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Mechanical digestion, i.e. your body breaking up the food into smaller pieces, is largely meant to speed chemical digestion up. We know that the rate at which the chemical reaction takes place is dependent on four things: the physical state of the reactants involved in the reaction, the temperature at which the reaction takes place, the concentration of the reactants, and the presence of a catalyst. Each influences the rate of reaction in different ways. Mechanical digestion breaks the food into smaller pieces, i.e. changes the physical state. With the larger pieces broken into smaller ones, more surface area is exposed. With greater surface area exposure, chemical digestion can take place much more rapidly.

However, if for some reason you could get just huge chunks of food down your throat without chewing it, your stomach still churns (mechanical digestion) and the contractions in your intestines also help to break up food. So technically yes, chemical digestion would take place, but at a much slower and inefficient manner.

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Is pharynx a mechanical or chemical digestion?

The pharynx is not directly involved in digestion. It is a part of the digestive and respiratory systems, serving as a passageway for food and air to travel through. The process of digestion involves mechanical and chemical actions that occur in organs like the mouth, stomach, and intestines.


What is the medical term meaning the chemical and mechanical breakdown of food in the body?

The medical term for the chemical and mechanical breakdown of food in the body is "digestion." During digestion, enzymes break down food into smaller molecules that can be absorbed and utilized by the body for energy and nutrients.


How are chemical and physical digestion alike?

Physical Processes:Ingestion is the placing of food into the mouth. Mechanical digestion is the mastication of food and the churning of the stomach. Egestion is the removal of undigested materials from the digestive tract through defecation. Underlying all these processes are the muscle movements involved in swallowing and peristalsis.Chemical Processes:The digestion of starch to maltose by salivary amylase, the actions of all digestive enzymes, the emulsification of lipids by bile salts, the effects of the hydrochloric acid secreted by parietal cells of the stomach lining etc.Physical digestion includes things that involve mechanical motion, like chewing.Chemical digestion occurs when a chemical reaction causes the breakdown of food molecules. This occurs in several places, such as with the enzymes in your saliva and in your intestines.Chemical digestion breaks down food into smaller particles to be used as nutrients for the rest of the body. Mechanical digestion breaks down food into small pieces that are churned in the stomach and the intestines to be used as nutrients for the rest of the body, but some food may end up as waste.In me chemical digestion, foods are physically broken down into smaller pieces. In chemical digestion, chemicals produced by the body break foods into their smaller chemical building blocks.Chemical vs Mechanical DigestionThe digestive system of human body is made of vacuous organs connected with long and twisted tube from the mouth to the anus. This is also interlinked with various other organs that help the body to break the food particles and helps to absorb the nutrients. Organs like mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and anus play an important part in the process of digestion.When we consume food, the body needs to break down the food into smaller molecules of nutrients for the system to absorb the nutrients into blood streams. This would be carried to all the cells present throughout the body. Digestion process could be divided into mechanical and chemical digestion.Mechanical digestion is a process that begins the moment the food particles reach the mouth. The process of taking the food from mouth to the body is called ingestion. The teeth initiates the mechanical digestion by grinding the food and this process is also called as masticating.When initiating the chemical digestion process, the saliva secreted helps in softening the food into semi-solid lump. Salivary amylase enzyme helps in digesting the carbohydrates and mucus. This way the food particles are made finer for swallowing and chemical breakdown in the digestive track. The food thus made into semi solid lump is then pushed through the throat and esophagus, a hollow tube that connects throat and stomach.On reaching the stomach the food goes through a series of chemical and mechanical treatment. Inside the stomach mechanical digestion called peristaltic contractions helps to churn the food bolus. The chemical process mixes the bolus with digestive juices released by the stomach lining cells. The food particles go through hours of digestive process passing through various stages of chemical digestion.The processed food is moved into rectum by small intestine. Then the food gets fermented inside large intestine by the gut bacteria. This aids in digesting the unfinished projects of small intestine.There are four important hormones that help in regulating the digestion process.Gastrin '" gastric glands stimulates pepsinogen and hydrochloric acid on arrival of food inside stomach.Secretin '" this signals secretion of sodium bicarbonate in pancreas. Secretin helps in controlling the acidity of the chime.Cholecystokinin '" this helps in secretion of digestive enzymes in pancreas. This also aids in emptying the bile in gallbladder. Cholecystokinin is produced when the digestion process needs to handle fats from chime.Gastric inhibitory peptide '" this helps in decreasing the churning process. This also helps in producing insulin secretion.Even though the mechanical and chemical digestion processes are very important for the human digestive process, chemical digestion is considered more important. This is due to the complex procedure involved in Chemical digestion.Summary:1. Mechanical digestion refers to the digestion process that breaks the food into smaller particles.2. Chemical digestion is the process where acids, bases and enzymes released into the digestive track responds to semi-solid food lumps.3. Chemical digestion is more important than mechanical digestion as this is how we get our energy.Mechanical digestion is the actual chewing and breaking down of food, and chemical digestion is when one substance is turned into anotherMechanical digestion occurs in the mouth, when the teeth (and tongue) break down food into smaller pieces.Chemical digestion also starts in the mouth, when digestive enzymes begin to break down the food and continues in the stomach where gastric juices continue the job of breaking the food down.Mechanical digestion is when food is broken down in the mouth so you can think of your mouth being mechanical..... Chemical digestion is when you food is broken down by chemical enzymes so you can think I'd chemical as like erosionPhysical Processes:Ingestion is the placing of food into the mouth. Mechanical digestion is the mastication of food and the churning of the stomach. Egestion is the removal of undigested materials from the digestive tract through defecation. Underlying all these processes are the muscle movements involved in swallowing and peristalsis.Chemical Processes:The digestion of starch to maltose by salivary amylase, the actions of all digestive enzymes, the emulsification of lipids by bile salts, the effects of the hydrochloric acid secreted by parietal cells of the stomach lining etc.LInk:What_is_the_difference_between_chemical_and_physical_digestionmechanical digestion is when you chew up your food. I thinkchemical digestion is when chemical break down food.Mechanical => ChewingChemical => HCl in Stomach


