Food
Eating healthy food and keeping active helps you feel good and motivated to learn. On this page I will discuss What Happens to Food After You Eat it, Why What You Eat is Important and What’s Actually in Your Food?

What Happens to Food After You Eat it
In goes a piece of shiny red apple you just bit off… after being broken up by your teeth and mixed with the enzymes in your saliva that break down the carbohydrates and sugars in the apple. The piece of apple then goes down into the stomach through the oesophagus. In the stomach, food is further broken up through a process of churning and is thoroughly mixed with a digestive fluid, composed mainly of hydrochloric acid, and other digestive enzymes. As the acidic level changes in the small intestines, more enzymes are activated to split apart the molecular structure of the various nutrients so they may be absorbed into the blood circulation. Absorption is when smaller molecules, such as glucose or alcohol, pass through the membrane of the stomach directly into the blood stream. After being processed in the stomach, food is passed to the small intestine via the pyloric sphincter. This is where most of the digestive process occurs as chyme enters the first 25 cm of the small intestine. Here it is further mixed with 3 different liquids, bile (which helps aid in fat digestion, otherwise known as emulsification), pancreatic juice and enzymes (made by the pancreas) and intestinal enzymes of the alkaline mucosal membranes.

Most nutrient absorption takes place in the small intestine. The nutrients pass through the small intestine's wall, which contains small, finger-like structures called villi that increase the surface area for the absorption of nutrients. The blood, which has absorbed nutrients, is carried away from the small intestine via the hepatic portal vein and goes to the liver for filtering, removal of toxins, and nutrient processing. The primary activity here is regulation of blood glucose levels through a process of temporary storage of excess glucose that is converted in the liver to glycogen in direct response to the hormone insulin. Between meals, when blood glucose levels begin to drop, the glycogen is converted back to glucose in response to the hormone glucagon.

Chocolate is a particularly good source of magnesium, potassium and calcium. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. On
the down side it contains caffeine and has a high fat level, so eat it in moderation!