Imagine you are a piece of food and you get eaten by a human – describe in detail your journey through the digestive system
Answers
Explanation:
the journey starts from the mouth. The teeth crushes the food in the smaller pieces. This gets mixed with saliva and forms Bolus ( which is the ball like mixture of food and saliva in the mouth ). Now the Bolus passes through the oesophagus and goes to the stomach. The stomach is a J-shaped muscular organ which is having gastric glands. The gastric glands secrete hydrochloric acid pepsin and mucus. Pepsin is a protein digesting enzyme which makes an acidic medium to activate. This is acidic medium is provided by the hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid also helps in killing germs that enters our body through the food. The inner lining of the stomach is protected from the hydrochloric acid by the mucus. now the food goes to the duodenum which is the first part of small intestine. The exit of food from the stomach to the small intestine is regulated by the small intestine. In the small intestine, the food gets mixed with the digestive juices. Small intestine also receives secretions from liver and pancreas. The end products of digestion are :
carbohydrates to glucose
proteins to amino acids
fats to fatty acids and glycerol
now these nutrients get absorbed by the Villi present inside the small intestine. villi are tiny finger like projections that increases the surface area for absorption of nutrients. Nutrients get absorbed by the blood in the blood vessels present inside the villi and is transported to all the parts of the body. The undigested food goes to the large intestine where absorption of water takes place. Now the undigested food or faeces goes to the rectum where it is stored until it is egested through the anus. The exit of food from the anus is regulated by the anal spincter