Sunday, August 16, 2015

Digestion: The In's and the Out's!





Discussing nutrition would not be complete without talking about our digestive system.  Although not the most pleasant of subjects, it is important to understand what happens to the food we ingest to better understand the importance of eating healthy.

Mouth – This is where it all begins.  As we chew our food, our saliva helps break the food down, causing
more surface area which makes the food easier to digest (The Digestive System: Crash Course Biology
#28).

Esophagus – The esophagus is situated in the throat and uses contractions, called peristalsis, to help
push food down to the stomach (Cleveland Clinic. The Structure and Function of the Digestive System).

Stomach – The stomach is an empty container that holds food while enzymes break the food down into
portions that can be better used.  After these acids and enzymes do their job, the stomach releases the
food into the small intestine (Cleveland Clinic. The Structure and Function of the Digestive System).

Small intestine – The small intestine has three parts; the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum.  The small
intestine can be as long as 22 feet.  It uses enzymes from the liver that are released by the pancreas and
bile to further break down the food.  The duodenum continues the breaking down process and the
jejunum and ileum absorb nutrients into the blood stream (Cleveland Clinic. The Structure and Function of
the Digestive System).

Large Intestine – The large intestine is responsible for absorbing water from food that is not able to be
 Digested (NIH. Large Intestine).


Rectum – The end of the large intestine that allows undigested food to be expelled from the body.

Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?  As you can see, our body has a lot of work to do in order to absorb all the nutrients from the foods that we consume.  


Resources

Cleveland Clinic.  The Structure and Function of the Digestive System

      Retrieved from:  http://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/ns_overview/hic-the-structure-and-function-of-the-digestive-system

NIH.  U.S. National Library of Medicine. Medline Plus.  Large Intestine

      Retrieved from:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/19220.htm

The Digestive System: Crash Course Biology #28

      Retrieved from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s06XzaKqELk

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