Have you ever wondered what do the intestines do? Let’s discover five interesting intestines facts for kids.
We hear a lot about bacteria being bad as some bacteria can cause infections or disease. We wash our hands to help avoid bad bacteria but not all bacteria are bad for us. Some bacteria is good for us and helps with digestion and some of that bacteria is found in the intestines. There are around 100 trillion bacteria in your intestines which help you to digest food. Some people take probiotics to encourage good bacteria as it is so good for your gut to have good bacteria in it.
There are two parts to the intestines which are described by their size. The small intestine is a long but thin tube which carries food from the stomach to the large intestine. The large intestine is much shorter but wider and carries food from the small intestine to the rectum. In adults the large intestine is about 5 feet long but the small intestine is much longer, around 22 feet long. So, together they measure about 27 feet which is around the same length as a London bus.
Humans did not always understand how the guts digested food but they knew that the food we ate was important to our health. In 1535 a man called Andreas de Laguna described the intestines as ships which transported cargo. Boats were how supplies travelled then and large boats would carry goods across the ocean. Once the large boats reached a port the goods would move to a smaller boat to be transported up rivers and canals to reach more towns and cities. Andreas used this metaphor to describe how food travels through both intestines.
Once the food you eat travels through the small intestine it is still mostly liquid, it is the very important job of the large intestine to absorb the water you get from food. The large intestine absorbs around 80% of the water the body takes in. Hydration of the body does many important things such as making sure your body can maintain a healthy temperature, lubricating your eyes so you can see, and helping your joints move. So keeping the body hydrated is a very important job.
The large intestine is a very strong muscle which moves food through it with its muscles. This process is called Peristalsis. During peristalsis nutrients and water are removed from food to fuel the body. The muscles in the large intestine are so strong that even if you hang upside down the food will move the right way, down towards the rectum. That’s a very strong muscle.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about the intestine as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this system in human body is, you can move on to learn about other ones like: Digestive System and Liver.
Why not subscribe to our LearningMole Library for as little as £1.99 per month to access over 2800 fun educational videos.
Leave a Reply