WHERE DOES FOOD GO WHEN YOU EAT?
What Is an Organ?, Which Organs Form My Digestive System?, The Long Journey
When you eat, food enters your digestive system. Your digestive system is a series of hollow organs. They are connected by tubes. This system stretches from your mouth, through your body, to your anus.
What Is an Organ?
Animals are made of millions of tiny cells. The cells group together to form body tissues. Tissues are collections of cells that carry out similar roles. They group together to form organs. Your skin is an organ. It is made of groups of tissues. The tissues are made of cells.
An animal cell.
CELLS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS. Scientists estimate that the human body has up to 100 trillion cells. Your skin is your largest organ. Imagine that the skin of an adult person could be stretched out flat. It would cover two square yards (1.7 square meters). That much skin would weigh about nine pounds (4 kilograms).
Your largest organ—skin—can be damaged by sunlight. Remember to use sunscreen to keep yourself safe.
Which Organs Form My Digestive System?
The following organs are part of your digestive system:
- mouth
- esophagus
- stomach
- small intestine
- large intestine
Each organ is connected to the next by tubes.
The Long Journey
When you eat, the food first enters your mouth. You chew and swallow the food. It moves down your esophagus. Next, it enters your stomach. From your stomach, it moves down into your small intestine. Then, it passes into your large intestine. Later, it moves into the rectum. It passes out of the body through the anus.
How Long Does the Journey Take?
Your food spends time in each part of your digestive system. At each step, food is digested. Any undigested food passes right through the digestive system and out of the anus.
- Mouth: Food stays in your mouth for about ten seconds.
- Esophagus: Food takes five to six seconds to move down your esophagus.
- Stomach: How long food stays in your stomach depends on the food. Most food stays in the stomach between two and four hours.
- Small intestine: The food takes from five to six hours to pass through the small intestine.
- Large intestine: The food takes from twelve to twenty-four hours to pass through the large intestine.
Food stays in your mouth for a very short length of time. But chewing food is an important part of digestion.
In total, food takes from twenty to thirty hours to pass through your body.
Food enters your mouth, travels down your esophagus, into your stomach, small intestine, and large intestine.
Additional topics
- WHAT HAPPENS IN MY MOUTH? - Why Is My Tongue Important?, What Does Smell Have To Do With It?
- GETTING STARTED - Into Your Body, What Is Digestion?, How Is Food Broken Down?, How Do Enzymes Work?
- Other Free Encyclopedias
Science Encyclopedia for KidsWhat Happens To Your Food When You Eat?