What it actually does is it simply increases the surface area of the food on which the proteolytic enzymes found in the mouth, in our stomach and small intestine can actually act on. And this makes the process of digestion the breakdown much more efficient and effective. Now, what actually initiates and creates mechanical digestion is the movement of the muscles and the teeth found inside our mouth. And this is known as chewing, or mastication. Now, this chewing process, the chewing of food, actually transforms our food into a spherical mass we call the bolus. And this shape of the bolus basically allows the movement of the spherical bolus along our cylinder known as Aristophagus.