Honey, I Ate the Kids

            Mrs. Alba’s child, Honor, was showing her home to her Aunt Megan on a Sunday afternoon. Megan, a dietician, wanted to see Mr. Alba’s new inventions. The first things that Honor and Megan saw were two special suits that Honor’s father had said were indestructible. After Megan and Honor both put on the suits, Honor decided to see if the suits really were indestructible. To test them, Honor went to another invention that looked like a laser gun, and turned it on. After setting the timer for 10 seconds, she quickly went in front of the gun so that the nozzle was pointing right at her chest. Megan saw what was about to happen and ran towards Honor. Megan dove to push Honor out of the way, but she was too late and the beam hit both Megan and Honor. When they realized that they weren’t dead, the two ladies realized that they had been shrunk. Since Mr. Alba was eating lunch in the kitchen, Honor and Megan made their way to him. When they got on the table, they tried to catch Mr. Alba’s attention, but they failed. Instead, Mr. Alba picked up his glass of water, and in the process of drinking his water, he hit the two ladies into his food plate of food. His food consisted of Cluck-U buffalo wings with traditional sauce, a Moe’s side salad with vinaigrette dressing, fries, Mr. Pibb, and a mango sorbet. Though the two ladies tried to escape, they found themselves quickly on their way to his mouth. Realizing that there was no way for them to escape except for completing the digestion cycle, Megan decided to take this opportunity to teach Honor about the process of digestion because Honor had to do a paper on it for her Anatomy and Physiology class.

            Protected by the suits, Megan began to talk. “The first part of digestion is ingestion, which occurs via the oral cavity, or mouth (Campbell 892). As you can see, all the food that is taken in via the mouth is mechanically digested by the teeth. Since the teeth cannot move, the tongue moves the food around the mouth. The mechanical chewing helps to break down the large pieces of food, which helps to increase surface area of the food particles. A nervous response to the food sends a signal to the salivary glands to release saliva. Not only does it protect the mouth via the release of Mucin, but it also releases Amylase, which breaks down certain carbohydrates such as glycogen, maltose, and starch. Thus, the fries, which are rich in carbohydrates, are going to be the main food item that is chemically digested in the mouth (Potato). A large portion of the mango sorbet is also going to be broken down here because it contains a large amount of carbohydrates (Mango). The bread part of the salad, parts of Mr. Pibbs, and some of the sauce is also going to be partially digested in the mouth because they have carbohydrates in them. Through the tongue’s mechanical manipulation, the food is turned into a ball of food and saliva, called bolus (885).”