The Digestive System: The Accessive System Of The Human Body

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The digestive system is the process of turning food into energy and nutrients to feed the human body. Food passes through a long tube inside the body known as the alimentary canal or the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract). The alimentary canal is made up of the oral cavity, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, small intestines, and large intestines. In addition to the alimentary canal, there are several important accessory organs that help your body to digest food. Accessory organs of the digestive system include the teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
Food begins its journey through the digestive system in the mouth, also known as the oral cavity. Inside the mouth are many accessory organs that aid in the digestion of …show more content…

the body only allows this first function to occur as the body requires a certain amount of time to digest the food that had been previously ingested.
Secretion
Throughout the day the body secretes around 7 litres of liquids a day, which include saliva mucus, hydrochloric acid and bile, the saliva would moisten the dry food, and would help to digest carbohydrates. Mucus would protect and lubricate the inside of the gastrointestinal tract. Hydrochloric acid helps to chemically break down food and would protect the body by killing bacteria. Enzymes are like tiny “machines” that are biochemical which disassemble large macromolecules like proteins, carbohydrates and lipids into their small components. Bile is used to emulsify large masses of lipids to make digestion easier.

Mixing and …show more content…

This mode of digestion begins with the chewing of food by the teeth and is continued through the muscular mixing of food by the stomach and intestines. Bile produced by the liver is also used to mechanically break fats into smaller globules. While food is being mechanically digested it is also being chemically digested as larger and more complex molecules are being broken down into smaller molecules that are easier to absorb. Chemical digestion begins in the mouth with salivary amylase in saliva splitting complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates. The enzymes and acid in the stomach continue chemical digestion, but the bulk of chemical digestion takes place in the small intestine thanks to the action of the pancreas. The pancreas secretes an incredibly strong digestive cocktail known as pancreatic juice, which is capable of digesting lipids, carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids. By the time this has completed the food has been broken down into chemical components such as fats, amino acids and

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