Yes, you could digest food if you had no teeth, but you would need to soften the foods with liquids or in a blender so you could swallow them. Can you imagine drinking a blended hamburger? Yuck!

The next step of digestion happens right in your mouth, too! Your salivary glands add saliva to your chewed up pizza. This makes the food you eat easier to swallow because it becomes mushy and soggy (click here for a picture of the salivary glands).

Your saliva contains a special substance that begins to digest starchy foods, or foods found in the bread group of the food guide pyramid. Your saliva changes these starches to sugar. In our pizza example, the crust begins to digest in your mouth.

What is your favorite starch food?

STOP AND THINK