Living organism eat food to get energy, which is essential for performing growth and maintenance of their body.

Digestion is important because your body needs nutrients from food and drink to work properly and stay healthy. Your digestive system breaks nutrients into parts small enough for your body to absorb and use for energy, growth, and cell repair.

Digestive juices present inside the vacuole, acts on the food and break it into simpler substances. This digested food is then absorbed and is used for growth, maintenance and multiplication of Amoeba.

For herbivores the main component of food is carbohydrates but for carnivores protein is the main component of food.

Digestion takes place in the food vacuole with the help of digestive juices secreted by it. After digestion, food is absorbed and assimilated and the undigested food is egested out of its body.

The two main components of the digestive system are the alimentary tract and the accessory organs. The alimentary tract consists of the mouth, pharynx and esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and anus.

What is digestion. Human beings exhibit a holozoic mode of nutrition involving five basic steps i.e., ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation, and egestion.

Digestion is the breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into small water-soluble food molecules so that they can be absorbed into the watery blood plasma. In certain organisms, these smaller substances are absorbed through the small intestine into the blood stream.

noun. the process in the alimentary canal by which food is broken up physically, as by the action of the teeth, and chemically, as by the action of enzymes, and converted into a substance suitable for absorption and assimilation into the body. the function or power of digesting food: My digestion is bad.

The main organs that make up the digestive system (in order of their function) are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus. Helping them along the way are the pancreas, gall bladder and liver.

The alimentary tract of the digestive system is composed of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and anus. Associated with the alimentary tract are the following accessory organs: salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.

Your digestive system, from beginning … to end

1. Step 1: Mouth. To more easily absorb different foods, your saliva helps break down what you’re eating and turn it into chemicals called enzymes.
2. Step 2: Esophagus.
3. Step 3: Stomach.
4. Step 4: Small Intestine.
5. Step 5: Large Intestine, Colon, Rectum and Anus.

The processes of digestion include six activities: ingestion, propulsion, mechanical or physical digestion, chemical digestion, absorption, and defecation. The first of these processes, ingestion, refers to the entry of food into the alimentary canal through the mouth.

Mouth. The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract. In fact, digestion starts here as soon as you take the first bite of a meal. Chewing breaks the food into pieces that are more easily digested, while saliva mixes with food to begin the process of breaking it down into a form your body can absorb and use.

The digestive tract begins at the mouth and ends at the anus. It is like a long muscular tube, up to 10 metres long, with digestive organs attached along the way. A large reservoir of microbes, such as bacteria, live within the large intestine and, to a lesser degree, in vthe rest of the digestive system.

Digestion time varies among individuals and between men and women. After you eat, it takes about six to eight hours for food to pass through your stomach and small intestine. Food then enters your large intestine (colon) for further digestion, absorption of water and, finally, elimination of undigested food.

small intestine

Digestion is a form of catabolism or breaking down of substances that involves two separate processes: mechanical digestion and chemical digestion. Mechanical digestion involves physically breaking down food substances into smaller particles to more efficiently undergo chemical digestion.

The digestive tract includes the oral cavity and associated organs (lips, teeth, tongue, and salivary glands), the esophagus, the forestomachs (reticulum, rumen, omasum) of ruminants and the true stomach in all species, the small intestine, the liver, the exocrine pancreas, the large intestine, and the rectum and anus.

Digestive enzymes are mostly produced in the pancreas, stomach, and small intestine. But even your salivary glands produce digestive enzymes to start breaking down food molecules while you’re still chewing.

Esophagus: The esophagus is a muscular tube that connects the pharynx (throat) to the stomach. The esophagus contracts as it moves food into the stomach. A “valve” called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is located just before the opening to the stomach.

Food is pushed through the esophagus and into the stomach by means of a series of contractions called peristalsis. Just before the opening to the stomach is an important ring-shaped muscle called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). This sphincter opens to let food pass into the stomach and closes to keep it there.

Review. The digestive system plays an important role in the absorption of nutrients into the body. It takes the food we ingest, breaks it down mechanically and chemically in the mouth and stomach. It then absorbs nutrients, fats, proteins and water in the intestines before eliminating the waste through the rectum.

Together your small and large intestines are about 15 feet or more in length. According to a 2014 study , the total surface area of your intestines is about half the size of a badminton court. Your intestines have the very important job of helping to break down and absorb nutrients from what you eat and drink.