What's so special about the stomach?
Well, let's just say that it's an expandable bag surrounded by muscle that excretes hydrochloric acid but doesn't get burned. It excretes enzymes (proteins that build and break down other molecules) that work best at that low, acidic, pH (read: pepsin et. al.) that break down proteins and carbohydrates into smaller bits (small monomers and polymers).
The muscles around the stomach churn the food, mechanically stressing it and exposing more and more unbroken large molecules to the enzymes.
The lipase that was picked up in the saliva gets to work here as well, breaking down many of the fats that you've eaten.
We can assume that after the stomach is finished with your meal it, well, looks like vomit. Because that's what vomit mostly is: a homogenized acidic mess of rotting food.
However if that seems a bit gross, don't be discouraged. The food needs to be this way to release nutrients that are in tiny chunks:
Well, let's just say that it's an expandable bag surrounded by muscle that excretes hydrochloric acid but doesn't get burned. It excretes enzymes (proteins that build and break down other molecules) that work best at that low, acidic, pH (read: pepsin et. al.) that break down proteins and carbohydrates into smaller bits (small monomers and polymers).
The muscles around the stomach churn the food, mechanically stressing it and exposing more and more unbroken large molecules to the enzymes.
The lipase that was picked up in the saliva gets to work here as well, breaking down many of the fats that you've eaten.
We can assume that after the stomach is finished with your meal it, well, looks like vomit. Because that's what vomit mostly is: a homogenized acidic mess of rotting food.
However if that seems a bit gross, don't be discouraged. The food needs to be this way to release nutrients that are in tiny chunks:
- small enough to be absorbed by the cells lining the intestinal walls
- small enough to be emulsified by bile for intestinal absorption
- small enough to be handles by the flora (read: bacteria) that live in your intestines (and, incidentally, give your poop it's brown color)
- small enough to not block your digestive system and ultimately starve you to death
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