What digestive process begins in the stomach?
1 Answer
In the stomach, the ingested food is physically and chemically broken down by the churning action of stomach muscles and by the acids and enzymes secreted.
Explanation:
The stomach plays an important role in food digestion. It is an expandable muscular sac that serves both to store food temporarily and to break it down before it passes on to the small intestine.
After the digestive process begins in the mouth with mastication and salivary enzymes, the stomach muscles break down the food into smaller particles for easier mixing with gastric juices.
Gastric acid and enzymes, such as pepsin (for protein breakdown) are secreted into the stomach for chemical breakdown of the food particles.
After this, the muscular contractions of the stomach push the partly digested food into the small intestine for further breakdown and absorption.
