The Digestive System

Food provides us with fuel to live, energy to work and play, and the raw materials to build new cells. All the different varieties of food we eat are broken down by our digestive system and transported to every part of our body by our circulatory system.

Our digestive system is a 9 meter long tube. The digestive process begins in the mouth, where the teeth and tongue break up the food after it has been softened with saliva. The food is then swallowed and travels down the esophagus to the stomach.

While the food is in the stomach, it is mixed with a mild acid which breaks the food down into a paste similar to porridge. The food then passes, a little at a time, into the small intestine, which is roughly 6 meters long. Here the food is broken down even further until it is small enough to pass through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Food that cannot be digested passes into the large intestine, where the water and minerals are absorbed into the blood stream. The solid waste, the feces, is then expelled from the body through the rectum and anus.

 To see some amazing facts about the Digestive System 

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