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•Digestion: What Happens to Food After You Eat It?
As seen on BCTV April 11/00
It seems logical to me that if you know where the food goes after you eat it, you may be more aware of what you eat in the first place.
So, here’s how your digestive system works…
Since your body can’t use food in it’s natural state, once you put your fork down your body begins an 8-hour process of mechanical and chemical digestion.
The process begins in the mouth where food is chewed and broken down into smaller pieces. From there, it moves down your 10 inch esophagus to the stomach where food is held, churned and broken down. Ideally, your stomach prefers no more than about 2 to 3 cups of solid food at a time.
From the stomach, food passes through roughly 22 feet of small intestines including the duodenum, jejunum and ileum. Here digestive juices from the gallbladder and pancreas break food into small particles. Many particles are filtered out by finger-like villi which line the small intestine walls. The gallbladder, pancreas and liver all play important roles in digestion at this point. The gallbladder, which lies under the liver stores and concentrates bile used in the digestion of fats. The pancreas contains enzymes which act on all types of food and secretes the hormone insulin which is involved in the breakdown of sugar. The liver, which luckily is among the body’s most resilient organs has several functions: It secretes bile to digest fat, it stores sugar, detoxifies poisons, assists in making antibodies against disease, takes and store iron from worn out blood cells and is involved in the breakdown and storage of vitamins.
From the small intestine, food enters the large intestine or colon that is a holding area where water is removed. The large intestine has a smooth lining and glands that secrete mucous which helps to form undigested food into feces. This waste then leaves the body through the anus.
In a normal meal, first to be digested is alcohol via the liver. Liquids follow and next solid food in the order of carbohydrates, protein and fats. Fats are left to last because they are the most complex to breakdown. A huge meal would take about 2 hours to be digested in the stomach and another 4 to 6 hours for absorption to take place in the intestines.
Watch for the Eating for Energy segment every Tuesday on BCTV’s Noon News Hour!
Article written by Patricia Chuey and reprinted with permission