The Full Process of Digestion

Good digestion results in higher nutritional absorbency which means you don't need to eat as much to get the same nutrients that your body needs. If you are eating healthy and with a proper combination of foods at each meal, you will have little to no digestive problems. Basic signs like bad body odor, bad breath and bad gas are small indications of a bad diet over a long period of time. These signs will eventually be eliminated when a diet is changed allowing for easy digestion. When a person eats a healthy combination of foods, these signs, along with many other bad signs, are eliminated the result is good digestion and great overall health. After studying the digestive system I have put together what I consider to be the complete process of digestion.

1. Anticipation
2. Chewing
3. Immersion
4. Enzymes
5. Mixing
6. Electrolytes
7. Expulsion

1) You need to get your body ready to eat. There are several ways to do this. One is to drink enough water before your meal so it is well hydrated and prepared to allow the digestive fluids to flow. Another is to see and smell the food; it helps if you prepare it. From the habits of smell and other anticipations like regular eating times your body can prepare by sending out the proper hormones for digestion.

2) Your mouth needs to chew the food to break it down into smaller pieces and expose it to saliva. It is made up of 98% water. Saliva moistens the food to make it easier to swallow. The enzymes in saliva start the digestion of starches and fats. On Wikipedia there are seven types of contents in saliva.

3) Gastric juices are the juices produced in the stomach. Hydrochloric acid (HCl), the bulk of the gastric juices, is used to reduce the pH level of the contents of the stomach to the level that allows pepsin to break down protein. Protein is the main thing that starts to breakdown in the stomach. The majority of its digestion takes place in the stomach. Protein is used for the structure of the body. Other enzymes neutralize sugars and prevent them from fermenting in the stomach. The top of the stomach stores the food while it waits to be mixed with gastric juices at the bottom of the stomach.

4) The duodenum is where the majority, and the rest, of the digestive enzymes are released into the food. It first neutralizes the acid from the stomach to make the environment the proper pH level for the digestive enzymes of the pancreas. The enzymes used in this part of the digestion are produced by an organ external to the gastrointestinal(GI) track. This is important when considering the symbolic nature of the digestive system and process.

5) The small intestines are where the enzymes get thoroughly mixed with the food to complete the breakdown of the food and continue its absorption. This allows all of the healthy nutrients to be drawn out of the food.

6) The large intestines are where bacteria is allowed to digest parts of the food that could not be digested by the digestive enzymes. The bacteria digests parts of the food and vitamins are produced. Primarily, vitamins and electrolytes are absorbed in the large intestines. Water is absorbed and the remaining waist is compacted in preparation for removal.

7) The remaining food matter that had no ability to be absorbed is removed from the body and allowed to break down further in nature. This requires more basic chemical reactions that take much longer than the short time period of the digestive system. The compost cooking process requires air, water and heat to work on the organic matter. This will be discussed in a future post.