Your Digestive System and How it Works

	What is the Digestive System
	Why is Digestion Important
	How is Food Digested

What is the Digestive System

The digestive system is comprised of the digestive tract, a series of tube-like organs combined into a tube, stretching from the mouth to the rectum. These organs help the body to break down and ingest food.

These organs include:

• The mouth
• The Esophagus
• The Stomach
• The Small Intestine
• The Large Intestine (also called the Colon)
• The Rectum and the Anus

These organs are lined with a substance called Mucosa, which produces digestive juices. The digestive tract also includes a layer of muscle what aids in breaking food down and keeping ingested food moving in the tract.

Two other digestive organs, the Liver and Pancreas, also produce digestive juices that feed into the intestines. These digestive juices are stored in the Gallbladder.

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Why is Digestion Important

When food such as bread, meat or vegetables are ingested, they are not in a form which can be used by the body as nourishment. Before ingested food can be used by the body, it must be broken down into smaller nutrient molecules, able to be absorbed into the body’s bloodstream. This process is called Digestion. Depending on the food types ingested, digesting these foods takes varying amounts of time. Carbohydrates for example are quite straightforward for the digestive system to breakdown and extract the nutrients, so carbohydrates spend the least time in the stomach. Proteins require more processing and spend more time in the system, and Fats require the most processing and spend the most time in the Digestive System.

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How is Food Digested

The process of Digestion involves combining ingested food with digestive juices. This combination is then moved through the digestive tract, breaking the food molecules into molecules small enough to be used by the body.

The tube-like organs of the Digestive Tract have the ability to move ingested food through the system, whilst at the same time mixing the food in each organ of the system.

This movement starts when food is swallowed. Swallowing begins by choice, but once the action is underway it becomes involuntary.

Any food swallowed makes its way into the esophagus, a connection between the throat and the stomach. As food approaches, a valve (called the Pyloric Valve) relaxes, allowing this food to enter the stomach.

The stomach performs three main tasks. First, it stores ingested food, second it mixes this ingested food with the digestive juices it produces and third it slowly empties its contents into the small intestine.

Emptying the contents of the stomach are affected by several factors, including the kind of food ingested. Carbohydrates are easy to mix and spend the least amount of time in the stomach, while fats take longer to mix and stay in the stomach longer. As the food mixes with the pancreas, liver and intestinal juices, it passes through the intestine allowing further digestion.

Finally, the digested nutrients pass through the intestinal walls and are transported everywhere in the body.

The waste product of this digestive process is pushed into the colon where it remains until expelled in the form of feces.

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