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“Esophageal Cancer Treatment.” National Cancer Institute,      www.cancer.gov/types/esophageal/hp/esophageal-treatment-pdq.

“Head and Neck Cancers | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/cancer/headneck/.

Hyperarts, Rob Mayfield -. General Surgery - Small Intestine Cancer, general.surgery.ucsf.edu/conditions--procedures/small-intestine-cancer.aspx.

“Introduction to the Digestive System.” Introduction to the Digestive System | SEER Training, training.seer.cancer.gov/anatomy/digestive/.

“Rectal Cancer Treatment.” National Cancer Institute, www.cancer.gov/types/colorectal/patient/rectal-treatment-pdq.

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Once I made it into her mouth, I started being digested physically and chemically. My client's teeth immediately began the physical digestion process by breaking me up and grinding me in the process of mastication. At the same time, I could feel the liquid saliva of my client surrounding me and beginning to break down my first macronutrient carbohydrate polysaccharide tortilla skin. The saliva, which consists of water, mucus, and salivary amylase, broke down my polysaccharides after it was excreted from one of three salivary glands through the salivary ducts. The neutral pH 7 of saliva provided the optimal conditions for salivary amylase, an enzyme, to start breaking me down chemically. My client's tongue, located in her mouth, then chauffeured me and kindly showed me the way to the pharynx by forming me into a big ball called a bolus and pushing me to the back of the mouth, where the tongue initiated my being swallowed. The tongue, saliva, saliva ducts, and teeth were very important and helpful in contributing to the major function of the mouth - to begin chemical and physical digestion of foods like me, in addition to moving me along to the esophagus.

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For the last 20 centimetres of the colon, my motion seemed forced by the sphincter muscle that controls the end of the colon. When I got to the rectum, I was compressed and compacted. Finally, to complete my journey, I was given a forceful elimination through the relaxation of sphincter muscles. The sphincter muscle and the downward slope of the rectum and anus allow for these parts to accomplish their task of excreting waste, like cellulose, from the digestive system. By the end of my journey I was pooped. Getting cut up, ground, transported, and chemically broken down and absorbed is tiring. Maybe my new destiny is to become soil so that another food one day is given the honours of going through the digestive system and providing a human with the macronutrients they need for life, health, and wellbeing. That's a wrap everyone!

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After my journey in the small intestine, I finally made it to the large intestine, which is also called the colon. Here, I found smooth muscle fibres for peristalsis which made my journey much more comfortable. The large intestine is a long, "n" shaped organ that is shorter than the small intestine and contains a series of sac-like protrusions that contain smooth muscle. I found many friendly anaerobic bacteria, including E. coli in the large intestine that comforted me as I realized I was nearing the end of my adventure in the digestive tract. The bacteria were busy synthesizing vitamins B and K, however. As I was moving along the large intestine, I shrank in size quite a bit as the large intestine sucked remaining water and nutrients. I was starting to realize nearing the end of the colon that I was beginning to be treated like waste by the bacteria and was starting to look more and more like waste too. Any sodium or chloride ions left over were taken from me, and the receptors in the colon began to form me into a compacted shape. The shape, receptors, and bacterial cells in the colon or large intestine were important in carrying out the function of the large intestine - to absorb the remaining water and substances that could be used by the body and compact the indigestible products before excretion.

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Before I reached the large intestine, I travelled through the ileum portion of the small intestine that absorbed vitamin B 12 and bile acids from my chyme. This was important in making sure that my client took advantage of absorbing the vitamin in me, along with the other nutrients. Together, the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum worked together to accomplish the major task of the small intestine - breaking down the nutrients chemically and absorbing most nutrients into the bloodstream.

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After having many proteins and lipids broken down in the duodenum, I entered the jejunum section of the small intestine. This section had a lot of tiny projections on the walls of the intestine called microvilli that increased the surface areas of cells in order to increase the absorption of monomers and nutrients that have been broken down in the chyme that was left of me.  Some parts of me were absorbed into the bloodstream by the microvilli and capillaries, and the remaining parts of me were transported to the large intestine via smooth muscle contraction called peristalsis. The jejunum was important to the overall function of the small intestine - to break down and absorb nutrients. The jejunum took advantage of microvilli so that the nutrients broken down in the duodenum could be absorbed by my client.

