The Digestive System

I am a piece of a sandwich. I am filled with double bacon, cheese, lettuce, and tomato from Subway. When I enter the mouth, my journey into the human’s body begins. This is what people called Human Digestive System. The Digestive process goes as follows:

1. Into the Mouth. First I get bit inch by inch - ouch!!! It hurts. Just after I catch my breath, I can see the salivary glands on the right side of me. Oooh, I need to make sure I can get enough drops of saliva on me. During the chewing process, I was shredded into smaller pieces. But, the salivary enzymes produced by salivary glands help to soften me and break down the starch in me.

2. Into the stomach. After being chewed, the tongue pushed me to the back of the throat, where then I was swallowed into the Esophagus. Esophagus is a muscular tube connected from the throat to the stomach. This muscle is so strong that even when the person who eats me is in an upside down position, I still would be forced to enter into the stomach. The stomach is kind of dark, but this is where I collect acid and pepsin. The acid is useful because it breaks me down. And the pepsin is helpful to break down the protein in me into amino acids.

3. Into the small but twisty intestine. From this then the stomach pumps me little by little into the small intestine. This intestine may be called small, but actually it is so twisty and twice as long as the large intestine! It is named small because the diameter is a lot smaller than the large intestine. It is very bumpy and crowded there – if you think you can’t breath and feel so crunched when you’re inside an elevator full of adults, you should come inside here! Here I meet bile and enzymes that separate the good chemicals from the waste materials in me. After that, the millions of fingers inside this small intestine called villi will absorb all of the good chemicals which are needed by the human body. At this point, I have to say goodbye to those good chemicals for good.

4. Into the large intestine. The rest of me, which is just the waste materials, is then moved into the large intestine. Now I have a new name, called feces, which contains of water, undigested food, and bacteria. There I collect the stuff that is similar with what you find in Yakult drink. I need them for clearing out all of the bad bacteria in me. The body then absorbs most of the water part in me that I become more solid. From here on, I just cruise along the colon in the large intestine. It is actually still a long way to go. Sometimes I have to travel 24 hours before I reach to the next process.

5. Into the rectum and out through the anus. After all that fun ride, at last I can enter into the rectum and then.... plop! Out I go through the anus. What a journey!

Information from:

1. Encyclopedia Britannica (2006), Encyclopedia Britannica.Inc, http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BART%3Boooo221832. Accessed on Aug. 28, 2007.

2. Picture: The Human Large Intestine, 2007, http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/picture?picurn=urn:sirs:US;IMAGE;GIF;0000091395&urn=urn:sirs:US;ARTICLE;ART;0000221832. Accessed on Aug. 29, 2007.

3. The World Encyclopedia, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, World Book. Inc, page 175.

4. A Journey Through the Digestive System- submitted by Vorge, http://www.ugoplayer.com/games/digestivesystem.html. Accessed on Aug. 30, 2007.

5. Human Digestive System, http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/digestive. Accessed on Sept. 2, 2007.

6. Digestive System, http://www.innerbody.com/image/digeov.html. Accessed on Sept. 2, 2007.

7. Traveling Food, http://library.thinkquest.org/5777/dig3.htm. Accessed on Sept. 2, 2007.