Understanding Your Digestive System

Chapter 1: How Your Gut Works

It is important to have a basic understanding of digestion in order to develop gut-friendly food choices and eating behaviors. Many people think that the process of digestion doesn’t begin until food gets into the stomach. It may surprise you to know that digestion begins as soon as the food enters your mouth, and actually even before you start to eat. Researchers have shown that the taste, texture, smell, and appearance of food may affect the body’s ability to absorb nutrients.At the beginning of a meal, even before you start to eat, the brain sends signals to the digestive tract. In the mouth, this results in the secretion of saliva. In the stomach, gastric juices are secreted. In the small intestine, digestive enzymes are released as is the flow of pancreatic juices. If you don’t like the way a food looks, smells, or tastes, the body may secrete fewer digestive juices, and the body’s ability to move food through the digestive tract may be slower than it would normally be. [via]

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