How Foods Are Broken Down

Carbohydrates have two functions which is, provides short term energy and structure in some organisms. They have an atomic makeup of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, with a 2:1 ratio of Hydrogen to Oxygen. The monomer is a monosaccharide which contains a single sugar. A couple examples of this would be glucose, fructose, and deoxyribose which is found in DNA. Yet, foods with this monomer in it would be mostly fruits, candy, and soda. Carbohydrates also have a polysaccharide which is a polymer made of many monosaccharides strung together. Some examples of these are starch, glycogen, cellulose, and chitin. A starch is storage from glucose in plants(potatoes, pasta, waffles, and toast). Glycogen is storage from glucose in animals. Cellous is structure in plants (cell wall). Chitin is structure in animals (exoskeleton).

(Driskell 29) These simple carbohydrates are easily broken down, converted into glucose for the body and easily flow into the blood stream. The downside to this form of carbohydrates is that they are most common in the form of refined sugars or refined flours which retain very few vitamins after being processed. (“HealthStyle Fitness”) As the body uses this form of glucose a cycle begins which involves fluctuations of high and low blood sugar. This cycle works when blood sugar rises after the consumption of simple carbs and then as the blood sugar begins to drop the body demands more simple carbs to bring blood sugar levels back to up. The cycle that is formed essentially keeps the body from burning body fat because there is a continuous demand and consumption of simple carbohydrates. The second form of carbohydrates is that of complex carbohydrates which consist of polysaccharides, three or more monosaccharides. These complex carbs are found in the form of starch, fiber and glycogen (animal starch). Those complex carbohydrates consumed in the form of starch are found in plant foods like corn, wheat, potatoes, cereals, pastas, and beans. When they are broken down these carbs allow for the slow production and release of glucose into the blood stream and allowing for a consistent blood sugar level. (Guthrie 27) Dietary fiber is another form of complex carbs which are present in plant foods because fiber is

The pancreas is responsible for secreting digestive enzymes into the duodenum. These enzymes then break down protein, fats and carbohydrates. The pancreas is also responsible for making insulin and secreting it directly into the bloodstream. The livers main function within the digestive system is to process the nutrients which are absorbed from the small intestine. Bile is secreted

5. Explain why proteases are secreted in an inactive state and describe the means by which proteases are activated in the stomach and small intestine. – The enzymes protease, amylase and lipase, are potent enzymes that are capable of digesting the pancreatic cells- a process called autodigestion. To protect themselves from autodigestion in case the digestive enzymes accidentally get turned on, pancreatic cells produce enzymes in inactive form called zymogens, which are stored in membrane-bound sacks called zymogen granules. Enteropeptidase (also called enterokinase) is an enzyme produced by cells of the duodenum

Carbohydrates are macromolecules which and contains carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (C,H,O). There are also two types of sugars, sweet soluble and starches which are non-soluble. Sugars can also be single or simple sugars.Carbohydrates can be found in a wide variety of foods such as pasta, wheat and grains, rice, potatoes, fruits and sugars. Carbohydrates are broken down into

Catabolism is the breakdown of larger molecules into smaller units to produce energy. In the digestive system, large substances such as molecules of fats and oils are broken down by an Enzyme called lipases into fatty acids, which is used and stored as energy. For example, when an athletic swimmer swims for a long time, they are due to run out of energy because they naturally get exhausted; hence, the body tends to use the stored energy in the muscles (fatty acids) to get the athlete energised again.

The digestion of the stomach wall is disallowed by its mucus lining. The food in the stomach takes about three to four hours in the stomach before the semi liquid chyme is passed through the pyloric sphincter bit by bit into the small intestines.

specific enzyme (Knowles, 1991). One part of the enzyme, salivary amylase, is that alpha amylase is in the saliva of most animals because this enzyme breaks down starch (Jacobsen, Melvaer, Hensten- Pettersen, 1972). In the presence of starch, this enzyme is present in saliva, but is not present when there is no starch present (Jacobsen, Melvaer, Hensten- Pettersen, 1972). The conditions for salivary amylase to have a reaction with starch would change in temperature and enzyme concentration, as well as, monitoring the pH levels (Jacobsen, Melvaer, Hensten- Pettersen, 1972). Salivary amylase is an enzyme is human saliva that helps in digestion of specific substrates, such as starch (Hudman, Friend, Hartman, Ashton, Catron, 1957). It breaks down starch molecules by splitting maltose from the non-reducing end of a gluten molecule (Jacobsen, Melvaer, Hensten-Pettersen, 1972).

