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Introduction
What happens to food after it is eaten? The body uses various kinds of food for energy and growth. To be used, however, food must be converted into nutrients that can be carried through the bloodstream and absorbed by the organism's cells. This conversion process is called digestion.

Digestion takes place in a series of organs that together are called the alimentary canal, or digestive tract. In simple invertebrates, such as worms, this may consist of a simple or specialized tube or duct: food enters at one end and waste is eliminated, or egested, at the other. In humans and other vertebrates, the system is more developed, and consists of a group of connected organs-the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, and anus. Through these structures, food is processed via mechanical and chemical action into usable nutrients and expendable waste. Although the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas play a critical role in digestion, they are not part of the digestive tract itself.

The structure of the digestive system is adapted to diet rather than body size. Tough plant materials such as cellulose require longer and more intensive digestion than do foods such as meat or milk. Herbivorous (plant-eating) animals have highly complex digestive systems. The cow, for example, has four sections to its stomach. The small and large intestines of all herbivores, regardless of body size, have specialized areas that help digest plant fibers; thus, the complexity of an elephant's intestines is the same as that in a pygmy goat. ( See also ruminant.)

The digestive system of carnivorous (meat-eating) animals is relatively simple and considerably shorter than that found in herbivores. The small intestine of a domestic cat, for example, is often no greater in diameter than a pencil-and while a Siberian tiger's intestines are much larger than a house cat's, they are no more specialized or complex.

Humans and other animals that eat both plant and animal matter are called omnivores. Their digestive tracts are not as simple as those of carnivores, nor as complex and specialized as in herbivores. Rather, the digestive system of an omnivore generally contains some characteristics of both herbivores and carnivores.

Where Digestion Begins
Digestion begins in the mouth, where the food is cut and chopped by the teeth. The tongue helps mix the food particles with a digestive juice called saliva, which is secreted by glands in the mouth. Thorough chewing cuts food into small pieces that are more easily attacked by saliva, which moistens the food so it can be swallowed easily. Saliva also contains the enzyme amylase, which changes some starches into simple sugars ( see enzyme). From the mouth the food is swallowed into the tubelike esophagus, or gullet. As food is swallowed, a flap called the epiglottis closes the windpipe, or trachea, to prevent choking.

Digestive system enzymes of the human

Peristalsis, a wavelike muscular movement of the esophagus walls, forces food down the esophagus to the stomach. Peristalsis takes place throughout the digestive tract. Unlike swallowing, which is a voluntary muscular action, peristalsis is involuntary and is controlled by nerve impulses stimulated by the tract's contents ( see nervous system). Under normal circumstances, a person is unaware of the movements of the esophagus, stomach, and most of the intestine.

Work of the Stomach
At the end of the esophagus there is a muscular valve, or sphincter, through which food enters the stomach. This esophageal sphincter keeps food in the stomach from being forced back into the esophagus. Peristalsis in the stomach churns the food and mixes it with mucus and with gastric juices, which contain enzymes and hydrochloric acid. These juices are secreted from millions of small glands in the lining of the upper stomach walls. The glands pour about three quarts of fluid into the stomach daily. Hydrochloric acid maintains the acidic environment necessary for the stomach enzymes, such as pepsin, to function. The mucus that is secreted protects the stomach wall from being harmed by the acid ( see stomach; ulcer).

The stomach churns the food into a thick liquid, called chyme. A strong sphincter muscle in the pyloric region near the bottom of the stomach further mashes the chyme and helps control the rate at which it is passed out of the stomach and into the duodenum, or upper small intestine. The sphincter also prevents the chyme from passing back into the stomach. As the digestive process in the stomach is completed, all the chyme is passed into the duodenum. This process continues over a period of time.

