Mouth Food goes in mouth, chewing and saliva break
the food into pieces and make it easier to digest.
Oesophagus Food then goes to oesphagus, which is a muscular tube from the throat to stomach. It uses a bunch of contractions, called peristalsis, to pass food to the stomach. The lower oesophageal sphincter, a valve, opens to let food through into the stomach, then closes aftwewards to keep the food from going back into the oesophagus. Stomach The stomach continues breaking food down through acid and enzymes. The stomach has a defence system that prevents the stomach juices from damaging it. The food is like a liquid or a paste when it leaves the stomach for the small intestine. The small intestine Food is continued to be broken down using enzymes released by pancreas and bile that comes from the liver. The small intestine is made up of three parts: duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The duodenum continues the process of breaking down the food, while the jejunum and ileum are responsible for absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream. Food is moved through and mixed up with digestive juices by contractions. Pancreas The oblong pancreas secretes enzymes to the small intestine, which break down protein, fat, and carbohydrates from what we eat. Liver The liver does many things. The main two functions are to make and secrete bile and to purify and clean blood coming from the small intestine. Gallbladder The pear shaped gallbladder is a reservoir of bile that is under the liver. Bile produced in the liver travels through a channel called the cystic duct into the
gallbladder. When you eat, the gallbladder contracts
and sends bile to the small intestine. Large intestine The remains of your food is given to the large intestine (also known as the colon) after nutrients are absorbed and all leftover liquid has passed through the small intestine. The large intestine is a 1.5 to 2 metre long muscular tube that connects the first part of the large intestine (the cecum) to the last part (the rectum). The cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon and the sigmoid colon make up the large intestine. Stool is waste left over from the digestive process, and is mostly food debris and bacteria. Contractions pass the stool through the colon. It usually takes around 36 hours for stool to get through the large intestine. It is originally liquid, but it becomes solid as water is removed from the stool. Stool is stored in the sigmoid colon, until it is emptied once or twice a day into the rectum by a mass movement. The descending colon empties stool into the rectum when it becomes full. Rectum The rectum is an 8 inch chamber that connects the large intestine to the anus. The rectum receives stool from the intestine, to inform you about stool that needs evacuating and to hold it in until it is released. The rectum has sensors that send a message to the brain when anything comes into it. Contents inside the rectum can be released if the brain decides that it can. If the brain approves, the muscles (sphincters) relax and the rectum contracts, releasing the contents. If they cannot be released, the sphincters contract so that the feeling goes away temporarily.
Anus The last part of the digestive system is the anus.
It is made up of pelvic floor muscles and two internal and external muscles (sphincters). The upper anus is specially lined to detect rectal contents and inform us whether the contents are liquid, solid or gas. An angle is created by the pelvic floor muscle between the anus and the rectum that stops stool coming out when it isnt supposed to. The internal sphincter stops us from releasing contents when we are unaware of the stool or when we are sleeping. The external sphincter keeps the stool in when we need to release until we can get to the toilet. References http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/your-digestive-system http://www.innerbody.com/anatomy/digestive/cystic-duct