- Digestion is a form of catabolism: a break-down of larger food molecules to smaller ones.
- In a healthy human adult, digestion can take between one and three days.
- Organs that make up the digestive tract: mouth, esophagus, stomach, small Intestine, large intestine, rectum and Anus.
- Every day 11.5 liters of digested food, liquids and digestive juices flow through the digestive system.
- The whole digestive system is around 30 feet long.
- Hundreds of different kinds of enzymes are needed to properly digest food.
- Over 90% of digestion and absorption takes place in the small intestine.
- A rumbling stomach is a sign that the digestive system is working well.
- Digestive problems cost Americans $50 billion each year in both direct costs and absence from work.
- The liver is the body's main chemical factory, performing hundreds of different functions.
- The liver is the largest organ in the body.
- Seventy year-olds may produce as little as half the enzymes they produced when they were 20.
- An adult esophagus ranges from ten to fourteen inches in length, and 1 inch in diameter.
- On average, the stomach produces two liters of Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) daily.
- Burping and farting are the result of gas in the intestinal system and are a natural way of expelling the excess.
- The small intestine is a long tube about twenty-two feet long.
- Food stays in your stomach for two to three hours.
- It is estimated that most people produce between 1 and 3 pints of gas per day.
Facts about digestive system
