Mouth
teeth mechanically break down food
salivary enzymes chemically break down starch
from dynamicscience.com.au
esophagus
food doesn’t “fall down” tube due to gravity
muscles squeeze a food bolus down the tube, towards stomach
Pearson Education 2004,Biology: Exploring Life
Here we see an animation of the food muscles pushing the bolus down the esophagus.
Stomach
acid kills germs
acid further digests food
Digesting nutrients
Small intestine
more enzymes break larger organic molecules into smaller ones.
now small compounds are absorbed into the blood stream.
Pancreas
The pancreas has two major jobs: Digestion, and hormonal control of blood sugar levels.
Liver
The liver has several functions: One of them is being part of the digestive system. Read about the liver here.
Large intestine
Anything left over continues into the large intestine.
Excess water is absorbed back into the body in the large intestine.
What is left then is undigested food. This is stored in the rectum, the lower part of the large intestine, until we are ready to go to the toilet.
It then comes out of the rectum through the anus as feces (elimination)
Anus
Letfovers are eliminated (defecation) at your convenience.
Related topics
Probiotics and human health
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