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In addition to being chemically digested, I was also physically digested in the duodenum. Bile forcefully broke down my lipid cheese hair into lipid droplets through the process of emulsification. The Cholecystokinin hormone ordered bile from the gall bladder and enzymes from the pancreas in order to further break me down physically in the duodenum.

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When I got to the end of the stomach, I was in a watery, acidic form called chyme. There was another gate at the end of the stomach. This time, it read "Pyloric Sphincter: Point of No Return. It's Only a matter of Chyme". The circular muscle gate relaxed and opened, and I entered the first part of the small intestine, the Duodenum. The Duodenum is a long, 30 cm passageway that has accessory organs that work with it as a main organ. Accessory organs are like assistant factories to the main organs. They create, store, and ship the main organs the tools and supplies that they need, but I, as food, never get to see them. The names of the accessory organ factories that are always used are the Pancreas, Gall Bladder, and Liver. The Pancreas makes and sends pancreatic juice that is needed by the small intestine. The liver makes a liquid called bile and bile salts that are important in digestion because they emulsify lipids and increase the surface area for lipase to perform chemical reactions. However, the gall bladder stores and ships the bile to the small intestine. Because of the pancreas and gull bladder's role, most chemical digestion of foods like me occur in the duodenum. What helped to move me physically along the duodenum passageway is a similar process to what moved me down the esophagus. This is called peristalsis, and involved smooth muscle contractions. In the small intestine, there were many enzymes that helped to perform my chemical digestion. A substance called bicarbonate (or HCO3-) helped to maintain the basicity of pH8-9 for the enzymes lipase, enterokinase, erepsin, pancreatic amylase, maltase, and nuclease. The enzyme lipase broke down my lipids, which made me a bit sad because I liked my cheese hair. Enterokinase converted trypsinogen to trypsin in order to break down my long chains of proteins in my chicken organs into smaller chains. Erepsin continued the breaking down of the shorter chains of proteins by breaking them into amino acids. The enzyme pancreatic amylase broke down starch in order to form disaccharides that can eventually make glucose. Maltase is another enzyme in the small intestine that breaks down the substance called maltose. Finally, the enzyme nuclease broke down my nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA in my chicken organs. There are also important hormones involved in the processes that occur in the duodenum. The hormone secretin stimulated the liver to increase the production of bile when prosecretin activated secretin and ordered lipid and protein enzymes from the pancreas factory. Secretin's job is very important because it stimulates the pancreas to produce and ship bicarbonate ions to make the chyme solution in the duodenum go from acidic (between 2-3 pH) to basic (between 8-9 pH). When bicarbonate ions were added to make the chyme basic, pepsin was inactivated in the duodenum. All of these chemical reactions that are the jobs of these enzymes directed by hormones were all instrumental in breaking me down chemically so that my carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids could be absorbed into my client and so that the duodenum department of the digestive tract company ran smoothly.

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When I reached the end of the esophagus, I passed through this round, muscle-like gate that opened automatically for me to pass through. The gate had a sign above it that said "Cardiac Sphincter: all who pass though shall not return unscathed". This made me very frightened, but the mucus in the esophagus was too slippery for me to try to climb back up the esophagus, so the cardiac sphincter gate opened, and I entered the stomach. The stomach was a bigger organ that was in the shape of a giant "J". I could tell that the stomach was on the left side of my client's body and that it lies below the diaphragm because I could hear my client's diaphragm moving as she breathed. For the first time, I realized that, not only were my organs made of chicken, but I was a chicken. My protein chicken organs began to be digested chemically. All at once, the stomach started secreting a hormone called gastrin, which started to release more gastric juice in the stomach from gastric glands. The parietal cells then started to secrete an acidic liquid called hydrochloric acid,  and the chief cells of the stomach started secreting pepsinogen. The hydrochloric acid started a chemical reaction fight with the pepsinogen, turning it into pepsin in its activated form. Hydrochloric acid is perfect for pepsin because HCl has an acidity of 2-3 on the pH scale, even though hydrochloric acid fights and activates pepsinogen a lot and makes proteins break down in tears. Although the stomach is a pretty rough, muscular, and glandular organ, it has a soft side in the form of smooth muscle fibres that helped to prepare me for the small intestine by turning me into chyme so that I would flow through the small intestine more easily. I also met some cells called the goblet cells while I was being turned into chyme. They secreted mucus to protect and lubricate the stomach walls so the mean hydrochloric acid wouldn't hurt the stomach. Gastrin, gastric juice, hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and the smooth muscles of the stomach all work together to complete the major task of this stomach - to break down proteins, perform the appropriate chemical reactions, and turn the digesting food into chyme.