From the time a meal is eaten, it takes from 30 to 40 hours for food to travel the length of the digestive tract. Different kinds of food are held in the stomach for varying lengths of time. Complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains and vegetables, are held usually no more than one to two hours; refined starches and sugars move from the stomach and into the small intestine even more quickly. Protein foods are retained for three to five hours, and fat foods may remain in the stomach even longer. This is why eating a heavy dinner of meat, potatoes, and gravy satisfies hunger longer than one made up entirely of sweets or greens.

The stomach, though important, is not considered by physicians to be essential to life. People who have had their stomachs completely or partially removed are frequently able to live by taking special foods in small quantities many times a day. The small intestine is then able to perform all necessary digestion.

Work of the Small Intestine
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In the small intestine, proteins are changed into amino acids; fats are changed into fatty acids; and carbohydrates are changed into sugars. These products are soluble and can be absorbed into the bloodstream through the walls of the small intestine.

The main areas of the small intestine are the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. In humans, the small intestine, which measures from 22 to 25 feet (6.7 to 7.6 meters) long, is the longest part of the digestive tract.

Food remains in the small intestine for several hours. Digestion here is aided by secretions produced by the liver and pancreas, which are connected to the small intestine by ducts.

The pancreas is one of the most important glands in the body. It secretes pancreatic juice, which contains digestive enzymes such as trypsin, which helps digest protein foods; amylase and maltase, which break down carbohydrates; and lipase, which works with bile from the liver to digest fat. ( See also pancreas.)

Bile is produced in the liver but stored in the gallbladder, a small hollow organ located just under the liver. Bile does not contain enzymes; rather, it consists chiefly of acids, salts, cholesterol, and other substances that work with lipase to break down fats.

The gallbladder, which is prone to numerous disorders, can be surgically removed without serious effect. The liver, however, is essential to life. It has many important functions, such as removing toxins from the body and producing clotting factors for the blood. The liver is an important site of metabolism; proteins and fats are synthesized here, and sugars are converted to glycogen, which is then stored in the liver until it is needed for energy. ( See also liver.)

As food is broken down in the small intestine it is further diluted by fluid secreted by glands in the intestinal wall. The lining of the small intestine contains many folds that expand its surface area, allowing increased contact between the wall and food products. The surface area is further increased by thousands of villi, microscopic fingerlike projections of the intestinal wall. Nutrients pass through the cell membranes of the villi and are taken into the blood and lymph, which transport them to the cells, where they are used for energy and growth.

By the time the diluted food products have traveled the length of the small intestine, most of their nutrients have been absorbed into the bloodstream. Some water is absorbed here, though most water is reabsorbed in the large intestine.

Work of the Large Intestine
The large intestine is made up of the ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, rectum, and anus. In the large intestine water is reabsorbed through the intestinal wall, converting the remaining waste into solids that are passed from the body as feces. The colon is populated by bacteria that digest any remaining food products. These bacteria also produce folic acid, which prevents anemia, and other vitamins.

Peristalsis moves digested material from the small intestine into the ascending colon through a sphincter muscle, which prevents their return into the small intestine. In the ascending colon, fluids and salts are absorbed. In the transverse colon more water is removed from the waste materials until they are in solid form.

The descending colon is a holding area for solid waste. When the body is ready to eliminate this material, it moves into the rectum, the last 5 to 6 inches (13 to 15 centimeters) of the descending colon. When enough waste material accumulates, it is eliminated, or egested, through the anus-the open end of the rectum-as feces. A sphincter at the edge of the anus prevents fecal material from leaving the body involuntarily.

Peristalsis in the large intestine is much slower than in other parts of the digestive tract. The large intestine in humans is only about 6 feet (2 meters) long, yet waste material takes 10 to 20 hours to pass through it. ( See also anatomy, human; physiology.)

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Introduction What happens to food after it is eaten? The body uses various kinds of food for energy and growth. To be used, however, food must be converted into nutrients that can be carried through the bloodstream and absorbed by the organism's cells. This conversion process is called digestion.

