The digestive system breaks food down into smaller components. Digestion begins in the mouth where teeth chew food into a bolus that is swallowed and passed into the esophagus. In the stomach, digestive juices further break food down into a pulp. This pulp then moves into the small intestines where nutrients are absorbed and waste is rejected from the large intestines and anus.

1. Digestive System & Digestion

2. Mouth and Digestion Digestion begins in the mouth. The mouth is made of two jaws in which the teeth (incisors, canines, and molars) are fixed and the tongue and the uvula. http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/jpitocch/genbio/digestnot.html 3. Foods chewed in the mouth are transformed into pulp forming the bolus. 4. The bolus is swallowed and passed through the esophagus. The teeth participate in chewing. Foods are mixed with saliva and placed by the tongue under the teeth. (Foods are churned).

3. Stomach and Digestion After the mouth, digestion completes its second phase in the stomach. In the stomach, foods are transformed into a pulp. Foods reach the stomach through the esophagus. The wall of the stomach produces digestive juices. Foods accumulate in the stomach. The wall of the stomach contracts. Foods transform into a pulp. http://www.colorado.edu/intphys/Class/IPHY3430-200/020digestion.htm

4. INTESTINES AND DIGESTION Finally, after food has been transformed into pulp, it is passed on to the intestines for the final phase of digestion in which nutrients are absorbed and wastes are rejected. Foods pass from the stomach to the small intestine. Mixed with bile, food is transformed into nutrients. Soluble nutrients are absorbed into the blood and water, which will be distributed to all the body organs. http://www.blaascontrole.nl/TherapyAwareness/Prevention/1164885652480.htm 4. Non-digested foods, called wastes, pass through the large intestine, then rejected outside the body through the anus.