The Digestive System Primary Functions

Do we ever really consider what happens to the food we eat, how it fuels the body and keeps us alive?

Here is a simple overview of what happens to our food after we eat it.

Digestion starts in the mouth with chewing, then when it reaches your stomach, gastric juices containing HCI and pancreatic enzymes, bile and enterocyte enzymes come into action, also hormones are released e.g. Ghrelin/Gastrin, telling your body when you are hungry and when you are full.

Absorption of this food happens mainly in the small intestine, where brush border enzymes lactase, sucrase and maltase breakdown sugars (into glucose/fructose etc) and dipeptidase breaks down proteins into amino acids. It then all enters the blood and lymph for the body to use to function, e.g. to go to the muscles so we can move, to the immune system so we can fight of invaders like viruses and bacteria, and to our vital organs like lungs to breath and to help eliminate toxins via the work of the liver and kidneys.

Waste is excreted via the intestines as faeces, but also in urine and via the skin.