Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/127015
The Foundation Of Wellness Have you ever wondered what happens to the food you eat after you swallow it? Or, how the body extracts nutrients from food? Have you ever marveled how it all just seems to happen? This article takes you on the journey that transforms the foods you eat into nutrients. We will follow the nutrients as they travel through the intestinal cells and into the body to do their work. the pancreatic bicarbonate causing the pylorus, the opening between the stomach and duodenum, to slam shut. The food remaining in the stomach ferments resulting in bloating and may lead to GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease). Repeated over and over, esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus (pre-cancer cells) and esophageal cancer may occur! The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a flexible muscular tube from mouth, through the esophagus, stomach, small intestine (duodenum, jejunum and ileum), large intestine, and rectum to the anus. The process of digestion begins in the mouth. It is important to chew your food thoroughly to increase enzyme and saliva production! The stomach normally maintains a pH between 1.5 and 2 (the same pH in your car battery!). The strong acidity kills most bacteria in food that enters the stomach. Drinking fluids while eating will dilute the hydrochloric acid pepsin mixture which is responsible for liquefying your food. With habitual intake of fluids during the meal, chronic bloating of the stomach weakens the lower esophageal sphincter allowing the stomach tissue to protrude upward through the diaphragm creating a hiatal hernia (see diagram below). SMALL INTESTINE: DIGESTING & ABSORBING Chyme, which has been neutralized, travels on down the small intestine through its three segments – the duodenum, the jejunum and the ileum – 10 to 12 feet of tubing coiled within the abdomen. The inner surface of the small intestine is wrinkled into hundred of folds. (See page 20). Each fold is contoured into thousands of finger-like projections called villi. Each villi is composed of microscopic microvilli. The villi are in constant motion and any small nutrient molecule is drawn into the cells and then enters the bloodstream. The small intestine performs most of the work of carbohydrate digestion. This diluted acid mixture, chyme, will not be appropriately neutralized by Abby's Magazine - May/June 2013 | Page 17