CHAPTER 13
LESSON 2
Digestion and Excretion
The Digestive System
Key Concepts
What do you think? Read the two statements below and decide
whether you agree or disagree with them. Place an A in the Before column
if you agree with the statement or a D if you disagree. After you’ve read
this lesson, reread the statements and see if you have changed your mind.
Before
Statement
After
3. Digestion begins in the mouth.
4. Energy from food stays in the digestive system.
Functions of the Digestive System
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
What did you eat for breakfast today? Do you ever think
about what happens to the food you eat?
Someone might have told you to take small bites and
chew your food thoroughly. The size of the chewed food
particles can affect how quickly your food is digested.
• What does the digestive
system do?
• How do the parts of the
digestive system work
together?
• How does the digestive
system interact with other
systems?
Building Vocabulary As
you read, circle all the words
you do not understand.
Highlight the part of the text
that helps you define these
words.
As soon as the food enters your mouth, it begins its
journey through your digestive system. All the food you eat
goes through a process with four steps—ingestion, digestion,
absorption, and elimination. All four steps happen in the
organs and tissues of the digestive system in the following
order.
• Food is ingested. Ingestion is the act of eating, or
putting food in your mouth.
• Food is digested. Digestion is the mechanical and chemical
breakdown of food into small particles and molecules that your
body can absorb and use.
• Nutrients and water in the food are absorbed, or taken
in, by cells. Absorption occurs when the cells of the
digestive system take in small molecules of digested food.
• Undigested food is eliminated. Elimination is the
Key Concept Check
1. Describe What does
the digestive system do?
removal of undigested food and other wastes from your
body.
Reading Essentials
Digestion and Excretion
211
Types of Digestion
Before your body can absorb nutrients from food, the
food must be broken into small molecules by digestion.
There are two types of digestion—mechanical and chemical.
In mechanical digestion, food is physically broken into smaller pieces.
Mechanical digestion happens when you chew, mash, and
grind food with your teeth and tongue. Smaller pieces of food
are easier to swallow and have more surface area than larger
pieces. This helps with chemical digestion. In chemical digestion,
chemical reactions break down pieces of food into small molecules.
Enzymes
REVIEW VOCABULARY
chemical reaction
a process in which a
compound is formed or
broken down
Reading Check
2. Define What are
enzymes?
Chemical digestion cannot occur without substances
called enzymes (EN zimez). Enzymes are proteins that help break
down larger molecules into smaller molecules. Enzymes also speed up,
or catalyze, the rate of chemical reactions. Without enzymes,
some chemical reactions would be too slow or would not
occur at all. There are many kinds of enzymes. Each one
is specialized to help break down a specific molecule at
a specific location.
The Role of Enzymes in Digestion
The digestive system produces enzymes that are
specialized to help break down each type of food molecule.
For example, the enzyme amylase helps break down
carbohydrates. The enzymes pepsin and papain help break
down proteins. Fats are broken down with the help of the
enzyme lipase. The figure below shows how an enzyme
helps break down food molecules into smaller pieces.
Reading Check
3. Explain What happens
to an enzyme after it breaks
down a food molecule?
Notice in the figure that the food molecule breaks apart,
but the enzyme does not change. Therefore, the enzyme can
immediately be used to break down another food molecule.
Food particle
Enzyme
Visual Check
4. Identify Circle the food
molecule that is in the process
of being broken down.
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Digestion and Excretion
Step 1
An enzyme attaches to a
food particle.
Step 2
The enzyme speeds up a
chemical reaction that
breaks down the food
particle.
Step 3
The enzyme
releases the
broken-down
food particle.
Reading Essentials
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Nutrients in food are made of different molecules, such as
carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Many of these molecules
are too large for your body to use. But, because these large
molecules are made of long chains of smaller molecules joined
together, they can be broken down into smaller pieces.
Organs of the Digestive System
For your body to use the nutrients in the foods you eat,
the nutrients must pass through your digestive system. There
are two parts to your digestive system: the digestive tract and
the other organs that help the body break down and absorb
food. These organs, shown at the bottom of this page,
include the tongue, salivary (SA luh ver ee) glands, liver,
gallbladder, and pancreas.
