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What
is digestion?
Digestion
is a process that breaks down food into small pieces so that the body can
absorb the nutrients from the food.
Digestion takes places in what is called the Gastrointestinal tract, or more commonly called the GI tract. This includes the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Those are the main organs, but the GI tract also needs salivary glands, the pancreas, and liver to add secretions to the food for easier digestion.
There are three basic steps for digestion
1.
Food is broken into pulp
2.
Break into smaller and smaller molecules with the help of chemicals - starches
break down into simple sugars and proteins break into amino acids.
3.
Molecules are absorbed and passed into the bloodstream to distribute the
nutrients.