Where does digestion end?

• A. The mouth
• B. The stomach
• C. The small intestine
• D. The large intestine

Answer: (D)

Digestion is the process of breaking food down into smaller molecules so the body can use them. Most chemical digestion and nutrient absorption happen in the small intestine. By the time chyme reaches the large intestine, enzymes have largely finished acting on the nutrients, and what remains is material that the body can’t digest for nutrient extraction. The role of the large intestine is to reabsorb water and electrolytes and to form and eliminate waste as feces. So, in this context, the end of the digestive process occurs in the large intestine, where the body stops extracting nutrients and finishes preparing waste for elimination.