Prepared by: Naz Tariq

The digestive system

Digestive system: the organs that break down food so that it can be used by the body.
• Digestive system is a series of tube-like organs called the digestive tract.
• The digestive tract includes mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach,
small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anus.

Breaking down food

Digestion: is the process of breaking down food.

Two types of digestion:

1. Mechanical digestion: breaking, crushing, and mashing of food.
2. Chemical digestion: large molecules broken down into nutrients.

Nutrients: are substances in food that the body needs for normal growth. Maintenance, and
repair.
Three major types of nutrients – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.
◦ Enzymes: are substances break some nutrients into smaller particles that the body can use.
◦ Proteins are chains of smaller molecules called amino acids.

Digestion begins in the mouth

Teeth
◦ Teeth are very important organ for mechanical digestion.
◦ The outermost layer of a tooth, the enamel, is the hardest material of the body.
◦ Enamel protects nerves and soften material inside the tooth.
 The different kinds of teeth:
1. Molars ͢ for grinding food.
2. Premolars ͢ mashing food.
3. Incisors and canines ͢ for shredding food.

Digestion begins in the mouth

Saliva
◦ Saliva is made in salivary glands located in mouth.
◦ Saliva contain an enzyme changes complex carbohydrate into simpler sugars.

Digestion begins in the mouth

leaving the mouth
◦ Esophagus: a long straight tube that connects the pharynx to the stomach.
◦ The esophagus squeezes the mass of food with rhythmic muscle contractions called peristalsis.
◦ Peristalsis forces the food into the stomach

Stomach and digestion

◦ Stomach: the saclike, digestive organ between the esophagus and the small intestine that breaks
down food into a liquid by the action of muscles, enzymes, and acids.
◦ Stomach acid also kills most bacteria that you might swallow with your food.
◦ The food is reduced to a soupy mixture called chyme.
◦ Leaving the stomach
◦ Valve keeps food in the stomach until the food has been mixed with digestive fluids.

Valve
 The pancreas and small intestine
◦ Proteins, carbohydrate, and fats in the chyme are digested by the small intestine and fluids from
pancreas.

The pancreas
- Is an oval organ located between the stomach and small intestine.
- The organ that lies behinds the stomach and that makes digestive enzymes and regulate body
sugar levels.
 Pancreas function:
1. Pancreatic fluid contain enzymes that digest chyme and contains bicarbonate, which neutralize
the acid in the chyme.
2. Make hormones that regulate blood sugar.

Small intestine
• Is the organ between the stomach and large intestine where most of the breakdown food
happens and most of the nutrients from food are absorbed.
• The inside wall of the small intestine is covered with fingerlike projections called villi.
• The villi are covered with tiny
nutrient-absorbing cells.

Liver
◦ Is the largest organ in the body; this reddish brown organ makes bile, stores and filters blood,
and stores excess sugar as glycogen.
 Liver function:
1. It makes bile to break up fat.
2. It stores nutrients.
3. It breaks down toxins.
 Breaking up fats
◦ Gallbladder: a sac-shaped organ that stores bile produced by the liver.
 Bile breaks large fat droplets into very small droplets.

Storing nutrients and protecting the body

 The liver produces enzymes that break down many other drugs.

The large intestine

 Is the organ of the digestive that stores, compacts, and then eliminate indigestible material from
the body.
 The wider and shorter portion of the intestine that removes water from mostly digested food and
that turns the waste into semisolid stool.
• Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables contain a carbohydrate called cellulose. We refer this
material as fiber.
• Fiber keeps the stool soft and keep material moving through the large intestine.

Leaving the body

◦ The rectum is the last part of the large intestine.
◦ The rectum stores feces.
◦ Feces pass to the outside of the body through an opening called anus.