Digestion Essay

Digestion
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DIGESTION
The stomach and the small intestines are highly adapted to food digestion (Bbc.co.uk, 2015). Their adaptions are largely attributed to the physical characteristics and the physiological aspects at the cellular level of the two organs. The stomach receives foods that have been reduced to smaller particles from the mouth and partly digested from the enzymes contained in the saliva. The stomach assumes the shape of the letter J, such that, part of the lower section of the organ is dipping (Laparoscopic.md, 2015). The entire organ is muscular on the walls, which can expand and help with the food mixing called churning to produce chime (Laparoscopic.md, 2015). This state of the food helps with further digestion. Due to the shape, the food may take some several hours before it can finally go the small intestines (Laparoscopic.md, 2015). The cardia part of the stomach produces the digestive juices from the parietal cells such as, the hydrochloric acid which helps with stopping the action of the saliva enzymes, kills microbes, prepares the food for ionic digestion down the tract and provides the right pH for pepsin. Pepsin enzymes help with partial digestion of some of the proteins.
After the temporal storage of the food as it is being liquefied and partially digested it is passed along to the small intestines though the pyloric canal. The small intestines are long ensuring the food takes up to 8 ho...