1. How the food changes consistency and form
- As we consume food and start to chew it with our teeth, mechanical digestion breaks it down into smaller pieces. The food mashes up together through chemical digestion as it mixes with our saliva, which is referred to as bolus, allowing it to be digested better and easily pass down the esophagus and into the stomach. When it reaches the stomach, enzymes and stomach acid begin to digest it much further, breaking down the nutrients from the bolus until it becomes the form chyme --- quite liquid in form. Chyme, as it travels down the small and large intestines, becomes the feces that now exits through the rectum.
2. How the body was able to absorb the nutrients from the foods we eat
- The nutrients such as carbohydrates, minerals, protein, lipids, and vitamins are mostly absorbed in the small intestine. It is then distributed into different parts of our body for storage or to be spent for different functions. The large intestine absorbs water, ions, and vitamins as it passes there, then ends by the stool being excreted from the body.