Why is mechanical digestion important for proper chemical digestion?

Answer 1

Mechanical digestion chops the food in to smaller pieces, thus exposing more of it to the enzymes of the chemical digestion.
Mechanical digestion begins in the mouth by the teeth, tongue and saliva. Mechanical digestion is important for chemical digestion because when food is broken down into smaller particles by mechanical means, chemical digestion will be more efficient.

Answer 2

Mechanical digestion involves grinding of larger food particles into smaller ones. The small food particles are then easily acted upon by the digestive juices and the digestive enzymes. Hence, mechanical digestion precedes the chemical digestion.

Answer 3

There are two kinds of mechanical digestion.

• Chewing breaks food up into smaller pieces which make better contact with digestive fluids (chemical digestion).
• In the stomach the food is swished around, this causes fresh digestive fluid to come in contact with the food and thus speed digestion..