Digestive System Summary
Your Digestive System digests what you eat and drink to supply the nutrients your body needs to work properly and stay healthy. It also breaks down these nutrients sufficiently to be absorbed for cell repair, growth and energy, as follow:
- Proteins broken down into amino acids,
- Starches broken down into simple sugars, and
- Fats are broken down into fatty acids and glycerol.
The Digestive System description helps you to understand how the system works. It should enable you to make better supplement choices for your specific body needs, regarding digestive enzymes, digestive health, liver health and probiotics supplements.
Read the blog on 12 Natural Ways to Improve Digestive Health
Digestive/Excretory System Description
The role, main functions and main organs of these human Digestive System are discussed below.
Role of the digestive System
The Digestive/Excretory System is the human body system that digests foods and liquids, absorb the nutrients needed, and eliminating the materials you don’t need (waste). The Digestive System is also referred to as gastrointestinal system. The process of digestion takes place in the gastrointestinal tract that starts with the mouth and ends with the anus. It take about two days from the time you eat something before it is excreted as waste.
The digestive system breaks down the food you eat into simple usable nutrients as follows:
- Carbohydrates,
- Vitamins,
- Minerals (calcium, sodium and potassium),
- Amino acids the building blocks of protein (isoleucine, histidine and leucine),
- Fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid) and
- Water
Main Functions of the Digestive System
The human Digestive System has six primary functions, i.e. ingestion, propulsion, mechanical digestion, chemical digestion, absorption and defecation.
Digestive Ingestion Function – Foods and liquids enter the alimentary canal through the mouth. As the teeth rip and chop the food, saliva moistens it for easy chewing and swallowing. The breaking down of food starts in your mouth.
Digestive Propulsion Function – Population is the movement of foods and liquids through the digestive tract by means of swallowing, peristalsis and segmentation. The major means of propulsion in the Digestive System is peristalsis. Peristalsis involves a series of alternating contractions and relaxations of the smooth muscles of the alimentary wall to propel foods and liquids forward.
Mechanical Digestion Function – Mechanical digestion is the physical breakdown of large pieces of food into smaller pieces that increases surface area and mobility. Mechanical digestion does not alter the chemical nature of the food but prepares it for further breakdown by enzymes (chemical digestion).
Chemical Digestion Function – Chemical digestion breaks down the complex food molecules into their chemical building blocks. Daily the digestive system secretes around 7 liters of fluids that contains:
- Saliva to moistens the food
- Mucus that lubricate and protect the inside of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Hydrochloric acid to digest food chemically and kill bacteria.
- Enzymes cause specific biochemical reaction that breakdown large macromolecules into their smaller components (e.g. proteins into separate amino acids).
- Bile (produced by the liver) breakdown fats in the digestive process.
Absorption Digestion Function: As the broken-down food moves along the channels of the small intestine, nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream through intestinal wall.
Excretion/Defecation Digestion Function: Finally, the digestive system excretes waste in a process known as defecation. Defecation removes indigestible substances from the body via the anus in the form of feces.
Organs of the digestive System
The organs that forms the alimentary canal (digestive tract) of human Digestive System are the mouth esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and anus. Other important organs of the digestive system are the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder.
Supplements Digestive System
The best supplements that work for the human Digestive System (Excretory System) supplements the nutrients needed for the health of the Digestive System organs. It also supplements the substances and catalysts needed to breakdown food in the digestive processes. The best supplements for the Digestive System is grouped into:
- Digestive Enzymes Supplements,
- Digestive Health Supplements,
- Liver Health Supplements, and
- Probiotics Supplements.
The recommended supplements for your Digestive (Excretory) System are based on user reviews. These supplements will be continually updated. Please submit supplement recommendations that works for you for digestive enzymes, digestive health, liver health and probiotics supplements by completing the form below.