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(Article) NatGeo Kids--Human Digestive System

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(Article) NatGeo Kids--Human Digestive System

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The human digestive system - National Geographic Kids

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Take a journey through the human digestive system and discover how your mouth, stomach, intestines, pancreas and other body parts hep break down your food!

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(Article) Kids Health--Digestive System (kids)

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(Article) Kids Health--Digestive System (kids)

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So there you are, sitting at lunch, enjoying some grilled-chicken pizza and a few orange wedges. When you're finished, you take a last drink of milk, wipe your mouth, and head to your next class. In a few minutes you're thinking about the capital of Oregon or your science fair project. You've completely forgotten about that pizza lunch you just ate. But it's still in your stomach - sort of like a science experiment that happens all the time!

The Mouth Starts Everything Moving

Your digestive (say: dye-JES-tiv) system started working even before you took the first bite of your pizza. And the digestive system will be busy at work on your chewed-up lunch for the next few hours - or sometimes days, depending upon what you've eaten. This process, called digestion, allows your body to get the nutrients and energy it needs from the food you eat. So let's find out what's happening to that pizza, orange, and milk.

Even before you eat, when you smell a tasty food, see it, or think about it, digestion begins. Saliva (say: suh-LYE-vuh), or spit, begins to form in your mouth.

When you do eat, the saliva breaks down the chemicals in the food a bit, which helps make the food mushy and easy to swallow. Your tongue helps out, pushing the food around while you chew with your teeth. When you're ready to swallow, the tongue pushes a tiny bit of mushed-up food called a bolus (say: BO-luss) toward the back of your throat and into the opening of your esophagus, the second part of the digestive tract.

On the Way Down

The esophagus (say: ih-SOF-eh-guss) is like a stretchy pipe that's about 10 inches (25 centimeters) long. It moves food from the back of your throat to your stomach. But also at the back of your throat is your windpipe, which allows air to come in and out of your body. When you swallow a small ball of mushed-up food or liquids, a special flap called the epiglottis (say: ep-ih-GLOT-iss) flops down over the opening of your windpipe to make sure the food enters the esophagus and not the windpipe.

If you've ever drunk something too fast, started to cough, and heard someone say that your drink "went down the wrong way," the person meant that it went down your windpipe by mistake. This happens when the epiglottis doesn't have enough time to flop down, and you cough involuntarily (without thinking about it) to clear your windpipe.

Once food has entered the esophagus, it doesn't just drop right into your stomach. Instead, muscles in the walls of the esophagus move in a wavy way to slowly squeeze the food through the esophagus. This takes about 2 or 3 seconds.

See You in the Stomach

Your stomach, which is attached to the end of the esophagus, is a stretchy sack shaped like the letter J. It has three important jobs:

1. to store the food you've eaten

2. to break down the food into a liquidy mixture

3. to slowly empty that liquidy mixture into the small intestine

The stomach is like a mixer, churning and mashing together all the small balls of food that came down the esophagus into smaller and smaller pieces. It does this with help from the strong muscles in the walls of the stomach and gastric (say: GAS-trik) juices that also come from the stomach's walls. In addition to breaking down food, gastric juices also help kill bacteria that might be in the eaten food.

Onward to the small intestine!

22 Feet Isn't Small at All

The small intestine (say: in-TESS-tin) is a long tube that's about 1½ inches to 2 inches (about 3.5 to 5 centimeters) around, and it's packed inside you beneath your stomach. If you stretched out an adult's small intestine, it would be about 22 feet long (6.7 meters) - that's like 22 notebooks lined up end to end, all in a row!

The small intestine breaks down the food mixture even more so your body can absorb all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. The grilled chicken on your pizza is full of proteins - and a little fat - and the small intestine can help extract them with a little help from three friends: the pancreas (say: PAN-kree-uss), liver, and gallbladder.

