My journey of life as a piece of bread

Hi, my name is Gardenium! My birth date is on 26th June 2011 and will be expired in time of two weeks after. My life is too short, despite I don't feel sad, because I know with all the goodness I have, I will make people healthier and I hope the healthiness from mine will be gifted to any prudent. Last week, I was bought by a doctor. How do I know she was a doctor? Yes, she was wearing a name tag named Dr. Syahirah. She brought me and my friends to her house and left us in a dark cabinet. I sit between my two friends. My ease is to talk to my friend above me, Gardenios better compared to my friend below, Gardenew. Gardenew's position is at bottom in our plastic bag, he is the thickest one. He is very arrogant with his tough body and declaring he is the head of all pieces of bread. Every'piece' does not like him, at all.

The next day, Dr. Syahirah bring us to Shah Alam's lake with her children. There, she made sandwiches by using us, and give to her children. Unfortunately, Gardenew is not been used, her children doesn't like it looking it is thickest one. I myself has been eaten by Dr. Syahirah. She chewed me slowly and frequently into smaller pieces, than she swallowed me bit by bit. In her mouth, I had been broken down by salivary amylase which is an enzyme functioned to act on carbohydrate. This enzyme is in saliva, stored in salivary gland. There, I was been broken down into maltose which is a kind of sugar. Than I was shaped into bolus by her tongue and been swallowed. I am now known as bolus, move down oesophagus in a wave-like action called peristalsis. Peristalsis occurs when oesophageal wall contracts and relaxes alternately.

Next, I arrived to the next main station called stomach. Protein in me about 11% been broken down here into polypeptides by an enzyme named pepsin. Pepsin was found in gastric juice as well as hydrochloric acid. What is the function of hydrochloric acid here? Isn't it harmful and why don't our stomach leak with the action of the acid? Here is all the answers. Human stomach doesn't leak because of the mucus in it. It protects the stomach from being leak out, besides it also protects stomach wall from being digested by pepsin. There are some of the functions of hydrochloric acid, first is to stop the action of salivary amylase. Second, is to provide an acidic medium suitable for the action of protease. Protease is a general enzyme of protein. Third, to change the inactive forms of protease to its active forms . Lastly, to kill all the bacterias in food. To make sure all this act normally, the pH value must to be maintain as low as 2. Peristalsis in the stomach will churns the food and mixes it with gastric juice. Here, I am called chyme in a semi-solid condition.

My journey continue when I meet pancreatic juice and bile at duodenum. Duodenum is the first part of small intestine. It receives bile from gall bladder and pancreatic juice from pancreas. Bile is a greenish fluid produced by liver and stored in gall bladder. This fluid emulsifies fat into oil droplets for lipase to act upon, while neutralizes the acidic chyme. Lipase act on vegetable oil in me which only take about 3% from my whole body. The pancreatic juice contains amylase, trepsin and lipase. Double action for fat in a time. Trepsin is to breakdown polypeptides to peptides.

Finally, this is our last station for breaking down into the simplest form, small intestine. In this part of the small intestine secretes intestinal juice which contains enzymes of maltase, erepsin and again lipase. Maltase breaks down maltose into glucose while erepsin breaks down peptides into amino acid. This time, lipase emulsifies oil droplets into fatty acid and glycerol. After completed to be the simplest form, small intestine starts to absorbs all my nutrients needed by the doctor. The inner surface of small intestine is highly folded and covered with billions of villi, tiny finger-like projections. All the products is divided into two ways. The first one is absorbed into blood capillaries like glucose, amino acids, water soluble vitamins and minerals while the other way is move into lacteal by recombine and form tiny droplets of lipids as an example, glycerol, fatty acid and fat-soluble vitamins.Lacteal is a lymphatic capillary that absorbs dietary fat in the villi in small intestine. My glucose, amino acids and fatty acids separated here. From blood capillaries converge to hepatic portal vein, lacteal to lymphatic portal vessels until all these nutrients save arrived to her liver.

In the liver, my nutrients are then sent to heart and all parts of our body. The residue from the small intestine is mainly water, undigested food and digestive juice . From here, the watery residue moves to colon. The residue remains about 12 to 24 hours to absorb 6 liters of water, dissolve minerals and my vitamin A and E into the blood. The movement of this residue along the colon is very slow and helped by peristalsis until I came to the rectum and finally to the anus. I come out from doctor's body in the form of faeces and flushed away. In this way my journey of life as a piece of bread.