Narrator: All living things need energy, and our energy as humans, comes from food. The process of our body breaking down food to get the nutrients, is called digestion.
It starts in the mouth where we cut and crush the food with our teeth into smaller pieces. Our saliva also helps break it down more with chemicals called enzymes. Now the food is in smaller chunks we can swallow and the food is carried down our oesophagus and into the stomach.
The stomach contains really strong acid and enzymes. Here the food is churned and broken down into even smaller pieces before being pushed into your small intestines.
The small intestine is where the nutrients from the food get absorbed. The food is broken down so small it can pass through the wall of the small intestines where the blood stream carries it around the body.
Any food that isn't absorbed gets passed on to the large intestine. Here water is absorbed back into the body, and any food that hasn't been digested, moves along to the rectum. Now, we flush away that waste.
The main things we absorb are carbohydrates, proteins and fats, along with various vitamins and minerals. We can't get everything we need to live from one food, so eating a balanced mix of food helps us stay healthy.