The small intestine completes digestion begun in the mouth and stomach. Powerful muscular contractions mix the food with digestive juices and push it along the intestinal wall. As a finished product, each nutrient can now pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream to be transported first to the liver for final inspection. Back in the small intestine, millions of friendly bacteria have the capacity of taking food that you either cannot absorb or that escapes absorption, and manufactures new or modified nutrients that are later taken up by the blood. These include certain vitamins and minerals that have been either changed so that they are more readily available to your body, or newly manufactured outright.
Different bacteria live in different portions of both the large and small intestine.
They perform specific, healthful functions. In the wrong place, however, they can become your enemy and cause inflammation and infections that attack bowel tissue and poison the bloodstream. Bifidophilus , as one example, keeps harmful bacteria and fungus at bay. Maintaining a healthy bacteria population, therefore, requires a healthful lifestyle. After most of the nutrients have been absorbed, the residue bulks up in the large intestine.