After your stomach turns food into soup, the small intestine soaks it up. Its lining cells sit on tiny fingers and pass the food into your blood.
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The inside of your small intestine is not smooth. It is covered in millions of tiny finger shapes called villi.
Each finger is covered in lining cells. And each lining cell has a fuzzy edge of even tinier fingers called microvilli.
Scroll up to the 3D model and press Wiggle the villi.
Food gets broken into very tiny pieces, like sugars and other building blocks. The lining cells grab these pieces and pass them into tiny blood tubes inside each finger.
Then your blood carries the food all around your body.
Press Soak up food to watch food bits go into a villus.
All those folds and fingers give your intestine a huge surface for soaking up food, much bigger than if it were smooth.
These cells work hard. Each one only lasts about 3 to 5 days. New cells are made at the bottom of the fingers and slowly move up to the top.
Home activity: Put a flat cloth and a fluffy towel in two shallow dishes of water. Which soaks up more? The fluffy loops work like villi!
By Peekaboo Kidz. A fun video for kids.
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