Transcript[]
Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby
Tim is sitting behind a table eating while Moby is cooking, who is using a pan and a gas stove.
TIM: Hey, these are really good. My compliments to the chef.
MOBY: Beep!
Moby looks over his shoulder at Tim and smiles.
TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, how do we digest food? From, Sam.
Tim reads the letter he is holding in his hand.
TIM: Oh, why, thank you.
Moby places a glass of water on the table in front of Tim.
TIM: Digestion is about breaking apart the food we eat, so that our bodies can use the food's nutrients.
Tim addresses the camera.
TIM: Food is broken up in two ways: mechanical digestion and chemical digestion.
An image of different foods including chicken, pizza, hamburger, baked potatoes, fruits and vegetables is shown. An animation adds two arrows pointing down in opposite directions. Phrases "mechanical digestion" and "chemical digestion" are then added underneath the arrows.
Tim: Mechanical digestion is the physical breaking apart of food.
An animation shows a hamburger being broken up into pieces of various sizes until it turns into a substance of uniform consistency.
Tim: Chemical digestion is when chemicals called enzymes break food into molecules that your body can absorb.
An animation shows several molecules of two different structures moving around on the screen.
TIM: Both types of digestion occur in our mouths: chewing mechanically breaks food apart, while an enzyme in your spit called salivary amylase breaks down carbohydrates.
An animation shows a set of teeth chewing up food; pieces of food are covered with saliva.
TIM: When food you eat becomes a soft, gooey mass, esophagus your tongue pushes it to the opening of your esophagus, at the back of your mouth.
An animation shows part of a hamburger entering a mouth. The food is chewed. Once chewed, it starts moving down the throat.
TIM: The esophagus squeezes the food down into the stomach.
An animation shows various internal organs and the food moving down the tube that is the esophagus. Once food reaches the stomach, the camera zooms in on the stomach.
TIM: Inside your stomach, food is churned and mixed with enzymes and other digestive juices, including hydrochloric acid.
An animation shows the food that entered the stomach being covered by a substance coming out of the walls of the stomach. With time, the pieces of food decrease in size.
(A grumbling noise is coming from Moby's mid section.)
MOBY: Beep.
Moby places his hand on his belly.
TIM: These chemicals break down proteins and fats. A lining of mucus protects your stomach from the acid.
The scene changes to show food inside a stomach.
TIM: After about four hours in your stomach, food is the consistency of a thick milkshake, and we call it chyme.
Moby places another plate of pancakes on the table in front of Tim.
TIM: Chyme moves into the small intestine, which is actually not so small: it's about seven meters long!
The scene changes to show the internal organs with the small intestine, a ropy pink coiled tube, highlighted. An animation then draws a line pointing to it and states that it's about seven meters long.
TIM: The small intestine is where most of the nutrients from food are absorbed.
The scene changes to show the portion of the small intestine closest to the stomach.
TIM: In the first part of the small intestine called the duodenum, duodenum digestive juices from the liver and pancreas join the breakdown mix.
The camera zooms out to show and label the liver and pancreas. The pancreas is shown to be to the right of the duodenum and the liver is above it.
TIM: They turn the chyme into a soup of molecules small enough to be absorbed into your bloodstream.
MOBY: Beep?
Tim looks over at Moby.
TIM: Well, there are these tiny finger-like things called villi lining the inside of the small intestine. Cells on the surface of the villi absorb nutrients from chyme as it flows by.
An animation shows inner structure of the small intestine. Chyme is moving through a series of villi and the molecules, shown as small green circles, are leaving the chyme and are getting absorbed by villi.
TIM: When chyme gets to the large intestine, it's thin and watery.
A diagram of internal parts is shown. A long bumpy tube connects to a second shorter tube.
TIM: The large intestine is actually way shorter than the small intestine, but because it's a lot wider, it's called large.
The camera zooms in on the large intestine and all of the other internal organs are removed.
TIM: Sometimes, it's called the colon. The large intestine sucks most of the water out of digested chyme, in a process called absorption.
Inner structure of the large intestine is shown. While chyme is moving through the colon, water drops are shown to be leaving the chyme and getting absorbed by the large intestine.
TIM: This step is important because recovering that water keeps you from getting dehydrated.
Moby places another plate of pancakes on the table in front of Tim.
TIM: Once most of the water is gone, solid waste is moved to the last part of the large intestine, the rectum.
An animation shows water from the chyme being absorbed by the colon leaving an irregular-shaped brown mass.
TIM: When enough waste piles up there, you're ready to go to the bathroom. And the digestive process is complete.
An animation shows the waste moving through and out of the large intestine as a solid object.
(toilet flushing)
TIM: The whole digestion process can take up to two or three days. (Burp!) Ooh.
MOBY: Beep?
TIM: I ah, I think I ate too many pancakes.
Tim is sitting behind the table with four empty plates in front of him. He looks over at Moby and Moby pats him on the back.