ipl-logo

The Digestion Process

830 Words4 Pages

Breaking down digestion
The digestion process is a combination of chemical and mechanical digestion. Chemical digestion breaks down food via a chemical change, in which the digestive juices and enzymes break down food into components small enough to enter the GI tract, the blood cells or the lymph cells. Mechanical digestion breaks down food via chewing or grinding in the mouth as well as via the muscular activity in the stomach and intestines. Both types of digestion begin in the mouth.
The mouth and stomach perform both chemical and mechanical digestion.

Nutrition is the process of taking in organic substances and minerals for the seven life processes. E.g. energy for growth and tissue repair. A person is described as malnourished if …show more content…

Increased contractions of the stomach push the food through the sphincter and into the small intestine as the stomach empties over a 1 to 2-hour period. High fat diets significantly increase this time period.
The small intestine is the major site for digestion and absorption of nutrients. The upper part, the duodenum, is the most active in digestion. Secretions from the liver and pancreas are used for digestion in the duodenum. Epithelial cells of the duodenum secrete a watery mucus. The pancreas secretes digestive enzymes and stomach acid neutralizing bicarbonate. The liver produces bile, which is stored in the gall bladder before entering the bile duct into the duodenum.
Digestion of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats continues in the small intestine. Starch and glycogen are broken down into maltose. Proteases (enzymes secreted from the pancreas) continue the breakdown of protein into small peptide fragments and some amino acids.
Bile emulsifies fats, facilitating their breakdown into progressively smaller fat globules until they can be acted upon by lipases. Bile contains cholesterol, phospholipids, bilirubin, and a mix of salts. Fats are completely digested in the small intestine, unlike carbohydrates and …show more content…

Each villus has a capillary network supplied by a small arteriole. Absorbed substances pass through the brush border into the capillary, usually by passive transport.
Maltose, sucrose, and lactose are the main carbohydrates present in the small intestine; they are absorbed by the microvilli. Starch is broken down into two-glucose units (maltose) elsewhere. Enzymes in the cells convert these disaccharides into monosaccharides that then leave the cell and enter the capillary. Lactose intolerance results from the genetic lack of the enzyme lactase produced by the intestinal cells.
Digested fats are not very soluble. Bile salts surround fats to form micelles that can pass into the epithelial cells. The bile salts return to the lumen to repeat the process. Fat digestion is usually completed by the time the food reaches the ileum (lower third) of the small intestine. Bile salts are in turn absorbed in the ileum and are recycled by the liver and gall bladder. Fats pass from the epithelial cells to the small lymph vessel that also runs through the

Show More
Related
408 Words | 2 Pages

The seats hold the crowd in place during the game. 8. Lysosomes - Lysosomes help the digestive process. They contain enzymes that speed up the process and help digestion of food and other materials. Lysosomes are like mitts in baseball.

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

The digestive system is responsible for chemically and mechanically breaking down food and includes organs such as, mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, rectum, anus, and additional accessory organs. These organs all aid in the breakdown of food. Food is broken down mechanically by chewing and churning in the stomach, and chemically by acidic enzymes in the stomach and in the small intestine which receives enzymes from the pancreas that are specifically designed for the breakdown of nutrients. Once the food and nutrients are broken down, the excretory system removes whatever the body decides is waste by filtering blood in the nephrons of the kidneys and turning it into urine which is then collected in the bladder and removed from the body when the bladder is

Read More
643 Words | 3 Pages

Next, this semi-liquid mixture enters into the small intestine, where most of the calories and essential nutrients are absorbed by your body. Finally, whatever is left passes into the large intestine and eventually through the colon as it is expelled from the body. Gastric bypass surgery restructures the stomach and intestinal system, resulting in intentional malabsorption and limiting the patient 's ability to eat large quantities of food.

Read More
1328 Words | 6 Pages

Kidneys d. Gall Bladder 4. An individual cell is able to make

Read More
631 Words | 3 Pages

The first three organs listed are used to move and/or absorb food,

Read More
899 Words | 4 Pages

Gallstones Introduction Gallstones are pieces of solid material that form in the gallbladder. These stones develop because cholesterol and pigments in bile sometimes form hard particles. Gallstones form in the gallbladder a small organ located under the liver. The gallbladder aids in the digestive process by storing bile and secreting it into the small intestine when food enters. Bile is a fluid produced by the liver and is made up of several substances, including cholesterol, bilirubin and bile salts (WebMD.

Read More
401 Words | 2 Pages

Nutrition is the process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health, growth, metabolism, and repair. Food is separated into two groups of requirements; macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients is defined by types of food that are highly required and a bigger amount of them in the diet. Examples of macronutrients would be: carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

The mouth, teeth, and tongue are all very important steps to the digestive system. They all work together to get the food we consume to go easily through the esophagus

Read More
1793 Words | 8 Pages

Our gastrointestinal tracts work hard to keep us healthy and happy. When gut health is compromised, we can face major health consequences. Here’s how to use good nutrition to keep your digestion humming along. “Heal the gut and you heal yourself.” – Gerard E. Mullin, MD

Read More
1001 Words | 5 Pages

The liver produces bile which flows into the gallbladder through the bile ducts. After a meal, the gallbladder releases bile when the hormone cholecystokinin is secreted by the small intestine. Then the bile flows into the intestine to break down the fats. There are two common disorders of the gallbladder which are cholelithiasis (gallstones) and inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecytitis). In addition, cancer can affect the gallbladder although it is very rare.

Read More
595 Words | 3 Pages

Role of Enzymes in Metabolic Pathways Summary Metabolic pathways are a sequences of steps found in biochemical reactions in which the product of one reaction is the substrate for the next reaction [3]. Metabolic pathways most likely happen in specific locations in the cell. The control of any metabolic process depends on control of the enzymes responsible for the reactions occur in the pathways. After food is added to the body, molecules in the digestive system called enzymes break proteins down into fats into fatty acids, amino acids, and carbohydrates into simple sugars (for example, glucose). Enzymes plays an important role in the different metabolic pathways [5].

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

The Digestive System The digestive system is a system consisting of the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, gallbladder, small intestine, large intestine, the rectum and the anus. The functions of the digestive system are: • To break down food particles into molecules for digestion • To absorb into the bloodstream the small molecules produced by digestion • To eliminate un digested and unabsorbed foodstuffs and other waste products from the body The full digestive process begins at the mouth. The food enters the mouth and is chewed.

Read More
1473 Words | 6 Pages

Our bodies do not work as hard to digest milk if they were to digest other foods. If a person is not lactose intolerant, their body should handle the consumption of dairy just fine. However, if a person lacks the lactase enzyme, or has a small amount of it, it becomes harder to break down lactose into more easily absorbable sugars, glucose and galactose

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

The nerve supply also comes from her celiac plexus innervating the liver mixture of sympathetic and parasympathetic fibers. These ribs reach the liver by the hepatic artery. Liver Physiology The liver performs many functions in the body such as: • Production of bile: The liver excretes bile to the bile duct and thence to the duodenum. Bile is necessary for digestion of food.

Read More
924 Words | 4 Pages

The digestive system is located around the stomach area. Along with the digestive system, many other organ systems all work together to create an organism. An example of this would be if a person eats a sandwich and then goes for a run. During the run, the circulatory system helps the body breathe, the muscle system helps the bones move, and all the while the digestive system digests the food. Later on, the excretory system gets rid of the waste, or food that the body can’t use for nourishment.

Read More

More about The Digestion Process

Related Topics

Open Document