The Digestive System
My Tummy's Growling
The Digestive System is composed into four parts:
- Ingestion: the act of eating
- Digestion: the process of breaking food down into molecules small enough for the body to absorb
- Absorption: process of cells taking up small molecules such as amino acids & simple sugars from the digestive compartment
- Elimination: occurs when undigested materials pass out of the digestive compartment
Why is the Digestive System Important?
- If we did not have a digestive system, our body would not be able to break down the food we eat, & our body would not absorb the needed minerals to survive as a result. The digestive system is now considered, after millions of years of change, an evolutionary success.
FUN FACTS!
1) We produce 1-3 PINTS of saliva everyday
2. The small intestine can be about 22 feet long
3: A full grown horse's intestine is 89 feet long
In the digestive system, a common occurence is heartburn. Symptoms for this include diarrhea, stomach pains, adn gas. Another disorcer is colon cancer. There is a 1 in 20 chance that a person will develop color cancer in their lifetime.