The Digestive System
The digestive system is made up of a lot of body parts.
Here is a list of them: The mouth, salivary glands, esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, the liver, the gallbladder, pancreas, the rectum, and the anus.
The digestive system is the system in the body that brings the nutrients from the food we eat to the rest of the body.
The chewing of food is called mechanical breakdown. The enzymes and organs that our food goes to breaks it up chemically.
When we see food we "salivate". This means that your mouth gets wet, it's getting ready to eat. We have 3 salivary glands in our mouth.
The salivary glands liquid (juice) is made up of water and mucus. The sublingual gland is the smallest, the glands have an opening in the bottom of the mouth. The submandibular gland also opens at the bottom of the mouth... The parotid gland is the largest duct which is in the cheek and it's hole opens up in the back of the mouth near the back molars.
When the food gets chewed and covered with saliva it is called a bolus. Then we swallow. The food then goes in the pharynx, and then into the esophagus.. The pharynx is important because it connects to the respiratory system and the digestive track. A little flap called the epiglottis keeps food from going into the respiratory system. The food moves into the stomach because the little hairs and contractions in the pharynx and esophagus move it down.
The stomach is a muscular organ, it is like a sac. The stomach has three jobs.
1. It stores and mixes food
2. It continues chemically breaking food down
3. Moves food into the intestine
The stomach is where the proteins in the food you ate are being broken down. Inside the stomach are strong acids. They are called gastric acids. Types of gastric fluids are pepsinogens, hydrosulfuric acid, and mucus.
The stomach has a special gastric lining which prevents these strong acids form leaking out. The food then goes from the stomach to the small intestine.The food gets all the protein removed from it here. Then the food is ready to be absorbed in the small intestine.
Food that doesn't get absorbed by the small intestine is moved to the large intestine.Whatever is undigested comes out as waste.
The large intestine is connected to the rectum which is connected to the anus. There is a one way valve, that prevent the feces from going back into the colon.
Other wastes, like liquids are filtered out of the body by way of the kidney.
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