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.
