system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When eating food like mashed potatoes, and you swallow a big bite causing it "sticks to your ribs", what is actually happening? Why does it feel like I'm suffocating when the food should be on its way to my stomach, not caught in my air pipe?
gpt
Your air pipe has soft tissue and firm tissue that makes it up. Cartilage rings in your air pipe (which keep it from collapsing when you inhale) are shaped like the letter C, with the open part of C facing the back of your neck. There is obviously not an opening in the back of your air pipe but the tissue back there isn't as firm and can be pushed in/out easily. This "weakness" in the back wall means that something can push in from behind, narrowing your air pipe and making it feel harder to breathe. Your food pipe just so happens to run behind your air pipe. 

This is a guess as to what is happening. If it was your epiglottis closing, you literally wouldn't be able to breathe instead of just having mild difficulty.