← The Human Body

Chapter 5

Digestion and food

Digestion starts in your mouth, where saliva begins breaking down starch, and ends many hours later in the large intestine. On the way, muscle waves push food along, enzymes split it into small pieces, and millions of tiny folds absorb what your body needs. This chapter follows that journey and the nutrients it delivers: protein to build muscle, fibre to keep things moving, and the vitamins and minerals whose lack causes scurvy, rickets or anaemia.

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  1. Enzyme in saliva that starts breaking down starchAmylase
  2. Tube that carries food from mouth to stomachOesophagus
  3. Flap that stops food going into the windpipeEpiglottis
  4. Finger-like folds lining the small intestineVilli
  5. Main job of the large intestineAbsorbing water
  6. Nutrient the body uses to build and repair muscleProtein
  7. Part of plant food that we can't digestFibre
  8. Nutrient with the most energy per gramFat
  9. Vitamin whose lack causes scurvyVitamin C
  10. Vitamin your skin makes in sunlightVitamin D
  11. Mineral needed to make haemoglobinIron