Digestive System

Question 1

What is digestion?

Answer 1

Digestion involves the breaking down of food so that the nutrients it contains can be absorbed into your blood and carried to each cell in your body.

Question 2

What are the five key processes in supplying nutrients to cells?

Answer 2

1. ingestion
2. mechanical digestion
3. chemical digestion
4. absorption of the broken-down food into your cells
5. assimilation

Question 3

What do teeth do?

Answer 3

Bite and chew food to break it down to smaller pieces.

Question 4

What does saliva do?

Answer 4

Secretes enzymes from the saliva glands which begins the chemical digestion of some carbohydrates.

Question 5

List the order of the organs in the digestive systems, in terms of when you first put food into the body to when waste comes out.

Answer 5

Mouth
Oesophagus
Stomach
Small Intestine
Large Intestine
Anus

Question 6

Peristalsis is

Answer 6

the process of pushing food along the oesophagus or small intestine by the action of muscles

Question 7

Villi are

Answer 7

tiny finger-like projections from the wall of the intestine that maximise the surface area of the structure to increase the efficiency of nutrient absorption.

Question 8

Enzymes are

Answer 8

special chemicals that speed up reactions but are themselves not used up in the reaction

Question 9

Proteases are

Answer 9

enzymes that break proteins down into amino acids

Question 10

What is the difference between mechanical and chemical digestion?

Answer 10

Mechanical - digestion that uses physical factors such as chewing with the teeth
Chemical - the chemical reactions changing food into simpler substances that are absorbed into the bloodstream for use in other parts of the body