Hi there everyone! I'm Carol and I'm going to take you on an adventure through the digestive system.

Would you look at that, our friend Jimmy just took a bite of that apple for his snack. Lets follow it to see where it goes

WOAH!

Shrinking...

Phew we made it, so we start our journey in the mouth. The mouth starts breaking down food into small pieces when you chew. We call this mechanical digestion. 

Some chemical digestion also takes place from your saliva releasing into your mouth and providing enzymes

After the food is small enough to swallow, it goes into our esophagus to travel down to the stomach. Some people may have Gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD for short where the muscles at the bottom of your esophagus relax and allow stomach acids to enter it, causing irritation due to the acidity.

Now we're in the stomach! It is very acidic down here where only some enzymes can thrive and break down food. In addition to this chemical digestion the stomach churns the food to break it down mechanically.

If you look over there, you'll see the liver and gallbladder. We won't actually be going there but they still have a vital role in digestion. The liver makes bile salts that counter our stomach acid. The gallbladder stores this enzyme.