Digestive System http://www.mediaspin.com/bodysystems/digest_menu.html

What is digestion? Body breaks down food into small nutrient molecules

Where does digestion begin? Mouth

What two types of digestion occur in the mouth? 1. Mechanical Digestion Physically breaking down the food. Chewing Churning

What two types of digestion occur in the mouth? 2. Chemical Digestion The salivary gland creates our saliva to soften the food so that it is easier to swallow. Enzymes begin to break down the food into bolus.

Salivary Enzymes What are enzymes? Enzymes found in the mouth? A substance that speeds up the process of a reaction. Enzymes found in the mouth? LipaseBegins to break down fats AmylaseBegins to break down carbohydrates

Tongue A muscle that helps food churn and form a ball for safe travel down the esophagus.

Esophagus Esophagus a muscular tube lined with mucus that connects the mouth to the stomach. Epiglottis prevents food from going down your trachea.

Peristalsis Involuntary waves of muscle contraction that move food down the esophagus and throughout the digestive system. http://www.mediaspin.com/bodysystems/digest_menu.html

Stomach J-Shaped muscular pouch Chemicals called gastric juices (hydrochloric acid, pepsin) continue to break down food. The food is moved around in the stomach and mixed with the chemicals for about 3 or 4 hours. When it is done in the stomach, the food is now a cream-like liquid call chyme. Now a valve at the end of the stomach opens sending the food past the liver. http://www.mediaspin.com/bodysystems/digest_menu.html The bottom picture is an empty stomach of a dog. When the stomach is full these ridges smooth out.

Liver/Gall Bladder The liver makes a chemical called bile. Bile is stored in the gall bladder. When the gall bladder mixes bile with our food, it does an important job: breaking down the fat (from milk, butter, cheeses) into tiny droplets. This fat will supply us with much energy later. http://www.mediaspin.com/bodysystems/digest_menu.html

Pancreas The pancreas also adds a digestive chemical as the food leaves the stomach. This digestive juice works on breaking down the carbohydrates (from breads, potatoes, etc.) and the proteins (from meats, cereals, peanut butter).

Small Intestine Tube that is about 22 feet long! Made up of 3 parts: Duodenum Jejunum Ileum The chyme is now digested small enough to be put to use by the body.

Small Intestine - Villi Along the walls of the small intestine are thousands of tiny fingers called villi. Blood vessels in the villi can absorb the tiny food molecules and send them off to the rest of our body through the blood. http://www.mediaspin.com/bodysystems/digest_menu.html

Large Intestine 5 foot long tube. Whatever the body cannot put to use is sent to the large intestine. The job of the large intestine is to remove water. Water was necessary but it is no longer needed and is sent into the blood stream. Food spends about 12-48 hours in the large intestine where it become feces. http://www.mediaspin.com/bodysystems/digest_menu.html

Rectum / Anus Rectum Short tube at the end of the large intestine Waste material is compressed into a solid form Anus  A muscular opening at the end of the rectum.