What is a 'digestive track'?

What is a 'digestive track'?

Lin Chang (UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases) gives expert video advice on: What is 'irritable bowel syndrome' or IBS?; What does 'irritable' mean in terms of IBS?; What is a 'bowel'? and more...

The digestive track is really referring to the gastrointestinal track whose function is to allow us to eat food and water and digest the food, absorb it for nutrients, and to expel what we don't need. So it's comprised of the oesophagus where we swallow food, goes into the stomach where it's broken down, and the small intestine which basically receives food from the stomach and is where we do the majority of our absorption of nutrients. And then it goes from the small bowel, and it empties into the colon, or the large intestine, or large bowel, where its main function is to store stool, to absorb water, so the stool becomes more firm, and then it's expelled through the rectum.