Hello, my name is Gimmy, and I am a small bite of gimbap. At lunch today, a boy named Jiho put me in his mouth. His sharp teeth broke me into tiny pieces. At the same time, his saliva made me soft and wet, so I was easy to swallow.
When Jiho swallowed, I slid into a long, narrow tube called the esophagus. I thought I would just fall straight down. Instead, strong muscles in its walls squeezed me along until I reached the stomach.
The stomach felt like a busy washing machine that never stopped. For a few hours, it mixed me with strong stomach juices. Slowly, I changed from solid bits into a thick, soupy mush.
Next, I moved into the small intestine, a long, curly tube that is folded up in the belly. Here, the body could absorb the best parts of me, which are called nutrients. The nutrients passed into Jiho's blood. Then his blood carried them through his whole body to give him energy.
Last, the parts that the body could not use went into the large intestine, which took in most of their water. The rest became solid waste, and it later left his body as poop. This whole trip, from the mouth to the large intestine, is called digestion.
The trip can take a day or more, so his body keeps working long after lunch is over.