  and chemically by enzymes .the acid in our stomach kills bacteria and help enzymes to work
the small intestine digest  the food further using different enzymes and absorbes it in our blood
the large intestine water is absorbed to make the waste more solid
the wastes are then  passed out by the anus.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Our food has to be digested so that it can absorb by our body....
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
How can the digest system help digest the food that you bit and swallow  and then you wait and ten you have to digest the food from your stomach to your anus and then it come out into that nasty stuff.

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