Video narration
What happens to a bite of food after you swallow it? Your meal starts changing in the mouth: your teeth chew it into smaller pieces, while saliva begins breaking it down. Then it moves to the stomach, but here's the important twist: the stomach is not the whole story. It churns the bite and mixes it with digestive juices, making the food easier to break apart. Next comes the small intestine, where most nutrients pass into your blood. Your body can use them for energy, growth, and repair. Whatever your body cannot use continues to the large intestine. There, water is removed, and the leftover material becomes waste, which later leaves your body when you use the toilet. That bite doesn't disappear: it's chewed and mixed, nutrients are absorbed for energy, and leftovers lose water to become waste.