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“Drink your solids, Eat your liquids”

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How does the digestive system work? To explain easily let’s take a look at what happens after we chew and swallow the food.

  • To explain in a simple way, the food after chewing goes into the stomach and converts into liquids, then plasma,  Blood in the liver, then into fat, bone, marrow bone, lymph, semen or ova, or into Sukra ( amrita) food for the brain.
  • The food that we eat has to be chewed thoroughly to be absorbed well into our system and after entering the stomach digestion begins and the food goes through 7 processes until it’s eliminated from the body. Why do I say we process the food in the mouth? Our parents always tell us to chew the food well, for the body to efficiently absorb the micro-nutrients and phytochemicals from the food. When we chew the food the initial process of digestion begins in our mouth with the saliva helps to break down the food into a paste, like liquid first before we swallow, masticating the solid food is critical for our well being. This is the initial phase of digestion before the food travels down to the stomach.
  • Now begin the second phase where the acids secreted by the stomach beings to further break down, what has been ingested. The concentration of digestive acids is incredibly strong such that, the level of acidity from the stomach if taken out and placed on a metal plate will eat through the metal and go right through the metal. This is an extreme example of the concentration of acidity created in the stomach. Why does this happen and how is the stomach able to prevent its walls from getting damaged?
  • The level of alkalinity and acidity is from 1 to 14, 1 is extreme acidity and 14 is alkalinity. First, the acids secreted are created to destroy and neutralize all bacteria that has arrived from the outside into the body. The stomach acidity can usually reach the level of 1 for this reason. The second aspect of why the wall is not damaged by the acids if the same acid can burn through metal? This is because the stomach also secrets mucus that is coated around the inner stomach lining to prevent the walls from getting damaged or burned. Invariably this can happen when we consume accessive amounts of highly acidic food.
  • Acidity And Alkalinity. The alkalinity of water is its acid-neutralizing capacity. The acidity of water is its base-neutralizing capacity. Both parameters are related to the buffering capacity of water (the ability to resist changes in pH when an acid or base is added). Water with high alkalinity can neutralize a large quantity of acid without large changes in pH; on the other hand, water with high acidity can neutralize a large quantity of base without large changes in pH.
  • Acidity is determined by measuring how much standard base must be added to raise the pH to a specified value. Acidity is a net effect of the presence of several constituents, including dissolved carbon dioxide, dissolved multivalent metal ions, strong mineral acids such as sulfuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids, and weak organic acids such as acetic acid. Dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main source of acidity in unpolluted waters. The acidity from sources other than dissolved CO2 is not commonly encountered in unpolluted natural waters and is often an indicator of pollution. Titrating an acidic water sample with a base to pH 8.3 measures phenolphthalein* acidity or total acidity. Total acidity measures the neutralizing effects of essentially all the acid species present, both strong and weak. Titrating with a base to pH 3.7 measures methyl orange* acidity Methyl orange acidity primarily measures acidity due to dissolved carbon dioxide and other weak acids that are present.
  • WHY Alkalinity is Important In unpolluted natural waters, the alkalinity of water is more common than acidity. A good indicator of alkaline water is the dissolved inorganic carbon (bicarbonate and carbonate anions) present in the water. Unpolluted waters naturally have a higher degree of alkalinity. As all-natural waters contain dissolved carbon dioxide, they all will have some degree of alkalinity contributed by carbonate species — unless acidic pollutants would have consumed the alkalinity. Alkalinity is important to fish and other aquatic life because it buffers both natural and human-induced pH changes. The chemical species that cause alkalinities, such as carbonate, bicarbonate, hydroxyl, and phosphate ions, can form chemical complexes with many toxic heavy metal ions, often reducing their toxicity. Water with high alkalinity generally has a high concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon (in the form of HCO3- and CO32-) which can be converted to biomass by photosynthesis. Minimum alkalinity of 20 mg/L as CaCO3 is recommended for environmental waters and levels between 25 and 400 mg/L is generally beneficial for aquatic life. More productive waterfowl habitats correlate with increased alkalinity above 25 mg/L as CaCO3.

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