The Digestive System
Food provides
us with fuel to live, energy to work and play and the raw materials to
build new cells. All the different varieties of food we eat are broken
down by our digestive system and transported to every part of our body
by our circulatory system.
Our digestive
system is a 9 meter long tube. The digestive process begins in the mouth,
where the teeth and tongue break up the food after it has been softened
with saliva. The food is then swallowed and travels down the esophagus
to the stomach.
While the food is in the stomach
it is mixed with a mild acid which breaks the food down into a paste similar
to porridge. The food then passes, a little at a time into the small intestine,
which is roughly 6 meters long. Here the food is broken down even further
until it is small enough to pass through the walls of the small intestine
into the bloodstream. Food that cannot be digested passes into the large
intestine, where the water and minerals are absorbed into the blood stream.
The solid waste, the feces, is then expelled from the body through the
rectum and anus.
To
see some amazing facts about the Digestive System
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