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You do! HCL, hydrochloric acid, is produced by humans and is used in the digestive system. It can be found in the stomach and although it does help to break down food, its main purpose is to activate pepsinogen. When activated, pepsinogin becomes pepsin which is very effective at breaking down proteins, the peptide bonds in the protein to be exact. Hydrochloric acid is created in a different location than the pepsinogen, which is created in the stomach so that they don't mix and mistakenly activate. After the bolus, food being digested, leaves the stomach, the hydrochloric acid is neutralized by a base called sodium bicarbonate in the duodenum. I'm pretty sure that animals with stomachs use this process, but I am not definite on that.

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15y ago

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