GLORIOUS FIRST TREASURES ACADEMYEvery day, we eat delicious food like yam, rice, and beans to get energy. However, our bodies cannot use this food in its solid form. It must be broken down into tiny, liquid parts that our blood can carry.
This process of breaking down food into simpler forms that the body can absorb is called digestion. The group of organs that work together to perform this task is called the digestive system.
Let us trace the wonderful journey a mouthful of food takes through our body:
This is where digestion begins. Our teeth chew and grind the solid food into smaller pieces. A liquid in our mouth called saliva (spit) mixes with the food to make it soft, wet, and easy to swallow.
Once we swallow, the food travels down a long, muscular tube called the gullet. The gullet squeezes the food gently to push it down into the stomach.
The stomach is a stretchy, muscular bag. It acts like a blender, churning and mixing the food with strong digestive juices and acids. This turns the food into a thick, watery soup.
This is a very long, coiled tube. Here, the food is broken down completely. The useful parts of the food (nutrients) pass through the walls of the small intestine and enter our bloodstream. The blood then carries these nutrients to all parts of our body to give us energy and health.
Not all food can be digested. The watery waste that is left moves into the large intestine. Here, the body absorbs water from the waste, making it solid.
The solid waste (feces or "poo") is stored until it leaves the body through an opening called the anus when we use the toilet.
Without digestion, our bodies would starve even if we ate a lot of food. Digestion is important because it:
To keep our digestive system working perfectly, we should:
Section A: Multiple Choice
Section B: Short Answer