After our warm-up, groups had a little more time to wrap up their statements from yesterday. Then, we discussed the data together as a class. I wanted to highlight a few key idea from each graph.

1. For the mouth, the levels of complex and simple carbohydrates do not match the amount initially in the graham cracker. This means that some form of digestion is starting from the moment food enters our mouths. Second, M’Kenna and the healthy person have the same levels here, which indicates nothing is wrong with M’Kenna’s mouth.

2. For the small intestine, we start to see differences in the absorption rate between M’Kenna and the healthy individual. We already know the small intestine is the organ where a lot of issues are arising, so this makes sense. Secondly, there are now fatty and amino acids in the graphs, which weren’t present in the graham cracker. This means that the body is starting to break down lipids and proteins.

3. For the large intestine, we see that no fiber is absorbed. This tracks with what we learned previously: our bodies don’t digest fiber. Second, M’Kenna has significantly more food molecules than a healthy individual.

We then talk about what happens to anything left over in the large intestine, as well as read a short article on saliva.