Mouth-The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract; and, in fact, digestion starts here when taking the first bite of food. Chewing breaks the food into pieces that are more easily digested, while saliva mixes with food to begin the process of breaking it down into a form your body can absorb and use. Oesophagus-Located in your throat near your trachea (windpipe), the oesophagus receives food from your mouth when you swallow. By means of a series of muscular contractions called peristalsis, the oesophagus delivers food to your stomach. Stomach-The stomach is a hollow organ, or "container," that holds food while it is being mixed with enzymes that continue the process of breaking down food into a usable form.
Instead, the acids work to break down the food for easier digestion in the intestines. As the food is broken down to a thick paste-like substance known as chyme, it moves past the pyloric sphincter and into the small intestine. The first section of the small intestine, the duodenum, secretes digestive enzymes like amylase, maltase, sucrase, lactase, lipase and pepsin, to break down the chyme into even smaller parts that the body can then convert into usable energy. Some other organs that secrete chemicals to aid in the digestion process include the pancreas, liver, and gall bladder. The pancreas secretes trypsin and chymotripsin.
The small intestine is the principal site of digestion and absorption. Enzymes from the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, and the small intestine itself combine to break down nutrients so that they can be absorbed. The pancreas supplies enzymes to digest proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The live produces bile required for emulsification of fat, and the gallbladder stores the bile until it is needed. The absorption of nutrients in the small intestine is facilitated by tiny projections called villi, which provide more surface area for absorption.
This then increases the surface area of the food making it easier for enzymes to digest it. The mouth produces a digestive juice, which makes it easier for the food to be digested, called saliva which contains the enzyme salivary amylase and this comes from the salivary gland. This enzyme begins the digestion of carbohydrates in the food by breaking down starch, from the bread, into maltase. This process is chemical digestion. After this the food is taken down a long tube, called the oesophagus, which takes the food from the mouth to the stomach.
It coats the chewed food and transforms it into what is called a bolus. An enzyme called amylase found in the saliva breaks down the carbohydrates in the bolus into simpler sugars. By breaking down the food, the bolus becomes mushy, slippery and easy to swallow. The tongue also plays a big role in helping digest food in the mouth. It helps taste, transport and swallow food.
CheckPoint: Human Digestion I am describing, the path food follows through the digestive system and how digestion occurs in each of the following parts of the digestive system. I am including in the description of other organs or components of the digestive system, including: * Large intestine * Mouth * Small intestine * Stomach After the food enters the mouth and after being moistens and chewed by the teeth, the food then converts into a Bolus. Bolus as mentioned refers to the softened mass of munched on food that passes through the digestive system. The bolus then exits the mouth and progresses into the pharynx. The bolus then moves down into the esophagus, which follows to the stomach.
2.2 What happens in the cephalic stage? Firstly, food is taken into the mouth and then broken down into smaller pieces by ‘mechanical digestion’ (or the using the teeth to break down food). Saliva in the mouth is produced due to the neural reponses which come about from the stimulus of the eyes, head, smell etc. An enzyme in the saliva called amylase begins the chemical digestion by breaking down ‘complex carbohydrates into simple sugars’. When the food is ready to be swallowed, the food is now called a soft mass called a ‘bolus’.
The mouth receives food and begins digestion by mechanically reducing the size of the solid particles and mixing them with saliva. Pharynx – The pharynx is in both the respiratory system and digestive system. The pharynx is a muscular tube, at the back of your throat when the nose and mouth join. This serves as a passageway for food and air. The tube being so muscular helps an individual with swallowing.
Once the cobbler enters the mouth, teeth start chopping the food up while the tongue is incorporating it with the saliva from the salivary glands, this converts into a ball of food, called Bolus. The tongue advances the Bolus into the Pharynx, which is responsible for swallowing, through the esophagus. The bolus passes through a sphincter into the stomach. Upon entering the stomach it mixes with an acidy secretion known as Chyme. Some digestion takes place in the stomach few exceptions; the Chyme empties from the stomach into the small intestine within two thru six hours dependent upon the size of the meal (Grosvenor & Smolin, 2006).
Digestion of carbohydrates begins in the mouth as mentioned earlier with the enzyme amylase which is present in the saliva. This breaks the carbohydrates into their simpler subunits (saccharide forms). In the stomach, the carbohydrates are converted into chyme with the peristaltic action of the stomach. Next, the chyme will pass into the duodenum. At the introduction to the duodenum, alpha amylase is secreted by the pancreas and further breaks down the carbohydrates into primary simple sugars.