What does the stomach do to your food in digestive system?
Mechanical Digestion- Churning: The powerful muscles in the stomach contract and relax to break the food into smaller pieces, increasing the surface area for better contact with digestive enzymes and facilitating digestion.
- Mixing: The stomach muscles also generate waves of contractions known as peristaltic waves that mix the food with the gastric juices, ensuring even distribution and further breakdown of food.
Chemical Digestion
- Acidic Environment: The stomach secretes hydrochloric acid (HCl), which creates a highly acidic environment with a pH of around 1 to 2. This acidity kills most ingested microorganisms to prevent infections.
- Gastric Enzymes: The stomach releases enzymes such as pepsin and gastric lipase. Pepsin breaks down proteins into smaller polypeptide chains, while gastric lipase breaks down some dietary fats into fatty acids. However, the main fat digestion occurs in the small intestine.
Mucus Protection
- Protective Layer: The stomach lining produces mucus that forms a protective barrier against the highly acidic environment. This prevents self-digestion and damage to the stomach wall.
Chyme Formation
- Semi-liquid Substance: The partially digested food mixed with gastric juices and mucus forms a semi-liquid substance called chyme. It is ready to be transported to the next section of the digestive tract, the small intestine.