The Digestive System

1. The Digestive System 6th Grade Health

2. Learning Target: I will learn about the Digestive System. Success Criteria: To be successful I will know: • The parts of the digestive system and how they work.

4. Why is digestion important? • When you eat foods—such as bread, meat, and vegetables—they are not in a form that the body can use as nourishment. • Food and drink must be changed into smaller molecules of nutrients before they can be absorbed into the blood and carried to cells throughout the body. • Digestion is the process by which food and drink are broken down into their smallest parts so the body can use them to build and nourish cells and to provide energy.

5. How is food digested? • Digestion involves mixing food with digestive juices, moving it through the digestive tract, and breaking down large molecules of food into smaller molecules. • Digestion begins in the mouth, when you chew and swallow, and is completed in the small intestine.

20. Interesting Facts… • HOW LONG ARE YOUR INTESTINES? At least 25 feet in an adult. Be glad you're not a full-grown horse -- their coiled-up intestines are 89 feet long! • Chewing food takes from 5-30 seconds • Swallowing takes about 10 seconds • Food sloshing in the stomach can last 3-4 hours • It takes 3 hours for food to move through the intestine • Food drying up and hanging out in the large intestine can last 18 hours to 2 days! • Americans eat about 700 million pounds of peanut butter. • Americans eat over 2 billion pounds of chocolate a year. • In your lifetime, your digestive system may handle about 50 tons!!

21. Fun Facts Continued…What about the stomach?? Did you know? Your body makes 2 gallons of digestive juices a day and recycles much of it. That's as much blood as you have in your whole body!

22. Click on the link below to watch a short video clip on the digestive system… http://www.kidshealth.org/PageManager.jsp?lic=1&article_set=59299&cat_id=20607