Danny's journey began when Emma, a lovely 10 year old girl took a big bite of him during breakfast. As soon as Danny entered Emma's mouth, he realized this little doughnut's adventure had begun!
While in Emma's mouth, Danny was greeted by the friendly teeth. Danny could not believe how amazing the teeth were, cutting and grinding him down into little pieces or "little doughnut bites". But that was just the beginning! There was also saliva! Saliva is just like water that helps make food all soft, mushy and easy to swallow. Danny thought it was really cool how the watery saliva helped to break him down into what is called a bolus- a soft little ball of food ready to be moved on!
Next stop- the esophagus! The esophagus is a long tube that helped gently push down Danny from Emma's throat down to her stomach. Danny said that he felt like he was sliding down a fun twisted slide called peristalsis. Wheee!
When Danny arrived to the stomach it got really interesting. The stomach was like a big stretchy bag with lots of hard juices called stomach acid and stomach enzymes. The stomach enzymes and stomach acid working super hard to break Danny down even further into little pieces. Danny even felt at one point that that he was at a super busy factory where every part of him was being broken down to help make him useful for Emma's body.
When he was fully processed in the stomach, Danny made it to the longest part of the digestion process: small intestine! Now this segment of the trip was not small at all. It was long and windy—almost like a maze. Beforeprogressed in the small intestine, Danny was introduced to some special helpers, bile and pancreatic juices—provided by Emma's liver and pancreas—that broke him down into even smaller bits. Now, as Danny continued through the small intestine, the bile and pancreatic juices helped Emma’s body take out all of Danny’s good bits, such as vitamins and minerals and energy. These useful substances were absorbed by the walls of the small intestine, transported, and sent directly into Emma's bloodstream to provide her with energy to play and learn and grow.
Now it is important to note that Danny's journey is not over yet! After the small intestine, Danny then progressed into the large intestine. In the large intestine, (as in the previous digestion process) things began to slow down. Danny observed that the large intestine was now pulling all of the water out of Danny. At this point, Danny was mostly completely processed to help Emma's body the rest of him was going to be, well...out of her body.
Thus, what an unbelievable journey through digestion Danny the Doughnut took! From mouth to stomach to small intestine to large intestine, each step in the process has a significant role in breaking Danny into usable energy for Emma!
So, when you think about it, in the end, like Danny, all food we eat and process our food goes on a special adventure through the human body! We all rely on the benefits from A) nutrition and B) energy to continue to live, play, learn, and grow!
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