What is Digestion?

Digestion is the complex process of turning the food we eat into the energy we need to survive and creating waste to be eliminated. Digestion is the breaking down of food in the body into a form that can be absorbed and used or excreted. It is also the process by which the body breaks down food into smaller components that can be absorbed by the blood stream.

What is our Digestive System?

The digestive system is made up of the digestive tract—a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus—and other organs that help the body break down and absorb food.

Organs that make up the digestive tract are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine—also called the colon—rectum, and anus. Inside these hollow organs is a lining called the mucosa. In the mouth, stomach, and small intestine, the mucosa contains tiny glands that produce juices to help digest food. The digestive tract also contains a layer of smooth muscle that helps break down food and move it along the tract.

How is Food Digested?

The foods that we eat are not in a form that the body can use as nourishment. Food and drink must be changed into smaller molecules of nutrients before they can be absorbed into the blood and carried to cells throughout the body.

Digestion is the process by which food and drink are broken down into their smallest parts so the body can use them to build and nourish.

Digestion involves mixing food with digestive juices, moving it through the digestive tract, and breaking down large molecules of food into smaller molecules. Digestion begins in the mouth, when you chew and swallow, and is completed in the small intestine.

The Digestive Process:

The digestive process starts with the mouth – chewing food thoroughly is the single most important way to promote good digestion. Digestive juices work only on food they are in contact with, so the more food is chewed, the more digestive juices they come into contact with. To be well digested, food should be chewed until it is in a smooth semi-liquid form. Good chewing also stimulates the increased production of digestive enzymes further down the digestive tract.

The well-chewed food is then swallowed and squeezed down the esophagus into the stomach. Once the food passes to the lower posterior stomach, the gastric juices containing mucus, acid and enzymes start on the process of breaking food down. As the food is progressively digested and becomes small enough, small quantities at a time are sent into the intestines.

Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream as the food passes through the smaller intestine and then into the larger intestine or colon. The colon absorbs few nutrients, but it reabsorbs most of the water and electrolytes in the food mass, which is then delivered to the rectum for elimination.

The Digestive System & Nutrition:

Good food can support good health only when it is properly digested. Good food poorly digested is not desirable. In fact, poorly digested food, even good food, can actually further stress the body and compromise the immune system. Therefore, it is a mistake to equate good nutrition with a selection of good foods. The digestive system must be in good working order also.

Noni and Digestion:

Apollo Noni juice contains digestive enzymes which stimulates and supports the digestive system. Noni juice has traditionally been used as a laxative and assists in the elimination of waste through the body. A person of middle-age can have between 2kg and 7kg of undigested food at any one time in their system if their digestive system is not functioning well.

Taking a daily dose of Apollo Noni increases cellular activity, nutritional intake, waste removal, and overall cellular health. Apollo Noni Juice is recommended to cleanse the digestive tract and improve digestion, and to control weight.