Digestion / A.D.A.M., Inc.

Food passes from your mouth, through your esophagus, and into your stomach. Here, for several hours it's churned and broken down with hydrochloric acid and the enzyme pepsin. When food leaves the stomach, it goes to the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), where digestive bile from your gallbladder and enzymes from your pancreas break it down more. Enzymes are chemicals your body makes to speed up the digestion of specific types of food. For example, trypsin breaks down the protein in foods such as meat, eggs, cheese, and beans. Lipase helps to break down fat, and lactase breaks down sugar in milk. When adults whose bodies don't make lactase eat ice cream or yogurt, their digestive systems become bloated, and they expel gas. Humans can't digest certain plant fibers because we lack enzymes to break them down. Once everything digestible is broken down, your body can absorb nutrients, using about 20 feet of intestinal plumbing.

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