HUMAN NUTRITION

Detailed explanation-1: -The gizzard can grind the food with previously swallowed grit and pass it back to the true stomach, and vice versa. In layman’s terms, the gizzard ‘chews’ the food for the bird because it does not have teeth to chew food the way humans and other mammals do.

Detailed explanation-2: -To improve the efficiency of digestion, many birds ingest and retain grit in the gizzard to break down food particles, similar to the use of teeth by non-ruminant mammals (Fritz et al., 2011).

Detailed explanation-3: -The gizzard is why chickens do not need teeth. It is a muscular part of the stomach and uses grit (small, hard particles of pebbles or sand) to grind grains and fiber into smaller, more digestible, particles. From the gizzard, food passes into the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed.

Detailed explanation-4: -Most of these birds eat hard items such as seeds and nuts. Birds with thick gizzards frequently pick up grit-little stones, sand, and small shells. These items collect in the gizzard. When food and digestive juices enter the gizzard, the thick muscles and grit help pulverize the food.

Detailed explanation-5: -Located between the saclike crop and the intestine, the gizzard has a thick muscular wall and may contain small stones, or gastroliths, that function in the mechanical breakdown of seeds and other foods. In this sense, the gizzard is comparable to the teeth of other animals.