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Digestive System

Digestive System Digestion is the process by which food is changed into substances that can be absorbed and used by the body. So in other words, it is what your body does with the food you eat. Did you realize that it takes your mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, gallbladder, pancreas and liver just to digest your glass of milk?

Sample the following internet sites and complete the activities for each one to learn more about your digestive system.

Digestive System Facts

When you take a bite of food, your mouth immediately begins the process of digestion.

  1. About how much food does the average male eat in their lifetime?

 

What is Spit?

An assembly line puts things together. Our digestive system is like a disassembly line--it takes food apart and breaks it down into parts that our bodies can use.

  1. How much saliva (spit) do you produce in a day?
  2. What is saliva made up of?

 

KidsHealth

All the different tastes that you experience from every kind of food are combinations of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. These are the only 4 types of taste that your taste buds can distinguish.

  1. What is a bolus?

 

The Epiglottis

If food is very cold or very hot, your mouth warms or cools it until it is nearer body temperature which makes it safer to swallow.

  1. What does your epiglottis do?

 

Esophagus

In an adult, the esophagus is about 10 inches long.

  1. What is peristalsis?
  2. What is heartburn?

 

The Digestive System

Animals get their energy from the food that they eat. Plants get their energy from the sun in the process called photosynthesis.

  1. What does food do for us?

 

Yuckiest Site on the Internet

  1. Why does your stomach gurgle?

 

Yuckiest Site on the Internet

  1. What is vomit?
  2. Why do we vomit?
  3. How do we vomit?
  4. Why is vomit green?

 

Pancreas

The pancreas produces insulin which helps to control the amount of sugar (glucose) in the blood. If the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or if the body cannot use insulin properly, the body cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood. This condition is called diabetes.

  1. The pancreas does not actually digest any of the foods that you eat, but makes most of the enzymes that do. Where does it send the enzymes?

 

Liver

About 1.5 quarts of blood flow through the liver every minute.

  1. The liver makes bile. Why is bile important?

 

Small Intestine

Your small intestine has millions of small fingerlike structures called villi. Each villi is covered with even smaller fingerlike structures called microvilli. These structures increase the surface area of the small intestine. The surface area is increased by about 600 times over what it would be if the lining of the small intestines was flat.

  1. What are the 3 parts of the small intestine?
  2. How long is the small intestine?
  3. How long can it take food to travel through the small intestine?

 

Large Intestine

Water makes up about 3/5 of the weight of feces. Without the water feces are composed of about 1/3 undigested parts of food like fiber, 1/3 dead bacteria, and 1/3 unwanted mineral salts, mucus, bile contents, and little rubbed-off bits of intestinal lining.

  1. Where is the cecum? What hangs off of the end of the cecum? What is the function of the cecum? Go to The Human Digestive System and select large intestine from the pulldown menu to see a good illustration of where the cecum is.
  2. What does the colon do?
  3. What does the rectum do?

 

Why do we Poop?

If feces do not move quickly enough through the large intestine, then more water than usual is removed from the feces. This makes the feces harder than usual, and it may be difficult to expel the feces through the anus. This is called constipation. Diarrhea is just the opposite. Feces move too quickly through the large intestine and not enough water is removed.

  1. Answer the 4 important questions at this site: Why do we poop?
  2. What is poop made of?
  3. Why does poop smell?
  4. How much do I poop?

 

The Real Deal on the Digestive System

The liver regulates the levels of vitamins and minerals in the blood by storing them until they are needed.

  1. When you swallow, what keeps food from going down your windpipe?
  2. What letter is your stomach shaped like?
  3. What might make a person throw up? In other words, why would a stomach empty out its contents?
  4. About how big around and long is the small intestine?
  5. List the important functions of your liver.
  6. About how big around and long is your large intestine?
  7. What does the amount of time that feces stay in the large intesting depend on?
  8. From the picture on this page, what is the normal final resting place for feces?
  9. What can you do to keep your digestive system in good shape?

 

Why do I Burp?

Every time you eat a meal, you swallow about 9/10ths of a pint of air.

  1. Explain what a burp is.
  2. Explain what a fart is. (You know, a normal part of the digestive system).

 

Bibliography

Ballard, Carol. The Stomach and Digestive System. Raintree Steck-Vaughn : Austin, Texas, 1997.

Cromwell, Sharon. Why Does My Tummy Rumble When I'm Hungry? Rigby : Crystal Lake, Illinois. 1998.

Parker, Steve. Digestion. Copper Beech Books : Brookfield, Connecticut, 1996.

Parker, Steve. Food and Digestion. Franklin Watts : New York, 1990.

Patten, Barbara. Digestion : Food at Work. Rourke : Vero Beach, Florida, 1996.

Royston, Angela. Eating and Digestion. Rigby : Crystal Lake, Illinois, 1997.

Image is copyrighted by ArtToday. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Author: LINDA MOSBACKER - Email linda.mosbacker@slc.k12.ut.us