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๐Ÿซ€ My body and food ๐Ÿฅ— Food and nutrition

The digestive system

Digestion is the process that breaks food down into simple substances the body can use. The digestive system includes all the organs and tissues involved in this process.
Digestion is the process that breaks food down into simple substances the body can use. The digestive system includes all the organs and tissues involved in this process.

๐Ÿ“– In short

The digestive system is a group of organs in your body that work together to break the food you eat into very tiny pieces that blood can carry to all your cells, giving them energy and helping them grow. It's a long tube that starts at the mouth!

๐Ÿคฉ Did you know?

  • An adult's small intestine is about 6 meters long!
  • Food takes one to three days to pass through the whole digestive system.
  • Your mouth makes a lot of saliva every day.
  • The liver is the biggest organ inside the body, and it helps digest fats.

๐Ÿ”Ž Find out more

๐ŸŒŸ In the mouth

Food's journey begins in your mouth: teeth cut and grind it, saliva wets it and starts digesting it, and the tongue moves it and pushes it to the throat. So chew your food well!

๐Ÿ” The esophagus and stomach

Food goes down a tube called the esophagus to the stomach, a muscular bag that squeezes it and mixes it with strong juices until it's like soup.

๐Ÿ’ก The small intestine

Food moves into the small intestine, a very long tube coiled up in your belly. There digestion is finished, and the useful substances pass through its wall into the blood.

๐ŸŽฏ The large intestine

What's left of the food that the body can't use goes to the large intestine, which takes the water out of it, and then it leaves the body as waste. Vegetables and fruit help the intestines work well.

๐Ÿ“ธ More pictures

The stomach grinds food and adds gastric juice, which breaks down proteins. Food leaves the stomach as a thick liquid called chyme.
The stomach grinds food and adds gastric juice, which breaks down proteins. Food leaves the stomach as a thick liquid called chyme.
Bile and pancreatic juice act on the chyme in the upper small intestine. Pancreatic juice digests proteins, fats, sugars and starches, and bile helps digest fats. Digested food is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, while the leftover part that can't be digested passes into the large intestine and leaves the body.
Bile and pancreatic juice act on the chyme in the upper small intestine. Pancreatic juice digests proteins, fats, sugars and starches, and bile helps digest fats. Digested food is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, while the leftover part that can't be digested passes into the large intestine and leaves the body.
Bile and pancreatic juice act on the chyme in the upper small intestine. Pancreatic juice digests proteins, fats, sugars and starches, and bile helps digest fats. Digested food is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, while the leftover part that can't be digested passes into the large intestine and leaves the body.
Bile and pancreatic juice act on the chyme in the upper small intestine. Pancreatic juice digests proteins, fats, sugars and starches, and bile helps digest fats. Digested food is absorbed into the bloodstream from the small intestine, while the leftover part that can't be digested passes into the large intestine and leaves the body.

๐Ÿงฉ Test yourself

1 Where does food's journey begin?

2 Where do the useful substances in food pass into the blood?

3 An adult's small intestine is about ?? meters long!

4 Which picture shows โ€œThe digestive systemโ€?

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