What happens to the food in the mouth?

When you put food in your mouth, the process of digestion begins. Here's what happens:

Mechanical Digestion: Your teeth and tongue break down the food into smaller pieces through chewing and mixing it with saliva. This helps increase the surface area of the food for enzymes to work on.
Chemical Digestion: Saliva contains enzymes like amylase, which starts breaking down carbohydrates into smaller molecules like sugars.
Swallowing: Once the food is thoroughly chewed and mixed with saliva, it's formed into a soft mass called a bolus. The tongue pushes the bolus to the back of the throat, triggering the swallowing reflex.
Esophagus: The bolus moves down the esophagus, a muscular tube connecting the mouth to the stomach. Muscular contractions called peristalsis help push the bolus downwards.
Stomach: The bolus enters the stomach where it's mixed with stomach acids and enzymes, primarily pepsin, which starts breaking down proteins into smaller peptides. The stomach also churns the food to further break it down and mix it with gastric juices.
Small Intestine: The partially digested food, now called chyme, moves into the small intestine. Here, enzymes from the pancreas and bile from the liver help break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into their smallest components, such as simple sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids.
Absorption: The small intestine is where most of the absorption of nutrients occurs. Nutrients are absorbed through the walls of the small intestine and into the bloodstream to be transported to cells throughout the body.
Large Intestine: Any remaining undigested food, along with water and electrolytes, moves into the large intestine, where water is absorbed and waste products are formed into feces.
Rectum and Anus: Feces are stored in the rectum until they are ready to be expelled from the body through the anus during a bowel movement.
So, in summary, the food in your mouth undergoes both mechanical and chemical digestion, breaking it down into smaller molecules that can be absorbed and utilized by the body for energy and other functions.