The digestive track extends from the mouth to the anus.
It has different organs that are connected by tubelike
structures. Each of these organs is specialized for a certain
function.
Create a shutterfold book to
illustrate the organs of the
digestive system and their
functions.
Mouth
Esophagus
Stomach
Small
intestine
Large
intestine
The Mouth
Mechanical digestion of food begins in your mouth. Your
teeth and tongue mechanically digest food as you chew. But
even before chewing begins, your salivary (SA luh ver ee)
glands produce saliva (suh LI vuh) at the thought of food.
They produce more than 1 L of saliva every day. Saliva
contains an enzyme that helps break down carbohydrates.
It also contains substances that neutralize acidic foods and
a slippery substance that makes food easier to swallow.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The Esophagus
When you swallow a bite of food, it enters your esophagus
(ih SAH fuh gus). The esophagus is a muscular tube that connects
the mouth to the stomach. Food moves through the esophagus and
the rest of the digestive tract by waves of muscle contractions called
peristalsis (per uh STAHL sus). Peristalsis is similar to squeezing
the bottom of a toothpaste tube. This forces toothpaste to
the top of the tube. Muscles in the esophagus contract and
relax. This action pushes partially digested food down the
esophagus and into the stomach.
Tongue
Reading Check
5. Define What is the
esophagus?
Salivary
glands
Esophagus
Liver
Peristalsis
Gallbladder
Stomach
Large
intestine
Pancreas
Rectum
Reading Essentials
Small
intestine
Visual Check
6. Identify Trace with
a highlighter the organ that
connects the mouth to the
stomach.
Digestion and Excretion
213
The Stomach
Reading Check
7. Describe Why is the
stomach’s ability to store
food beneficial?
Visual Check
8. Identify Where does
food go after it leaves the
stomach?
Partially digested food leaves the esophagus and enters the
stomach. The stomach, as shown below, is a large, hollow
organ. One function of the stomach is to store food. This
allows you to go many hours between meals. The stomach is
like a balloon. It can stretch when filled. An adult stomach
can hold about 2 L of food and liquid.
The stomach also helps with chemical digestion. The walls
of the stomach are extremely folded. These folds enable the
stomach to expand and hold large amounts of food. The cells
in these folds produce chemicals that help break down
proteins.
The stomach contains an acidic fluid called gastric juice.
Gastric juice makes the stomach acidic. Acid helps break
down some of the structures that hold plant and animal cells
together, such as the cells in meat, lettuce, and tomatoes.
Gastric juice also contains pepsin. Pepsin is an enzyme that
helps break down the proteins in foods into amino acids.
Food and gastric juices mix as muscles in the stomach contract
through peristalsis. As food mixes with gastric juice in the
stomach, it forms a thin, watery liquid called chyme (KIME).
1 Food moves through
the esophagus to
the stomach.
4 Food leaves the
stomach and enters
the small intestine.
3 The folds in the
stomach enable it to
expand to hold food.
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Digestion and Excretion
Reading Essentials
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
2 Stomach muscles contract
through peristalsis and mix
food with gastric juices.
The Small Intestine
Chemical digestion begins in the mouth and the stomach.
But most chemical digestion occurs in the small intestine.
The small intestine is a long tube that is connected to the
stomach. Chemical digestion and nutrient absorption take
place in the small intestine. The small intestine is named for
its small diameter—about 2.5 cm. The small intestine is about
7 m long.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Chemical digestion of proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic
acids, and fats takes place in the first part of the small
intestine, called the duodenum (doo uh DEE num). The
remainder of the small intestine absorbs nutrients from food.
Like the stomach, the wall of the intestine has many folds.
The folds of the small intestine are covered with fingerlike projections
called villi (VIH li) (singular, villus). Each villus contains small
blood vessels. Nutrients in the small intestine diffuse into the
blood through these blood vessels. You can see the small
vessels in a villus in the figure below.
