Digestive processes

• Digestion

  The process wherein food is broken down into smaller molecules that the body cells can absorb and utilize
• Digestive system processes

  1. Ingestion

  2. Transport of food

  3. Secretion of materials

  4. Digestion of food

  5. Absorption

  6. Excretion
• Ingestion


  The process of eating or putting food into the mouth
• Transport of food


  Starts when the food is swallowed, the wavelike contraction or peristalsis of the muscular walls of the different organs of the digestive tract transports the chewed food to the different organs of digestion
• Secretion of materials


  The secretions of the different digestive glands (collectively called digestive juice - saliva, gastric juice, etc.) lubricate, soften, and liquify foods, and at the same time contain chemical substances called enzymes that simplify complex food materials, other glands secrete substances like bile and bicarbonate ions that adjust the pH of the food that is being digested
• Digestion of food


  One digestive process that breaks down food into small pieces by the action of some accessory organs but without changing the food's chemical composition, another process where the chemical composition of food is changed by chemical digestion through enzyme action that changes the composition of food into forms, which the body cells can absorb and utilize
• Absorption


  Brings the final products of digestion that are called nutrients from the small intestine for distribution to all parts of the body via the network of blood cells also known as capillaries and lymph vessels also known as lacteal vessels that traverse the small intestine
• Excretion


  The process of removing waste products from the body, in the digestive process, the undigested residue or waste products of digestion called feces are expelled from the body through the anus in a process called defecation