DOWN THE HATCH

• Just as a car needs energy to get where it’s going, your body needs fuel to do all the things it needs to do so you can thrive. The body system that takes care of the body’s need for fuel is the digestive system. The digestive system is made up of a group of organs that work together. They pass fuel in the form of food from one organ to the next until the entire process is complete, and waste products pass out of the body.
• The digestive system goes to work the moment you put food into your mouth. Immediately, the saliva glands in your mouth moisten the food and begin breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces. Your teeth also get involved, biting and grinding the large piece until they are small enough to swallow. Your tongue is kind of like a traffic director, pushing food around in your mouth to make the most of your saliva and teeth. Then, when it is ready, your tongue pushes your food to the back of your mouth so you can swallow.
• As your food leaves your mouth, it enters a tube called the esophagus.   Gravity and muscles push your food down to the stomach, where it is greeted by strong acids. During the next couple of hours, acids and enzymes break your moistened food into a soupy liquid.
• Believe it or not, your body has still not received energy from your food. Your liquefied food finally passes into the small intestine, a long tube that is coiled back and forth inside your body. It will remain there for up to six hours, as special chemicals digest the liquid even further, pulling from it the nutrients that your body needs. The nutrients enter your blood through tiny little fingers called villi that line the insides of your small intestine.
• What happens to the leftovers? The things your body does not need pass into your large intestine. Water and minerals are absorbed out of the food and into your blood over the next 10-36 hours. With most of the liquid taken out, the rest of the leftover material passes out of your body as solid waste.
  
  

Name:__________________________________

Answer the following questions based on the reading passage. Don’t forget to go back to the passage whenever necessary to find or confirm your answers.

1.  Explain what happens to food while it is still in your mouth.
2.  Predict what could happen if a person takes too many antacid tablets. 
3. Why do you think liquefied food stays in the intestines for such a long time? 
4. Laxatives work by pushing food through your intestines before it is completely digested. Do you think this could be harmful? Why or why not?
5. Where is your food likely to be two hours after you  eat?