Dedicated to Kids who want to learn more about the Digestive System. 

Have you ever wondered where your food goes after you eat it? 

When you eat food, it travels through different parts of your body: your mouth, epiglottis, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, liver, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anus. The Digestive System uses these parts of your body to break down the food you eat for your body to make energy! 

What is the Digestive System?

To learn more about the Digestive System, our friend, Pepperoni Toni, has volunteered to take us through the process our bodies go through every time we eat or drink.

The Mouth & Tounge

The first part of the Digestive System happens in your mouth. When you chew on your food, you are mechanically digesting your food by physically turning it into tiny pieces. Salivary glands are located in your mouth and are activated whenever you see or smell delicious food!

Your tongue helps the digestive process by pushing the food around in your mouth while you chew on it with your teeth, creating something called a bolus (say: BO-luss). When you are ready to swallow, the tongue pushes a tiny bit of the bolus back towards your throat and into your esophagus.

The Epiglottis

Your food is allowed to enter your pharynx, through a small flap that covers your windpipe, called the epiglottis (say: eh - puh - glaa- tuhs). The epiglottis has an important job of making sure that food doesn't enter your windpipe and make you choke. 

The Pharynx (Throat)

After your food enters your epiglottis, it is then passed to your pharynx or throat (say: feh-ruhngks). 

The Esophagus 

From your pharynx, your food then enters your esophagus (say: uh-saa-fuh-guhs), which is located in your throat near your trachea (windpipe). 

The Stomach

From the esophagus, your food then enters your stomach. Your stomach is a container that holds your food while it mixes with different enzymes called Hydrochloric Acid and Pepsin, this is called chemical digestion.These enzymes break down your food so that it can be easily used by the rest of your body.