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Digestive System

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Submitted By stubob
Words 536
Pages 3
Stuart Jefferson
September 6, 2013
David West
Nutrition

What happens with the food we eat? Most of us have a pretty simple explanation for this. We know that our body absorbs nutrients from the food that helps to give us energy and stuff like that, and then the excess gets excreted and passes through the body. That pretty much sums it up then, right? While that is true, there is a lot that goes on in our body between our mouths and our bottoms, this is called digestion. This will be a map of food through our digestive system, or digestive tract. Our digestive tract is a series of hollow organs that are joined in a long and twisty tube, and it all begins in our mouth, where we take in, chew, and swallow food. This is also where the food we are chewing is first introduced to mucosa. Mucosa contains tiny glands that produce juices that help digest the food. Next it travels through the esophagus, a long tube leading to the stomach. Food in the stomach is met with more mucosa, and the body really starts getting to work on it. The stomach stores food, breaks it down into a liquid, and passes it on to small intestine. At this point it is important to note that just because it is called the “small” intestine, does not mean it is small. In fact, if someone were to stretch out an adult’s small intestine, it would stretch to be around 22 feet long, and about 2 inches wide. Either way, this step in the process is very important. When the liquid mixture made by the stomach is in the small intestine, it gets broken down even more. The pancreas, liver, and gallbladder all send juices into the small intestine to help with this. It is at this stage that your body can start absorbing all of the vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. After some delay, as long as 4 hours, the mixture gets split up. The nutrients make their way to the liver for processing,

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