The complex processes of ingestion, digestion, absorption, and metabolism require properly functioning GI structures. The overall process was described, from mastication of food through evacuation of stool.

Medications are often essential to promote a healthy, functioning GI system and to augment nutrition

digestion — the process by which food is broken down mechanically and chemically in the gastrointestinal tract and converted to absorbable forms. mastication — chewing; involves coordination of the large temporal, masseter, and pterygoid muscles as well as other smaller muscles of the mandible and tongue to grind food under the…. absorption — the passage of digested products from the intestinal lumen through mucosal cells and into the bloodstream or lacteals. ingestion — the process of taking substances (particularly food) into the gastrointestinal tract.