How Does the Digestive System Work?

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The Digestive System works by moving food and water from your mouth to your rectum. It
breaks down the food, takes what the body needs, like fats, proteins, carbs and vitamins,
absorb the water, then creates waste to dispose of.

The first part of the digestive system brings the food from the mouth to the stomach.
While chewing food in your mouth, saliva, which contains enzymes, will mix in with the food.
Once you’ve swallowed the food or water it will go down through the esophagus to the
stomach. Food only takes 7 seconds to go down the esophagus. The food will then land in
the stomach and stay there for 2-5 hours. In the stomach the gastric juices (which are made
up of acids, enzymes, mucus and other substances) will break down the food.

From the stomach the food substance will be directly moved into the small intestine. Here is
where 90% of absorption and digestion occurs. The small intestine absorbs all the nutrients,
vitamins and minerals from the food. It then stores all of this to give your body energy. With
the help of the pancreas providing enzymes, the small intestine adds bile to help dissolve and
break down fat. The big fat droplets turn into smaller droplets, which are easier to be made
into waste. Although the small intestine is thinner than the large intestine, it is actually the
longest section of your digestive tube. The average length of a teenager’s small intestine
is 7 metres. That’s almost four and a half times the height of the average teenager!

From the small intestine the food directly moves into the large intestine. Despite its
name, the large intestine is on average 1.5 metres long. The large intestine absorbs all the
water from the food to create a hard texture of waste to dispose of. This is the final part of the
digestive system before the food waste leaves the body through the rectum.

The Digestive System is made to move food from your mouth to the rectum. By breaking
down food, adding enzymes and other substances, absorbing water then disposing of excess.