Locate the pancreas and liver in the figure below. These
organs produce substances that enter the small intestine and
help with chemical digestion. The pancreas produces the
enzyme amylase and a substance that neutralizes stomach
acid. The enzyme amylase helps break down carbohydrates.
The liver produces bile. Bile makes it easier to digest fats. The
gallbladder stores bile until it is needed in the small
intestine.
Key Concept Check
9. Name What organs
work together to help with
chemical digestion?
Visual Check
10. Identify the structures
in the folds of the small
intestine.
Liver
Gallbladder
Pancreas
Small
intestine
Folds in small
intestine
covered
with villi
Blood
vessels
Lymph
vessel
One villus
Reading Essentials
Digestion and Excretion
215
Math Skills
A percentage is a ratio that
compares a number to 100.
For example, the total length
of the intestines is 8.5 m.
That value represents 100%.
If the rectum is 0.12 m long,
what percentage of the
intestines is made up of the
rectum?
0.12 m
The ratio is ______
.
8.5 m
Find the equivalent decimal
for the ratio.
0.12 m
______
= 0.014
8.5 m
Multiply by 100.
0.014 ×100 = 1.4%
11. Use Percentages
The total length of the
intestines is about 8.5 m
long. If the small intestine is
7.0 m long, what percentage
of the intestines is made up
of the small intestine?
The Large Intestine
Any food that is not absorbed in the small intestine moves
by peristalsis into the large intestine. The large intestine is
also called the colon. The large intestine has a larger diameter
(about 5 cm) than the small intestine. It is much shorter than
the small intestine, however. It is only about 1.5 m long.
Most of the water in ingested foods and liquids is absorbed
in the small intestine. As food travels through the large
intestine, even more water is absorbed. Materials that pass
through the large intestine are the waste products of digestion.
The waste products become more solid as even more water is
absorbed. Peristalsis continues to force the semisolid waste
into the rectum, the last section of the large intestine. Muscles
in the rectum and anus control the release of this semisolid
waste, called feces (FEE seez).
Bacteria and Digestion
You might think that all bacteria are harmful. However,
some bacteria have an important role in the digestive
system. Bacteria in the intestines digest food and produce
important vitamins and amino acids. Bacteria in the
intestines are necessary for proper digestion. Without these
bacteria, food would not be digested well.
The Digestive System and Homeostasis
12. Predict What might
happen to other body
systems if the digestive
system did not function
properly?
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Digestion and Excretion
Reading Essentials
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Key Concept Check
Recall that nutrients from food are absorbed in the small
intestine. The digestive system must be functioning properly
for this absorption to occur. The nutrients that are absorbed
are needed for other body systems to maintain homeostasis.
For example, the blood in the circulatory system absorbs the
products of digestion. The blood carries the nutrients to all
other body systems, providing them with materials that
contain energy.
Mini Glossary
chemical digestion: the breakdown of food into small
molecules by chemical reactions
esophagus (ih SAH fuh gus): a muscular tube that
connects the mouth to the stomach
chyme (KIME): a thin, watery liquid; formed when food mixes
with gastric juices in the stomach
mechanical digestion: the physical breakdown of food into
smaller pieces
digestion: the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food
into small particles and molecules that your body can absorb
and use
enzyme (EN zime): a protein that helps break down larger
molecules into smaller molecules, and also helps speed up,
or catalyze, the rate of chemical reactions
peristalsis (per uh STAHL sus): waves of muscle contractions
that move food through the esophagus and the rest of the
digestive tract
villi (VIH li): fingerlike projections that cover the folds of the
small intestine
1. Review the terms and their definitions in the Mini Glossary. Write a sentence describing
the difference between mechanical and chemical digestion.
2. Fill in the table below, highlighting the main structures and function of the organs of the
digestive system.
Copyright © Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Organ
Function
Special Features
Mouth
Esophagus
teeth, tongue, saliva
moves food from mouth to stomach
Stomach
makes chyme with gastric juice
Small intestine
villi
Large intestine
highly folded
What do you think
Reread the statements at the beginning of the
lesson. Fill in the After column with an A if you
agree with the statement or a D if you disagree.
Did you change your mind?
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END OF
LESSON
Digestion and Excretion
217