1. Mr. Lockhart

2.  Break down food  Absorb Nutrients  Remove waste

3.  Digestion is the process by which your body breaks down food into small nutrient molecules.  Digestion can be mechanical or chemical.  In mechanical digestion, bites of food are torn or ground into smaller pieces.  Chemical digestion breaks foods into their building blocks. Chemical digestion takes place in many parts of the digestive system.

4.  Absorption occurs after digestion.  Absorption is the process by which nutrient molecules pass from your digestive system into your blood.  Most absorption occurs in the small intestine.

5.  Food material that is not absorbed is eliminated (removed) after passing through the large intestine.

6.  Digestion begins in the mouth.  Both mechanical and chemical digestion occurs in the mouth.  Your teeth and tongue tear apart and grind food into smaller pieces – Mechanical Digestion  The saliva in your mouth contains enzymes that break apart carbohydrates (sugars).

7.  Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body.  They have a specific shape and only work with chemicals that fit their specific shape!

9.  After chewing and thoroughly covering your food in saliva, you swallow the mass of food and it heads down your esophagus.  Food is pushed through the esophagus (and the remainder of your digestive system) by smooth muscle movements called peristalsis.  The muscles behind the food contract and keep pushing the food forward through the digestive system.

10.  Mechanical and chemical digestion takes place in the stomach.  The stomach grinds and contracts around food while exposing it to very strong acids which break the food down into a mostly liquid substance called Chyme.  Once the food has been properly liquefied, peristalsis pushes the food out of the stomach and into the small intestine.

11.  When the chyme first enters the small intestine, it is exposed to many enzymes and a chemical from the liver called bile. These chemicals further break down the food particles.  The smallest food particles are absorbed through the small intestine and are put into the bloodstream.  Anything that remains is passed onto the large intestine

13.  The large intestine does not absorb many nutrients, most of that is done in the small intestine.  However, the large intestine does absorb a lot of water, drying out the food mass before it is eliminated from the rectum.

14.  The nervous system receives input from the digestive system to make you feel hungry, full, or thirsty.  The musculoskeletal system is responsible for peristalsis, which keeps food moving through your digestive system.  Nutrients from what you eat are directly put into the circulatory system through the small intestine.