Video narration
Your digestive system is your body's food-processing line. Its job is to break food into nutrients you can use, and move the leftovers out. It starts in the mouth, where teeth crush food and saliva begins breaking it down. You swallow, and the food travels down the esophagus to the stomach, which churns it into a soupy mix. Next comes the small intestine-the main place nutrients are absorbed into the blood. Helper organs support this step: the liver makes bile, the gallbladder stores it, and the pancreas adds digestive juices. Whatever your body can't use moves into the large intestine, where water is absorbed and waste forms. Finally, it exits through the rectum and anus. That's the basic route: mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine-out.