Task 4 - Chemical Digestion

The digestive system absorbs the minerals and nutrients from the foods that have been eaten. The break down of food beings in the mouth, where the

Digestion starts in mouth and it is going through several steps. Teeth which are a Mechanical digestion start tearing and crushing the food down into small pieces so that the food will smoothly run down our throat. The salivary glands are located underneath the back of our tongues and that’s what is creating our saliva. The saliva is the Chemical Digestion is helping soften the food in the mouth so it is easy to swallow. Also saliva is the first out of several chemicals that is breaking the food into smaller bits. The tongue is the muscle that works with the food and saliva to form something similar to balls that can be swallowed. Also tongue contains taste buds so that we know if the food is salt, sweet, sour or bitter. Esophangus is a simple transportation tube that is joining the throat with stomach. When swallowing we are closing a trap door in our throats called the epiglottis. By closing this trap we are preventing the food prom going to trachea and into our lungs. Also Food moves down the esophangus using muscles not gravity. Stomach is the first stop after the Esophangus. When the food gets into stomach the stomach uses chemicals to try to make the food smaller. These chemicals are called gastric juices and they include hydrochloric acid and enzymes. (Enzymes are

The digestive system are organs converting food into energy and basic nutrients to feed the entire body.

the mouth to the stomach and aids in pushing food and water down into the stomach. Esophageal foreign bodies are seen more often in

The food then travels through the pharynx, throat, which is a funnel-shape tube connected to the back of the mouth. It passes the food from the mouth to the esophagus. The pharynx has 2 different functions and is also apart of the respiratory system. It has a large piece of cartilage, epiglottis. When swallowing, the epiglottis folds down over the larynx. If there were no epiglottis, the food would travel through the larynx, the windpipe.

When choosing between what system to write about, I thought the digestive system would be a good topic because food is probably one of my favorite things, not only cause it tastes good but because it gives me the energy to do all the things I need to do throughout the day. We talked in class about how you should always get the nutrients from food and never from supplements, which I’ve always tried to do. So, what is the digestive system? The digestive system is an assortment of organs that performs the process of digestion. The process of digestion involves food, containing nutrients, which is eaten and broken down into different segments. The digestive system also works with additional important systems in the body such as the circulatory system and the excretory system. The circulatory system receives all the absorbed nutrients through your body, and your excretory system filters compounds from the blood stream and collects them in urine. This whole system is designed distinctively, with the ultimate goal of turning food into the energy that you need to survive. The digestive system starts with the mouth and ends with the anus. (Studios, A. R, n.d)

Oropharynx: is the middle part, behind the mouth. It includes the back one-third of the tongue, soft palate, side and back walls of the throat.

The abdominal cavity which contains the stomach, most of the large intestine, the small intestine, the gallbladder, spleen, kidney and liver. The small intestine is very important and its job is to digest food and also take nutrients from food to help give back to the body. The gallbladder is a small storage organ also needed in digestion and holds bile products produced by the liver until needed for digesting fatty foods. The kidney is also vital because it helps aid in essential processes such as regulating blood pressure. The liver is very vital and performs multiple critical functions to keep the body pure of toxins and harmful substances. Without a healthy liver, a person cannot survive. Then the pelvic cavity which will contain also portions of the large intestine, reproductive organs, and the urinary bladder. The large intestine is also known for helping during digestion by taking undigested food and absorbing as much water as it can and expels the waste. The reproductive organs play a vital role in the survival of our species. Lastly, the urinary bladder functions as a storage vessel. It is one of the most elastic organs and is able to increase its volume

