The Esophagus

In the second stage of the digestive process, food passes through the throat to the stomach, where major digestion will begin. No digestive process takes place during food’s passage down the esophagus. After you swallow, the flat muscles behind the neck push the food into the esophagus. Food is passed down by gravity, as well as of the rhythmic contraction of the esophagus, known as peristalsis. These muscular contractions are so powerful that they enable food to be propelled sideways even if you are lying down. 29 It takes a mere 12 seconds for food to pass through the 25-centimeter (10-inch) long esophagus.

People can use their mouths both for eating and for breathing, because immediately next to the esophagus, down which the food passes, is another tube through which the lungs inhale air. One vital point to be borne in mind here is that if chewed food entered the windpipe instead of the esophagus, you would choke to death. If a piece of food were mistakenly to enter the windpipe, swift death or serious infection would be the consequence. Nor is it any solution for the windpipe to be constantly kept closed. The most rational and practical solution is for the windpipe to feature a valve that can open and close. And so, even when not eating, however, people actually swallow hundreds of times every day—when they swallow saliv, for example.

As already stated, the human body’s creation is perfect, and the windpipe possesses a most reliable security system. A valve consisting of a small piece of tissue at the top of the windpipe automatically closes as you swallow, preventing any food or drink from entering the windpipe. After an act of swallowing has taken place, the valve opens in its former position, and air can once again be inhaled through the windpipe.

Foodstuffs passing down the esophagus begin moving towards the stomach.
 Very powerful, rhythmic muscular contractions known as peristalsis permit
 foodstuffs to move along the alimentary canal.

As people eat in their daily lives, nobody is aware of this potential danger. No one ever thinks, “What if what I swallow goes down the wrong way? I wish I had a valve in my windpipe so my food would never get stuck in it.” Neither do people often wonder, “Is that valve working and able to stop me from choking?” In all probability, you were unaware of the importance of the valve in your throat until you read these very lines! However, that valve’s existence keeps you alive at all times, even as you swallowed unconsciously, just a few seconds ago.

A small valve of tissue on the esophagus automatically closes
the windpipe when swallowing.
Food or water are thus prevented from entering
 the windpipe when you eat. After swallowing the valve
opens again and air can move through the windpipe

This valve’s evident feature contains a great many details. For example, were a normal adult’s valve the same as a baby’s, that baby would be in serious danger. For that reason, babies’ valves function in a very different way. Their little valve is located higher up in the throat than it is in adults, allowing babies to breathe as they drink their mothers’ milk. That is also why babies do not cry and choke as they nurse. If the valve system in babies were the same as that in adults, then babies might choke unless they held their breath.

However, this same need has existed in every baby who ever lived, and exists in every baby alive today—and is met in the most ideal manner. Apart from those suffering from a specific disorder, everyone was endowed with just the kind of valve they required in infancy. In the same way, when these people become youngsters, the structure of that valve again changes to respond to their different nutritional needs.