Well your and my stomach is made up of a stomach lining, protecting the rest of the internal organs from the acid. This diagram might help you understand how the cells and how your stomach forms HCL. <span>HCL breaks down proteins in your </span>stomach<span> to prepare them for digestion (like the proteins in milk and meat) and kills bacteria that enter your </span>stomach. It converts the inactive enzyme <span>pepsinogen </span>into the active enzyme pepsin. If you need more information please feel free to ask!