Here are three ways to ask the same question:
- Where does digestion begin?
- Which part of the body starts digesting food?
- What is the first place food gets broken down?
Short answer: Digestion starts in the mouth.
Step-by-step for a 7-year-old:
- Chewing: Your teeth bite and mash food into small pieces so it is easier to swallow.
- Saliva: Your spit (saliva) mixes with the food. Saliva has a helper called amylase that begins to change some foods (like bread) into sugar.
- Swallowing: Your tongue pushes the chewed food back and you swallow it down a tube called the esophagus to the stomach, where more digestion happens.
So the very first place digestion starts is the mouth because of chewing and saliva.