Keeping your digestive system in great shape by eating lots of healthy foods and drinking water should be a master plan you follow throughout life; and it's good to start now. Let's take a look at our digestive system. The first step of course in digestion is your mouth. The mouth reduces the size of food by cutting and grinding it. Then three pairs of major salivary glands and numerous smaller ones secrete saliva that contains water, mucus, and the enzyme amylase. Food is forced into the pharynx by the tongue and then moves from the pharynx into the esophagus.
Once food has entered the esophagus, the muscles in the walls of the esophagus move in a wavy way to slowly squeeze the food through the esophagus into the stomach. This takes about 2 or 3 seconds.
The stomach is not very big. When the stomach is empty, it has a volume big enough to hold about 2 cups or half a liter. It must be very muscular in order for the stomach to be able to stretch and shrink so often. It squeezes and churns the food mixing it with Hydrochloric acid and enzymes. A normal meal stays in the stomach for about 2-3 hours. A big meal may stay up to 5 hours or more. Then it moves to your small intestine.
Your small intestine is 20 to 25 feet long. It is twisted, folded and turned many times like a big bowl of spaghetti. The small intestine is where the most extensive part of digestion occurs. The final digestion and absorption of substances occurs in the villi, which line the inner surface of the small intestine like thousands of little fingers. Villi and Microvili are where all of the absorption of nutrients, medications, chemicals and toxins into the blood stream takes place. The lining of the small intestine secretes a hormone called secretin, which stimulates the pancreas to produce digestive enzymes. The pancreas, the liver and the gallbladder help by sending different juices to the first part of the small intestine. The liver is the first place that the nutrients from food go. The blood brings them directly there before going anywhere else. The liver processes the nutrients by filtering out any harmful substances or wastes. The liver also determines how many nutrients will go to the rest of the body and how many will stay behind in storage.
The large intestine is at the end of the road for digestion. It is much fatter than the small intestine measuring 3-4 inches around. Like the small intestine, it is packed into the body and if it were stretched out would be about 5 feet long.
Undigested food from the small intestine enters the large intestine as a liquid paste. Water is removed from the liquid paste turning what is left into solid waste. Now you've got a good idea of how your body deals with what you eat.
Within the digestive tract there is an ecosystem of microbes. These microbes have many functions from helping us assimilate our nutrition, to producing vitamins and protecting us from toxins entering our blood stream. When there is an imbalance in this microbe population, toxins and incompletely digested proteins can enter our bloodstream and contribute to disease.
It is not so much, 'We are what we eat.' but, 'We are what we absorb.' If your villi and micro villi in your small intestine have been compromised - let's say glued down with all the white flour you eat that has been turned into paste and not regularly cleaned out with lots of insoluble fiber - then you do not have the ability to absorb the nutrients that you do eat. If you are unable to absorb your nutrition, you will not have the ability to ward of disease and illness. It is important to clean your digestive system with a good, quality cleanse. Recommendations vary from quarterly to every 6 months. Healing any damage previously done can go a long way in the prevention of future problems. An aloe juice drink is very healing and will help with the healing process. It is also recommended to replenish your friendly bacteria. Where do we get these bacteria from? It starts with being born through a healthy birth canal and continues with breastfeeding from a mom with a healthy balance herself. After that we need a continual inoculation of bacteria from our environment and our foods. Many of our vegetables have lost these microbes by the time they get to us, so it is a good idea to add as many back into your system as you can. One good way is by drinking a quality digestive aid with enzymes and probiotics. Another is to add a greens supplement to your daily routine. Everyone, even children, can benefit from keeping their digestive system working smoothly!
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You may also want to review the Suggested Nutritional Basic Five Program
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