The Stomach and Intestines in Your Body

The Stomach and Intestines in Your Body — page 1 — AN ENERGY MACHINE Animals need food for energy and growth To use the food they eat they must change it into a form that the body can use This process is called digestion All of the parts of the body that help with digestion make up the digestive system In humans the digestive system includes the mouth the esophagus the stomach and the small and large intestines The liver and the pancreas also Kids need a healthy and balanced diet to provide the nutrition their body needs to grow 4

The Stomach and Intestines in Your Body — page 2 — help in digestion The hardest working digestive organs are the stomach and intestines Think of them as the machine that reﬁnes and pumps the fuel that provides us with energy Our digestive system turns food from plants and animals into the energy we need to live an active life 5 Your brain makes up less than 2 percent of your weight but uses up almost 20 percent of all the energy you consume How does your diet affect your brain THINK ABOUT IT

The Stomach and Intestines in Your Body — page 3 — THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM Digestion begins in the mouth There teeth chew food into smaller pieces When a person swallows food it passes through the throat into the esophagus The esophagus is a tube that connects to the stomach The walls of the esophagus move in waves to push the food down to The food we eat is broken down into chemicals that our body can use 6

The Stomach and Intestines in Your Body — page 4 — the stomach The walls of the stomach produce substances that help break down the chewed food into chyme From the stomach the chyme is pushed into the small intestine There digestive ﬂuids turn the chyme into chemicals that the body can use Leftover material enters the large intestine which removes water and salts and creates solid waste that will pass out of the body Chyme is a thick mixture made in the stomach after chewing and stomach action has processed our food Digestion begins when food moves from the mouth through the pharynx to the esophagus 7

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