How does the stomach digest food?

Your stomach is a muscular bag of acid strong enough to dissolve meat, yet it doesn't digest itself. Swallow a bolus, cut the stomach open, watch it churn food into chyme three times a minute, and meet the germ a doctor drank to win a Nobel Prize.

Read how it works: How does the stomach digest food? · The history of understanding the stomach · More boxes on Glassbox

Chapters in this interactive model

1. The stomach and the road to it: A muscular bag under your left ribs, fed by a 25 cm tube.
2. From the mouth down: Chewing, a sealed airway and a squeeze that works upside down.
3. A bath of acid that doesn’t digest itself: Parietal cells pump acid, chief cells make pepsin, and mucus keeps the lining safe.
4. Churning food into chyme: Three squeezes a minute, a gatekeeper at the exit, and 2 to 4 hours to empty.
5. Hunger, fullness and a growling stomach: Stretch sensors, a nerve to the brain, and hormones made by the stomach itself.
6. Keeping it healthy, and what goes wrong: Heartburn, H. pylori and ulcers, food poisoning, and why we vomit.