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They say that your food is no more inside you than a pencil is inside a donut, when it’s poked through the hole. Instead of the food going in you, food goes through you. But, all the energy you get to live and grow comes from your food. All the chemicals that become your body and brain as you get bigger, come from your food. You get these vital chemicals through a process called “digestion.” Your body breaks food down and grabs all the nutrients you need from it. Then, your body gets rid of what’s left over. Digestion starts in your mouth. You begin breaking food down by breaking it into pieces with your teeth and jaw muscles. Your saliva (your spit) is full of chemicals that react with the chemicals in food and make them break apart. Then you swallow. Your food goes down a tube (your esophagus) to your stomach, where powerful hydrochloric acid breaks it down further into a mushy mash we call chime (kime). From there, the chime goes into your intestines, and that’s where your body starts to absorb the nutrients you need. Eating is complicated. For your body to have energy to do work, your digestive system has to do some work. So take care of it. Then, you’ll have energy to play.

Chew it up; soak it in acid; use those chemicals to watch Bill.

The Big Ideas

  • Our bodies need different chemicals to keep the running
  • We get these chemicals from our food
  • We grind our food up, absorb the chemicals we need, then get or the waste that's left over.

Did You Know That?

  • Your stomach acid is so strong that you grow a new stomach lining every three days?
  • You can eat standing on your head, because your esophagus pushes food into your stomach, even uphill?
  • Without your stomach, you couldn’t store food for digestion. You’d have to eat continuously all day and night?
  • Your body makes about one liter of saliva every day?

Books of Science!

  • “Digestion: The Digestive System”by Jenny BryanPublished by Dillon Press, 1992
  • “Eating”by Anna SandemanPublished by Copper Beech Books, 1995
Bill Nye