Table of Contents |
One of the functions of the stomach is to store food that will enter through the esophagus. Remember, the esophagus is the tube that connects your mouth and your throat to your stomach and carries food down to your stomach after it's been chewed and swallowed.
After food enters, the stomach will help to chemically and mechanically break it down. Afterward, it will also let food into the small intestine. It's able to control the amount of food that enters the small intestine, which ensures food isn't passed along faster than it can be processed.
You have sphincters associated with your stomach. These sphincters are circular muscles that will open and close and allow food to enter or exit the stomach.
The sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach allows food to enter from the esophagus and into the stomach, but also helps prevent chyme from backing up in the esophagus. Sometimes, if the sphincter isn't working properly, chyme will back up into the esophagus and cause what is commonly known as heartburn. Generally, the sphincter allows for the flow of food from the esophagus into the stomach, but not the other way around.
The other sphincter allows for the passage of food from the stomach to the small intestine. This sphincter will help the stomach control how much food is passed along at a time so that not too much is passed through at a time where it can't be processed efficiently.
The stomach also works to chemically break down food, meaning chemicals help break down the food. Some of these chemicals include enzymes, such as pepsins.
Pepsins are digestive enzymes of the stomach that help break down the proteins in the stomach. You also have gastric juices, sometimes just commonly known as stomach acid. Gastric juices are the highly acidic fluid in your stomach made of hydrochloric acid, mucus, enzymes, water, and a few other substances that help break down food and kill microbes. Enzymes and gastric juices work together to help chemically break down the foods that you're eating before they're passed on to the small intestine.
Mechanically breaking down food means your body is physically breaking down the food. The stomach is not just using chemicals to break it down; it's also physically breaking it down.
EXAMPLE
Stomach contractions are an important part of mechanical digestion. As it contracts, it's mashing up all of the food that's in there and helping to break it down into this paste-like fluid.Chyme is a pasty substance that's formed when the stomach contractions and the gastric juices together mix food up and break it down. As you ingest food, it's going to mix with gastric juices and those enzymes. Your stomach is going to contract, and it's going to mash all of the materials together and produce this pasty substance called chyme. Basically, chyme is a mashed-up version of the food you ate mixed with gastric juices.
Source: THIS WORK IS ADAPTED FROM SOPHIA AUTHOR AMANDA SODERLIND
