The digestive system

Our digestive system allows our body to get the nutrients it needs from the food we eat.

* The digestive process starts in the mouth. We chew food with our teeth and mix the food with saliva.

* Our tongue pushes the food around our mouth to a tube called the oesophagus.

* The food travels down the oesophagus to our stomach. The stomach is like a mixer. It uses gastric juices to turn the food into a thick liquid.

*The thick liquid travels to a long tube called the small intestine. The small intestine breaks down the food mixture even more.

* The liver and the pancreas send juices to the small intestine so that our body can now absorb the nutrients in the food.

* The remains of the food that our body can´t use go to a wide tube called the large intestine. Here our body has its last chance to take water from the food.

* The remains finally leave our body through the anus.