What stops food going into your windpipe?

Answer 1

Hopefully, you don't have food in your trachea, because if you did, you'd be choking. When you eat, the food should go from your mouth, through your pharynx (the back of your throat), then down into the oesophagus. The opening to the trachea (which is the passageway for air or the "wind pipe") is called the glottis, and the glottis is located just above the larynx (which contains the voice box). (The larynx is also called the Adam's apple). When you swallow, food does NOT enter through the glottis to go down your trachea because the glottis is covered by the epiglottis. So, I think the answer you are looking for is epiglottis: When you swallow, the epiglottis closes the glottis so that the food goes down the oesophagus into your stomach (not down your trachea to make you choke). When you are not swallowing, the glottis is open so that you can breath. Or, were you asking why it is difficult to cough up food when you are choking? That's partly because the air you try to inhale might push the food further down you trachea, and partly because the trachea is made of rings of cartilage that, to some extent, might keep the food from being coughed up as easily as it otherwise might.

Answer 2

Your food goes down your "esophagus" (food tube) and not your "trachea" (breathing tube) because when you eat you do not breathe. You can never breathe when you eat because on top of your trachea is a little flap called the "epiglottis" (flap).When you can't breathe or when you eat the "epiglottis" (flap) closes so that way the food can't get down the "trachea" (breathing tube).

Answer 3

The epiglottis stops food going into the windpipe. It is a small flap of skin which temporarily 'blocks' the entrance to the windpipe during swallowing.

Answer 4

epiglottis, as it blocks the path of wind pipe while swallowing food.

Answer 5

the epiglottis

Answer 6

You choke and die.

Answer 7

Epiglottis