Mastication

Mastication or chewing has four major functions:

  1. to mecahnically disrupt food so as to assist the action of digestive enzymes;

  2. to mix food with saliva and thus lubricate and initiates carbohydrate digestion by salivary amylase;

  3. to form the food into a bolus so that it could be swallowed easier;

  4. to trigger the cephalic phase of digestion through the stimulation of afferent receptors;