The digestive system is a kind of processing plant inside the body. It takes in food and pushes it through organs and structures where the processing happens. The fuels and nutrients we need are extracted, and the digestive system discards the rest.
Read on for 10 important facts about the digestive system.
The autonomic nervous system controls peristalsis, the contraction and relaxation of muscle layers within the alimentary canal wall. Peristalis is a key function in digestion; it literally gets the ball rolling. These involuntary contractions push swallowed food down the esophagus, churn the stomach, and propel chyme through the small intestine and large intestine.
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A description of the organs of digestion from the 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body.
Watch a stop-motion video of digestion from the mouth down to the small intestine from a TEDxManhattan fellow via Scientific American.
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