Saturday, August 23, 2008

DIGESTING THE PROBLEM



The ultimate purpose of digestion is to break down food to gain access to the vitamins, minerals, and proteins that the body needs to function. In other words, what it needs to power the heart, lungs, muscles, brain, the nervous system...everything.

The body uses a number of molecules to nourish itself. It can create a few , for some others it requires "raw material" which it can modify to its own needs, and others it needs in their natural form. The source of these is the food we eat. Digestion is the process of breaking down food into forms (molecules) the body can use.

Breaking down begins in the mouth, with chewing and the presence of fluids the mouth produces. Optimally, this is a "bathing" process, the secretions in the mouth "bathe" the food, attach to it, begin to break it down. There are enzymes that are released in the mouth to begin the job. The better the bath, the less work that has to be done by the rest of the system.

In the stomach the breaking down process continues in earnest. The stomach secretes enzymes and HCL, hydrochloric acid, which act upon the food. It may spend up to two hours in the stomach before it is completely processed and "massaged" into the small intestine. Here is where the nutritional payoff begins.


It is the small intestine that does most of the work of absorbing the nutrients that are now in forms the body can use. The small intestines gets an "assist" from the pancreas, the liver, and gall bladder. They secret fluids directly into the small intestine that help the absorption process. Food that has not yet been broken down continues on the the large intestines, where water is extracted and what is left is the solid waste that will pass out of the body.

An excellent 2 minute video can be found at the link that follows. They also provide a free social networking service families can use in the invent of an illness. It is a great resource reference for finding straight forward videos on many medical topics. Also , you can just go to the sidebar and click on the DIGESTION video to get an overview of the digestive system presented visually.

http://www.careflash.com/video/digestion?lc=en



BACTERIA AND HCL...an aside


Another extremely important function of the HCL is to kill undesirable bacteria that enters the stomach through the mouth or the nose. Harmful bacteria should not survive the journey through the stomach.

It should be noted that the ability of the stomach to produce HCL is critical for the health of the body in general and the stomach in particular. If the quantity of HCL is NOT sufficient, firstly digestion will be hampered, more of the food eaten will not be utilized in the intestine. Valuable nutrition will not be absorbed and will simply be lost to the body. Secondly, the HCL is critical in keeping the stomach "bacteria free". The lack of HCL creates an opening for harmful bacteria in the digestive tract. Because they are not eliminated, they may take up residence...which creates an opening for a variety of illnesses. As we age, we produce less HCL.


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