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Once I was swallowed, I travelled into a dark, narrow passageway called the pharynx, which is the throat of my client. On my way past the trachea, I noticed that a flap of tissue, called the epiglottis, was covering the glottis or opening of my client's trachea so that I would not go into my client's windpipe and lungs. I was thankful that the epiglottis helped me to avoid getting lost in the trachea but also curious as to why I wasn't allowed to go into my client's windpipe and lungs. Next, I encountered a longer, darker, and narrower passage that looked very deep. I was frightened, but knowing this was my time to fulfill my dreams in the adventure of digestion, I bravely jumped into the esophagus. This narrow passageway seemed wider to me when I was travelling through it than when I was staring down at it from the pharynx. The walls seemed to expand when I reached them. I later learned that this is because of the rhythmic, smooth muscle contractions, called peristalsis, in the esophagus that allow boluses like me to get to the stomach. Peristalsis is controlled by the autonomic nervous system of human beings, so my client didn't even have to think twice about transferring me to the stomach department. The esophagus also secreted more mucus for lubrication when I was making my way to the stomach. The muscles and saliva in the esophagus worked together to fulfill the major function of the esophagustransporting boluses like me from the pharynx to the stomach as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

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It all started when I found myself on a dinner plate at Swiss Chalet.

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It all started when I found myself on a dinner plate at Swiss Chalet.

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As I stared up at the person in front of me, I was excited about finally fulfilling the most noble calling of a chicken wrap: to be hired by the digestive system of a human being. I hoped that my macronutrients would be sufficient to satisfy the hunger of my client. I could tell my client was excited too, because she looked with an appetizing grin at my lipid melted cheese hair. Then, she picked me up with her hands and proceeded to break me into bite-sized pieces with her incisor teeth. This is how I was ingested into her body.

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I come from afar and have been many places, yet there is one noble adventure which I have always seeked and which I finally attained when I entered the digestive tract of a human being last week.

My name is Ken the chicken wrap with melted cheese on top. I am a bit obsessed with my body composition because it makes me a great candidate to be hired by the digestive tract. I am composed primarily of the macronutrients protein, carbohydrates, and lipids. I have a heart for protein because my heart and most of my internal organs are composed of chicken. Chicken contains a lot of protein. My protein chicken organs consist of long chains of amino acids that link together to make the proteins in chicken. My skin is a whole grain flour tortilla that consists of mostly carbohydrates. My tortilla skin consists of polysaccharide molecules that will be very useful for whoever gets to digest me. Finally, though I am always conscious of my body fat percentage, I love my hair that consists of melted cheese, which is a lipid. My cheese hair consists of saturated fat and trans fats, which makes it really tough to comb. Below is a drawing of me. Anyway, enough about me. Let's get to my digestive tract career adventure!

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The process by which left over food molecules that cannot be absorbed are removed from the digestive system through excretion.

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The process by which nutrients from food are absorbed into the bloodstream after chemical and mechanical digestion.

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The breaking up of food and macronutrients into smaller molecules and parts so that nutrients can be absorbed by the body. This process begins in the mouth and ends in the small intestine and involves both chemical and physical digestion.

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The process by which food is taken into the body through the mouth.