Those organs send different juices to the first part of the small intestine. These juices help to digest food and allow the body to absorb nutrients. The pancreas makes juices that help the body digest fats and protein. A juice from the liver called bile helps to absorb fats into the bloodstream. And the gallbladder serves as a warehouse for bile, storing it until the body needs it.

Your food may spend as long as 4 hours in the small intestine and will become a very thin, watery mixture. It's time well spent because, at the end of the journey, the nutrients from your pizza, orange, and milk can pass from the intestine into the blood. Once in the blood, your body is closer to benefiting from the complex carbohydrates in the pizza crust, the vitamin C in your orange, the protein in the chicken, and the calcium in your milk.

Next stop for these nutrients: the liver! And the leftover waste - parts of the food that your body can't use - goes on to the large intestine.

Love Your Liver

The nutrient-rich blood comes directly to the liver for processing. The liver filters out harmful substances or wastes, turning some of the waste into more bile. The liver even helps figure out how many nutrients will go to the rest of the body, and how many will stay behind in storage. For example, the liver stores certain vitamins and a type of sugar your body uses for energy.

That's One Large Intestine

At 3 or 4 inches around (about 7 to 10 centimeters), the large intestine is fatter than the small intestine and it's almost the last stop on the digestive tract. Like the small intestine, it is packed into the body, and would measure 5 feet (about 1.5 meters) long if you spread it out.

The large intestine has a tiny tube with a closed end coming off it called the appendix (say: uh-PEN-dix). It's part of the digestive tract, but it doesn't seem to do anything, though it can cause big problems because it sometimes gets infected and needs to be removed.

Like we mentioned, after most of the nutrients are removed from the food mixture there is waste left over - stuff your body can't use. This stuff needs to be passed out of the body. Can you guess where it ends up? Well, here's a hint: It goes out with a flush.

Before it goes, it passes through the part of the large intestine called the colon (say: CO-lun), which is where the body gets its last chance to absorb the water and some minerals into the blood. As the water leaves the waste product, what's left gets harder and harder as it keeps moving along, until it becomes a solid. Yep, it's poop (also called stool or a bowel movement).

The large intestine pushes the poop into the rectum (say: REK-tum), the very last stop on the digestive tract. The solid waste stays here until you are ready to go to the bathroom. When you go to the bathroom, you are getting rid of this solid waste by pushing it through the anus (say: AY-nus). There's the flush we were talking about!

Dig That Digestive System

You can help your digestive system by drinking water and eating a healthy diet that includes foods rich in fiber. High-fiber foods, like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, make it easier for poop to pass through your system.

The digestive system is a pretty important part of your body. Without it, you couldn't get the nutrients you need to grow properly and stay healthy. And next time you sit down to lunch, you'll know where your food goes - from start to finish!

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So there you are, sitting at lunch, enjoying some grilled-chicken pizza and a few orange wedges. When you're finished, you take a last drink of milk, wipe your mouth, and head to your next class. In a few minutes you're thinking about the capital of Oregon or your science fair project.

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(Video clip) DE--Overview of the Digestive System

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(Video clip) DE--Overview of the Digestive System

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human anatomy human body diagram kids food esophagus intestines pharynx gut mouth

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(Image Search) Google--Digestive System Vector Logo

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(Image Search) Google--Digestive System Vector Logo

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digestive system vector logo - Google Search

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cartoon icon human stomach sketch human digestive illustration silhouette transparent human body

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You may need to log in through Clever and click/find the "Digestive System" gizmo through there...

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Digestive System Gizmo : ExploreLearning

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Digestion is a complex process, involving a wide variety of organs and chemicals that work together to break down food, absorb nutrients, and eliminate wastes. But have you ever wondered what would happen if some of those organs were eliminated, or if the sequence was changed? Can the digestive system be improved?

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(Video) Follow a camera through a person's digestive system! :P

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(Video) Follow a camera through a person's digestive system! :P

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Operation Ouch - Digestion | Biology for Kids