The digestive system processes an average of 60,000 to 100,000 pounds of food over a lifetime. The digestive tract is 27 feet long on average and can take 15 to 48 hours to fully digest a meal. The digestive process begins with sight and smell of food and involves saliva production, stomach acid secretion, and movement of food through the esophagus and stomach over time.

1. THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
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2. During a lifetime, a person
will process between 60,000
to 100,000 pounds of food!
The
average
digestive
tract
is 27 feet
long!
STATION 24: Chew on this…interesting facts
Just the sight and smell of
food begins the digestive
process (saliva in your mouth,
esophagus begins to contract,
stomach produces digestive
enzymes)
Your stomach can
expand to hold 2 ½
pints of food.
The liver is the body’s
second largest organ
weighing 3 pounds.
A meal takes between 15 to
48 hours to completely
digest and move through
the alimentary canal.
The average person
produces 2 pints of
saliva every day (that
is 2 cans of soda!)
Your body
can move
food through
the digestive
system even
while you are
standing on
your head.
The stomach has the
ability to stretch and
hold up to 4lbs of
food at one time.
When you throw up, your
body produces more saliva
to protect your teeth from
gastric acids.