The digestive system is very important in digesting food and breaking it down so it can be digested easily. The digestive system turns food into energy. Throughout the process there are nutrients which are absorbed. There are many things that contributed to the digestive system such as the mouth which produces saliva which helps to break down food and nutrients such as carbohydrates with the help of an enzyme called amylase. The major food groups which are called macro nutrients include carbohydrates, proteins and fats. All of these nutrients play an important role in the body. There are also many micro-nutrients which include vitamins and minerals which provide the body with health and well-being. The digestive system is made up of the mouth, which includes the teeth (the teeth are used to cut and grind food into smaller pieces, they contain blood vessels and nerves), tongue (the tongue is a muscle that has a rough surface including the taste buds), salvia glands (they produce salvia which moistens the food to make is easier to digest), the pharynx (this helps the food travel to the stomach, the pharynx also plays an important role in the respiratory system. It also contains 2 different flaps to separate the 2 functions), esophagus (this connects the pharynx to the stomach and transports chewed food to the stomach), stomach (this is a muscle that is

The first division is the alimentary canal which aliments one's body, through the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, large and small intestine. In these organs, food passes and is broken down where it all leads to the terminal opening. The walls of the alimentary canal all share the same four layers and each specific layer has a specific role in breaking down food. The second division are the accessory organs which consist of the pancreas, liver, salivary glands, teeth, tongue, and gallbladder. For the purpose of this paper, the gastrointestinal (stomach) tract is the organ that will be researched.

In the mouth several structures act simultaneously to start digestion and is composed of two portions. The buccal cavity, the space in front of the teeth bounded to the cheek and gums; and the oral cavity proper the space inside the teeth. The enamel covered dentin are used to chew, breaking down the food into smaller pieces. The tongue and salivary glands play a role during chewing as well. The tongue is an organ that helps to manipulate the food in the mouth. In the surface epithelium of the tongue are taste buds which allow for the identification of the chemical properties of food(sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami). The parotid gland secretes serous, sublingual gland secretes mucus and the submandibular secretes both serous and mucus. Together this solution is the saliva. The saliva contains many proteins such as DNAse, RNAse, amylase, lipase and lysozyme. These aid the tongue and teeth in manipulation of food into a bolus before the epiglottis directs it into the oropharynx.

The mouth contains a watery substance called saliva. Saliva is important to the whole process of food digestion, because not only does it help with sensing taste, but it is also made up of enzymes that break down the fats and starches in food at a molecular level. The esophagus is a tube where swallowed food travels down to the stomach. The stomach is a muscular sac that acts as a blender and mixes food with acid, hydrochloric acid, which breaks down the swallowed chum and flushes the nutrients into the small intestine (Columbia University, 2010). The hydrochloric acid in the stomach is so powerful it can eat through a leather shoe. However, the stomach contains other chemicals, such as gastric acid, mucus and enzymes that also soften food (Sullivan, 2008). The result thus far in the process of digestion in the stomach is now called chime (Sullivan, 2008). Once the stomach has done its job digesting the food, your dinner, now chime, travels to the small intestine where the final stage of digestion takes place. The remaining food is separated as either waste or nutrients. The nutrients are absorbed and taken in as fuel for the body (will explain in next paragraph) while the waste enters the large intestine and passed through the rectum and anus to leave the body. It’s fascinating to know that your dinner gets chemically broken down in your own body without you knowing it. In the digestive system each organ has a specific role that is carried out through

The human digestive system, like those of other vertebrates, is built around an alimentary canal - a one way tube that passes through the body. The function of the digestive system is to convert foods into simple molecules that can be absorbed and used by the cells of the body.

exposes more surface to the action of digestive enzymes. It is the first step in

The digestive system comprises of multiple organs like the mouth, which consists of the salivary glands, saliva, tongue and epiglottis; the Pharynx, Oesophagus, Diaphragm, Stomach, Spleen, Liver, Pancreas and the Lower gastrointestinal tract which includes the small and large intestine and the caecum. The major role of this system like it suggests is to digest food. It digests and provides nutrients to the body and passes on the waste to the excretory system to safely pass it out of the body. The Mouth breaks down the food into small components which are then accordingly absorbed and assimilated into the body. The salivary glands secrete saliva which also helps in the production of bolus which makes the task easier and it is then swallowed by the oesophagus and passed right down into the stomach. The saliva contains a catalytic enzyme called amylase which starts working on the food in the mouth itself and digestion is also helped due to the mastication of the food by the teeth and muscular contractions of the peristalsis.