What is the Digestive System?

The digestive system is a system in the body with different organs working together to convert the food you eat into energy and nutrients for the body. The digestive system is used by most of the animals in the animal kingdom, including humans. This blog is about the human digestive system.

Steps of the Digestive System

The Mouth

The first part of the digestive system is the mouth. Teeth grind and cut food into smaller pieces so it is easier to digest. The tongue is an extremely rough and strong muscle that pushes grinded food towards the throat so that the mouth can swallow it. There are also three salivary glands in the mouth. These organs produce saliva. Saliva is used to moisten food, and also ensures that food does not go down the throat too roughly.

The Throat

The grinded up food then goes down the throat. The throat, also called the pharynx, is a tube in our body that connects the end of the mouth and the esophagus. The throat delivers the food to the esophagus. The throat is also used to transport air into the lungs. Because of its two jobs. The throat has a flap of tissue that opens and closes; the epiglottis. The Epiglottis ensures that air goes into the lungs instead of the esophagus, and that food does not go into the lungs.

The Esophagus

The esophagus is another muscular tube that connects the throat to part of the stomach. Food travels through the esophagus and reaches the cardiac sphincter, which closes the end of the esophagus and traps food in the stomach.

The Stomach

The stomach is a muscular organ in the shape of a sac or bag. The stomach stores the food so that the body has time to digest it properly. The stomach also contains digestive juices and acids that digest the food.

The Small Intestine

The food next goes into the small intestine, which is right under the stomach. The small intestine is a tube-like organ that is folded and bent in many places. These folds help even more with the digestion of food and with the extraction of nutrients from the food. Those nutrients are then released to the rest of the body. The food also mixes with other digestive juices from the liver and pancreas while in the small intestine, increasing the digestion of the food. The small intestine is also an extremely long organ so that food has a lot of time to digest.

The Large Intestine

After leaving the small intestine, the food, with no nutrients left for the body to use, enters the large intestine. The large intestine, which is a large tube located under the stomach and next to the small intestine, absorbs water and minerals from the waste with the help of harmless bacteria in the food. The leftover waste is then released from the body.