Cud Cud Cud is a portion of food that returns from a ruminant's stomach to the mouth to be chewed for the second time. More accurately, it is a bolus of semi-degraded food regurgitated from the reticulorumen of a ruminant. Cud is produced during the physical digestive process of rumination. The idiomatic expression "chewing one's cud" means "meditating" or "pondering"; similar expressions such as "he chewed that over for a bit", or "chew on that!" likely have the same derivation. The alimentary canal of ruminants, such as cattle, goats, sheep, alpacas, and antelope, are unable to produce the enzymes required to
Chewing Chewing Chewing or mastication is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth. It is the first step of digestion, and it increases the surface area of foods to allow a more efficient break down by enzymes. During the mastication process, the food is positioned by the cheek and tongue between the teeth for grinding. The muscles of mastication move the jaws to bring the teeth into intermittent contact, repeatedly occluding and opening. As chewing continues, the food is made softer and warmer, and the enzymes in saliva begin to break down carbohydrates in the food. After