Where does the digestion of chyme occur?

the stomach and the pancreas


Without enzymes the chemical reactions in the body would?

Without enzymes, chemical reactions in the body would occur too slowly to sustain life. Enzymes act as catalysts, speeding up chemical reactions by lowering the activation energy needed for the reaction to occur. This allows essential processes such as metabolism, digestion, and DNA replication to happen at a much faster rate.

Related Questions

Is absorption mechanical or chemical digestion?

does absorption occur when mechanical or chemical digestion


Is absorption mechanical or chemical?

does absorption occur when mechanical or chemical digestion


Is the small intestines chemical or mechanical?

The small intestine completes the process of chemical digestion.


Do enzymes occur in mechanical or chemical digestion?

think so


Chemical and mechanical digestion of food occur int he stomach?

no in the mouth


Where does mechanical digestion and chemical digestion occur along the digestive tract?

Mechanical Digestion happens in the mouth where your food is physically broken down. Chemical digestion happens in your intestines, where enzymes break down and absorb nutirients


Does bile occur in mechanical digestion?

no


Does chemical digestion occur before mechanical digestion?

Both get started at about the same time. As the teeth are grinding up the food, enzymes in the saliva are breaking down starch.


Is pharynx a mechanical or chemical digestion?

The pharynx is not directly involved in digestion. It is a part of the digestive and respiratory systems, serving as a passageway for food and air to travel through. The process of digestion involves mechanical and chemical actions that occur in organs like the mouth, stomach, and intestines.


What organ does mechanical digestion occur in?

Stomach and Mouth


What type of Mechanical digestion takes place in your mouth stomach and small intestines I?

Chemical and mechanical ingestion take place in the mouth. Chemical and mechanical digestion also take place in the stomach. Chemical digestion takes place in the small intestine.Ingestion, digestion then absorption.In the mouth, both chemical digestion and mechanical digestion happen. The mechanical part is your teeth crushing the food into smaller pieces. The chemical part is when the salivary glands give off a special fluid that contains enzymes. When food enters the stomach, an enzyme is released that helps to digest food chemicaly. The muscles in the stomach also digest food mechanicly. Lastly, the small intestine completes the chemical and mechanical digestion of food. The small intestine takes out all the useful matirial and sends it to the cells as tiny molecules that the cells use in cellular resparation.Baisicly, they all use chemical and mechanical digestion.


Does chemical digestion actually occur for the biomolecules?

no