The digestion of lipids occurs mostly in the small intestine, mainly the upper jejunum. Lipases from the pancreas are secreted into the small intestine as a part of pancreatic enzyme and breakdown lipids to fatty acids. Bile salts, created by the liver, enter the duodenum to mix with fatty acids to form micelles. The development of these micelles allows the absorption of fatty acids at intestinal villi. Pancreatic lipase, bile salts and functioning lymphatic channels help break up fat if these are working correctly then steatorrhea

Now in the duodenum, accessory organs add their secretions to the chyme. First is the pancreas. It adds pancreatic juice to the chyme, which contains many enzymes that digest carbohydrates, fats, nucleic acids, and proteins. Pancreatic amylase begins to split the last of the fifteen grams of carbohydrates into double sugars. The pancreatic lipase breaks down the ten grams of fat into fatty acids and glycerol. There are three other protein-splitting enzymes called trypsin, chymotrypsin, and carboxypeptidase.

But protease is important in terms breaking down complex protein into amino acids (1). The food travels down through the esophagus into the stomach. The stomach plays an important role since it break down proteins with hydrochloric acid and protease. In class, we learned that the strong acid will help break down the peptide bond into amino acids while the protease speeds up and perform hydrolysis of the peptide bond of the proteins. The protein will break down into simpler amino acids. The food content in the stomach will eventually become chyme in which it is a thick, liquified digested food that will travel through small and large intestine (2). As the food travels through the small intestine, the muscular wall moves the food and absorbs the nutrients through the wall into the bloodstreams. The amino acids will be available for cell to build to whatever the body requires.

Explain expediency and benefits of their intake and excretionThe digestion of carbohydrate begins in the mouth, and then the salivary gland moistens the food as the food is chewed. The salivary glands have an enzyme called amylase. The amylase is a catalyst that helps in the breakdown of polysaccharides Carbohydrate food. After eating the carbohydrate food into pieces with the help of amylase, it is swallowed to the stomach (chyme) through the oesophagus, at chyme, no digestion takes place. The salivary amylase stops action, and the stomach produces acid that destroys any bacteria. From the stomach, the chyme enters the small intestine (duodenum), the pancreas releases an enzyme called pancreatic amylase that helps in the splitting of polysaccharide into disaccharide. The small intestine t produces maltase, lactase, sucrose. These are enzymes that aids in splitting the disaccharides into monosaccharides.How did the carbohydrate, fats, and proteins differ in digestion process? Explain suitability and benefits of their intake and excretion. (Atoba, MA 1988) The intestinal bacteria help in digesting carbohydrates that refused to digest like other carbohydrates or excreted with faces.Example of carbohydrate foods are bread,Paste,

The stomach is an expandable muscular sac that is capable of holding 2-4 liters of food and liquids and breaks them down with the use of pepsinogen, an inactive form pepsin, a protein-digesting enzyme. If the stomach was damaged or dysfunctional, then it would be harder to gradually release food into the small intestine at a rate suitable for proper digestion and absorption and to digest the food because it is not as small or digested because the stomach also assists in the mechanical and chemical breakdown of the food as well as the killing of harmful bacteria due to the high acidic environment due to the hydrochloric acid. (Audesirk, T., & Audesirk, G. (1999). Retrieved November 21, 2015 from Chapter 29: Nutrition and Digestion. In Biology:

Amylase is a digestive enzyme. The enzyme is found in the salivary glands in your mouth

Digestion is the chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones. When food enters into stomach, gastric juice starts protein digestion. Gastric juice mainly contains hydrochloric acid and pepsin. The pH value of hydrochloric in the stomach is 2, as the activity of pepsin is optimal, while it will lose its activity at pH 6.5 and above. However, pepsin will regain its activity at pH of 8. In the range of pH1 to pH6.5, pepsin will be most active at pH2, and starts to decrease its