system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If I were to swallow a spider/small snake and not chew, at what point in my body would it die? Could it crawl/slither its way back up my esophagus if it hadn't hit my intestinal juices yet?
gpt
If you were to swallow something like a spider, it would certainly not be able to climb back up.   When you swallow your body engages in involuntary muscle contractions all the way down your esophagus called peristalsis.  The peristalsis forces food you swallow to continually move downwards towards your stomach.  Swallowing is not a purely gravitational endeavor. So the peristalsis action will prevent anything from coming back up, but more importantly, will likely kill what you swallowed.