The Digestion System Lab

In this lab we measured out the length of each part of the digestive system and at the end we added up all of the lengths and got the length of our digestive tracts. The main takeaways I got from this activity is that the intestines are a lot longer than I imagined.  With all of the digestive lengths put together it was very long.  For our small intestine we multiplied our height times 4, which is pretty long so for it to be able to fit in our abdomen it needs to be very bunched up and folded.  The small intestine is very long but it is not as wide as the large intestine.  The large intestine is much wider than the small intestine but it is shorter, for this your large intestine was about your height so we used out height and measured out the yarn.  My guess to how long it takes for food to move through your entire digestive system would be about 8 hours.  I looked it up and it says it takes between 24-72 hours for food to move through the entire system.  My guess was very off, but a big factor to how long it takes is the type of food it is.  Digestion is different from absorption because digestion is breaking down food into smaller pieces and absorption is taking the needed nutrients. Your intestines are where absorption takes place and digestion involves the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, anal cavity and the anus.  I don't have any questions about digestion, I want to learn more about how different people can't digest foods, but others can like for example celiac disease.