Digestive System

The digestive system consists of a series of hollow tubes and organs. The main parts are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. The following organs are not part of the digestive system, but they help in the process of digestion: Liver, gallbladder, pancreas, rectum, and anus. Well by now you are probably wondering what happens in each and every part of the digestive system, right? Let me tell you, starting with the mouth. This is where food is chewed and mixed with saliva. Then it is pushed down a large muscular tube known as the esophagus. The esophagus acts as a passage way for food between the mouth and the stomach. Now the food is in the stomach, where it is churned and mixed with stomach acids.

Moving on, now we are in the small intestine. The small intestine continues to break down foods while also absorbing nutrients into the blood stream. Finally, we are at our last stop in digestion, which is the large intestine. The large intestine's job is to remove any water or minerals from the food and into the blood stream. Here digestion is complete; the body has absorbed the nutrients and the waste is stored in the rectum. The waste will be released from the body by through the anus.

So now we've covered every organ in the digestive system, right? WRONG! We still have 3 parts we didn't really talk about: the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. But before we talk about that we need to introduce the enzymes. Enzymes help the digestive system by breaking down foods. Here's a fun experiment for you to do to teach you how enzymes work.

Here's what you will need

• 2 small glass jars
• 2 teaspoons
• Flour
• Sugarless soda crackers
• Sugar
• Water
• Put the soda cracker into your mouth, chew it, but do not swallow for one minute
• As you are chewing, how does it taste? It should taste pretty sweet. Remember; don't swallow until one minute has passed. When the cracker mixes with the saliva it converts the starch of the cracker into sugar. Then you will ask yourself, why does the body need to convert starch to sugar? Well, because sugar is easier to be absorbed into the blood stream. Here is why.
• Take your 2 jars and fill them up halfway with water.
• Take 1 teaspoon of sugar, put in one of the jars, and mix it for one minute. Then, take your other jar and put 1 teaspoon of starch into the jar. Mix it for one minute.
• Compare the two which jars which you just mixed. Which one has dissolved more? If you have done the experiment correctly it should have been the one with the sugar.
  
  

Do you know why the saliva converts the starch into sugar? Because hiding in the saliva is an enzyme known as amylase. Enzymes like amylase help the digestive system by braking down foods. There are a lot of types of enzymes. Our body produces more than 20 enzymes.

We are caught up with the mouth let's look at the stomach. Our stomach contains a digestive enzyme called pepsin, which helps the stomach to break down proteins.
Next in our list is the small intestine, which has two enzymes, called lactase and maltase. Their job is to further break down starches into sugar.

The liver produces bile. Bile is a digestive juice, which breaks down fats. Next up is the gallbladder. The gallbladder serves as a storage place for bile and secretes it into the small intestine. Even though it is small, it certainly does play a very important role. Now we are at the pancreas the pancreas creates pancreatic juices which help the small intestine digest food.