Digestion Series: Part 1 - What is digestion?

When you eat, what happens? If someone were to ask you to give the definition of "digestion", what would you say?

Some common simple answers may be "eating food" or "what the stomach does". A little more descriptive response may be "changing the food you eat into something your body can use".

Here's the "science" definition: #Digestion is defined as the chemical breakdown of food by #enzymes that are secreted into the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract by glandular cells in the mouth, chief cells in the #stomach, the exocrine cells of the pancreas, and by enzymes in the brush border (luminal) membrane and in the cytoplasm of mucosal cells of the small intestine.

When exactly does digestion occur? Digestion occurs prior to the entrance of #nutrients into the interstitial fluid (a fluid that fills the spaces around cells) and hence into the #circulatory system by which nutrients are carried to all cells of the #body.

In upcoming posts, we'll discuss the function and role of each part of the digestive system (the mouth, stomach, small intestine, etc.), as well as how #YoungLiving products such as #Essentialzymes-4 can aid digestion.