What is digestion?
Q: What is digestion?
A: Digestion is the process of breaking down food to absorb it into the body.
Q: How does digestion occur?
A: Digestion occurs in three phases - mechanical digestion, chemical digestion, and absorption. During mechanical digestion, large pieces of food are broken down into smaller pieces that can be acted on by digestive enzymes. In chemical digestion, enzymes break down food into small molecules that the body can use. Finally, these nutrients are absorbed into the blood stream.
Q: What happens after food enters the stomach?
A: After we swallow food, it travels down a muscular tube to the stomach where it is mashed into a mixture like soup. The mixture then passes into the small intestine where tiny bits of food pass into the bloodstream and what's left goes to the large intestine before waste products leave the body.
Q: How long does digestion usually take?
A: Digestion usually takes about 18 hours with food staying in the stomach for about three hours.
Q: How long is an uncoiled small intestine?
A: An uncoiled small intestine would be about six meters (20 feet) long. Many digestive tracts are about as long as a bus.
Q: Where do nutrients enter our bloodstream from?
A: Nutrients enter our bloodstream from our small intestine where they have been taken up from what was left over after passing through our stomachs.
Q: What happens to food once it enters our large intestines?
A: Once in our large intestines, water is taken away from any remaining bits of undigested foods before they leave our bodies as waste products
