The Digestive Process Broken Down

So we all know that when we are hungry we eat that yummy cheeseburger we were craving or that donut your boss brought into the office, but do most of us know really what happens after that last bight? It all starts from our intestines..The intestines consists of  small and large intestines (also known as the colon

Here are the basic functions of each:

Small Intestine 

The small intestine is a muscular 21-foot long tube, of small diameter (about one inch). This is where the digestive process takes place. Macronutrients are reduced down into sugars, amino acids and fatty acids, then absorbed, along with some micronutrients, and transported to the liver, then distributed to the cells through the blood and lymph. The pH in a healthy small intestine is alkaline.
More specifically, here is what happens during the digestive process.

From the stomach, the small intestine receives a semi-digested mixture of food and acidic enzymes; this mixture is called chyme. The small intestine also receives pancreatic juice enzyme from the pancreas and bile (a fat emulsifier) from the gall bladder. While being transported through the small intestine by segmentation movement, the digested fluid mass is absorbed through the striated border epithelium covering the villi (the intricate, microscopic finger-like folds which number in the millions).

The bacteria which live on living vegetable foods produce digestive enzymes which assist in the body’s digestion of vegetable foods. Under various conditions of poor eating and incomplete digestion, however, bacterial decomposition of food occurs resulting in toxic by-products which can be responsible for irritation then inflammation of the intestinal wall, plus they may be absorbed into the blood stream causing a host of illness symptoms. When the wall of the small intestine is inflamed, the nerves and absorptive function of this organ becomes greatly impaired, and the act of eating is usually met with severe gastric distress.

Colon

The colon is a three to five foot long, thick muscular organ, normally with an inverted u-shape. The colon is much more than a muscular tube. It has an intricate network of nerves which connect with every other organ an neuro-muscular system in the body – – when the colon is sick or even impacted with hardened feces, disease symptoms typically manifest in other parts of the body.

The colon receives metabolic wastes from the small intestine. The colon also receives indigestible residue, including micronutrients, from the small intestine through the ileo-cecal valve. Muscular wave-like motion, peristalsis, moves the material forward as water and micronutrients are absorbed and stools are formed for elimination. A healthy colon has a slightly acid pH.

The colon works symbiotically with bacteria (flora).

There are two classifications of bacteria in the intestinal tract: healthful “friendly” bacteria (including lactobacillus bifidus and coli bacteria); and “unfriendly” coliform bacteria (including E. coli) which are actually misunderstood. “Unfriendly” bacteria, also erroneously referred to as pathogenic bacteria, are actually “friendly” bacteria which have mutated in the presence of toxic matter (cooked food) and serve the “friendly” function of eating (or cleaning up) the toxic matter.  “Unfriendly” bacteria are mistakenly blamed as the cause of illness, however, bacteria does NOT cause illness. Bacteria simply functions as a “clean up wastes” in the external and internal (bodily) environment. In the healthy colon of a person living on a 100% natural diet of fruits and vegetables, there may be a minimal amount of bacteria in the colon.

Things to remember:

Proper Digestive Function = Healing and Prevention

Disorders and diseases of the digestive tract must be treated. Proper digestion, absorption and assimilation of nutrients must be assured in order to recover from present disease in the digestive tract, or anywhere else throughout the body.

Researchers believe that 90% of all diseases begin in the digestive tract due to improper digestion, absorption and assimilation of nutrients. In other words, proper digestion, absorption and assimilation of nutrients is the optimum prevention.
99% of all Pharmaceutical drugs do not Heal or Cure, they merely “mask” or hide symptoms which leaves the causative factors in tact.

Every tissue, bone, cell, gland and organ of the body needs to be nourished by nutrients. Without proper assimilation of nutrients, all components of the body will deteriorate prematurely and potentially become diseased.

Where we come in: