DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

WHAT IS DIGESTION? Food contains complex substances which the body breaks down into simpler particles.

THE NUTRIENTS Every kind of food is digested and absorbed as nutrients in the digestive system in different steps and digestive tracts. The nutriens are proteins, carbohydrates, fats (lipids), vitamins and minerals.

WHERE DOES DIGESTION TAKE PLACE? It takes place in your digestive tract which is like a long tube running from your mouth to your bottom (anus).

MOUTH In your mouth the teeth break down food into chunks.

SALIVARY GLANDS The chewed and insalivated food is called food bolus The salivary glands produce saliva which contains an enzyme called ptyalin. Ptyalin is an enzyme that attacks the starch and splits it in a more simple sugar, into maltose. . The chewed and insalivated food is called food bolus

ESOPHAGUS No digestion occurs here. It links your throat to the stomach. The esophagus pushes food into the stomach through a muscle movement called peristalsis

STOMACH It’s a muscular bag that stores food and breaks down proteins. The gastric glands produce mucus, hydrochloric acid and enzymes.

STOMACH The acid enviroment favors the action of the pepsina. It is an enzyme that cleaves proteins into smaller molecules, the peptones. Mucus protects the stomach by the action of hydrochloric acid and pepsin. The hydrochloric acid kills a lot of bad bacteria introduced with food . The food processed by the stomach, which is called chyme, is a dense and acid mixture that is passed into the bowel.

SMALL INTESTINE It works with the juice coming from the liver, pancreas and also the enteric juice. The enteric juice is rich in enzymes, including lactase, which breaks down latose, the milk sugar, into glucose and galactose.

BIG GLANDS The pancreatic juice contains: liver pancreas The pancreatic juice contains: sodium bicarbonate to neutralize the acidity of the chyme; trypsin, acts on proteins and peptones supplementing the split into amino-acids; maltase, splits maltose into two glucose molecules; pancreatic lipase, that breaks down lipids into glycerol and fatty acids. The liver produces the bile used to emulsify lipids, that is to break them into very small droplets easier to digest.

VILLI These projections increase the surface area for absorption of water and nutrients. At the end of the digestion chyme is called chyle. The nutrients in the chyle pass into the blood through the intestine walls and then they are transported throughout the body.

LARGE INTESTINE It accepts what small intestine doesn’t need or can’t use and later leaves the body as waste.

RECTUM Rectum is the last part of the large intestine and stores feces before it is expelled.

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