Video Transcript
Which of these is not part of the
digestive canal? Is it the large intestine, is it
the small intestine, is it the liver, or is it the stomach?
In order to answer this question,
first we have to remember that the digestive canal is the passage which food takes
through the body when we digest it. It starts at the mouth and finishes
at the anus. First, food goes into the
mouth. This is then broken down using the
teeth, and it is mixed with saliva to help digest it. The food is then swallowed. It goes down the esophagus or food
pipe and into the stomach.
The stomach is a muscular organ
that grinds and mixes the food, digesting it or breaking it down with its own
acid. After passing through the stomach,
the food moves on through into the small intestine. Digested food is then absorbed
through the walls of the small intestine. What’s left of the digested food
continues its journey and arrives at the large intestine. Here, excess water in what is left
of the food is absorbed back into the body. The waste material then exits the
body through the anus.
So, to return to our question,
“Which of these is not part of the digestive canal?,” the digestive canal being the
route that food takes as it passes through the body, well we know now that food
enters the mouth, goes down the food pipe or esophagus into the stomach, then passes
through this into the small intestine. When what’s left of the food has
passed through the small intestine, it goes through the large intestine, eventually
exiting the body through the anus at the other end.
So, if we look at the organs in our
answers, the only one that the food does not travel through is the liver. Now the liver does play a role in
digestion. It creates a chemical called bile,
which helps us digest our food. But it is not part of the digestive
canal. Therefore, the answer to “Which of
these is not part of the digestive canal?” must be the liver.
