Where does our food go?
Let's follow a bite of food through the digestive system!
What is digestion?
Digestion is the process of breaking food down into smaller pieces so that our body can use it.
Food
Broken down
Body uses it
Meet the Digestive System
Click each organ to discover what it does.
Mouth
Oesophagus
Stomach
Small intestine
Large intestine
Anus
👄 The Mouth
What happens here?
Your teeth chew food into smaller pieces.
Your tongue moves the food around.
Saliva mixes with food and starts breaking it down.
🛝 The Oesophagus
The oesophagus is a tube that carries food from your mouth to your stomach.
Muscles squeeze the food downwards.
↓
🛝 Oesophagus
↓
🥣 Stomach
🥣 The Stomach
The stomach is like a mixing machine!
- Stores food for a while
- Mixes the food
- Uses digestive juices
- Helps break food down
🌀 Small Intestine
This is a VERY important part of digestion!
The small intestine absorbs most nutrients from our food.
Nutrients
Blood
Body
Nutrients help us get energy, grow and repair our bodies.
💧 Large Intestine
The large intestine absorbs water from the remaining food mixture.
The remaining material becomes more solid and eventually becomes waste.
↓
💧 Water absorbed
↓
🚽 Waste
Follow Food Through the Digestive System
Mouth
Oesophagus
Stomach
Small intestine
Large intestine