Digestive System

Digestive system is the process of reducing food to smaller molecules that can absorb into the body.

These are the main function of digestive system:

a. to break up big pieces of food into tiny pieces.
b. to break the tiny particles of food into molecules that will dissolve in the body tube fluids and pass through the cell walls to be used by the cells.

The two (2) stages of Digestive:

a. Mechanical Digestion - process by which food is acted upon physically.

- mechanical means that you tear, bite, cut, grind and mash large bits of food into a fine mixture.
- done by teeth, tongue through the constructions of stomach & movements of the intestine.

b. Chemical Digestion - process where in food is broken down into simpler molecules and absorbed by body.

*The Digestive tract or food tube consist of *

1. mouth
2. esophagus
3. stomach
4. small intestine
5. large intestine