Swallow (food)

When you eat food, you put it into your mouth and chew it with your teeth to make it smaller so your body can use it for energy. Once the food is small enough, your tongue pushes it to the back of your mouth and down a long tube called your throat.

Your throat is like a slide that leads the food to your stomach. But before the food gets there, a little door called the epiglottis closes over another little door called the windpipe. This stops the food from going the wrong way and getting into your lungs.

Next, your throat muscles squeeze the food down even further and it travels through a muscular ring called the esophageal sphincter. This ring opens up just enough to let the food through and then squeezes shut again to keep it from coming back up.

Finally, the food reaches your stomach where it is broken down even more with stomach acid and enzymes. This helps your body take all the good stuff out of the food and turn it into energy. And that's how you swallow food, just like magic!