eli5 The process of food digestion after it’s in your stomach
In: 0
There’s hydrochloric acid in your stomach that starts to break down the food. There are also enzymes, which are molecules that are specialized to break down foods further.
Your stomach also has powerful muscles in the walls of it that churn what’s in your stomach, making sure that the enzymes and acid work as well as possible (same reason a clothes washer mixes your clothing while washing it, although your stomach doesn’t mix things anywhere near that much).
After the acidic environment of the stomach, the food carries on to the small bowel where the environment is alkaline (high pH), and the pancreas and bile start to break down fats and protein. Most of the nutrient absorption happens in the very long (3-4 m) small bowel after the stomach. Everything, carbs, protein and fats get broken down and get absorbed in the small bowel by pancreatic enzymes, helped by bile, and the bowel’s on juices. Then comes the large bowel (colon) and it is responsible mostly for absorbing fluid and making some more nutrients with the help of bacteria.
Interesting fact: if you fart too much after artificial sweeteners it’s because they could not be broken down before they get to the large bowel and the bacteria in the large bowel break them down to produce foul smelling gas.
Latest Answers