OtterKnow Kids EncyclopediaWhen you eat food, it travels down a tube from your mouth to your stomach! Your stomach is like a stretchy bag that mixes and mashes the food into tiny pieces. Digestion is the amazing process your body uses to turn food into energy.
Your stomach uses special juices called stomach acid to break food down, kind of like how soap breaks apart grease. Your stomach squeezes and churns the food until it turns into a thick mush. After your stomach is done, the mushy food moves into your intestines, where your body absorbs the nutrients it needs!
Your intestines pull out vitamins and energy from the food you ate. The parts your body cannot use get pushed out as waste. Chewing your food well and eating slowly helps your stomach do its job more easily!
- The whole process from eating to finishing digestion can take many hours!
- Your small intestine is about 20 feet long — if you stretched it out, it would be longer than a giraffe is tall.
- Your stomach acid is so strong that it could dissolve metal, but a special coating protects your stomach from digesting itself!
