A meal taken apart in steps
Chew a piece of rice for a while. It starts to taste a little sweet.
- The alimentary canal: one long tube.
- Mouth: chewing starts, and starch digestion begins.
- Oesophagus: pushes the food down.
- Stomach: acid and juice start on protein.
- Small intestine: most digestion finishes here.
- Large intestine: takes back extra water.
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Read each job. Tap the part of the canal.
The rule
Food moves through one long tube, the alimentary canal. Enzymes are the chemicals that break food into smaller molecules.
Food is broken down step by step along the alimentary canal. Enzymes do the breaking down. Digested food is absorbed in the small intestine. Absorbed means taken from the gut into the body.
Saliva is the liquid in your mouth. It has salivary amylase. It changes starch into sugar. Rice is rich in starch. So chewed rice tastes sweet. The stomach adds acid and pepsin, which breaks down protein. The acid is hydrochloric acid. Pepsin works best when the stomach liquid is acid. Mucus, a slippery liquid, protects the stomach wall from the acid.
In the small intestine, bile from the liver splits fat into globules. Globules are tiny drops. Pancreatic juice and intestinal juice finish digesting the food.
The inner wall has finger-like villi. They give a large surface to absorb food. So more food is absorbed at once. The large intestine takes back water.