Human nutrition

Diet
Balanced diet: A diet which contains all nutrients, in the correct amounts
The nutrients:
Carbohydrates:
Energy source
Absorbed as: glucose
Stored as: glycogen (in animals), starch (in plants)
Food examples: rice, potato, bread
Lipids:
Energy storage and organ protection
Absorbed as: fatty acids and glycerol
Stored in adipose tissue
Food examples: fats and oils
Proteins:
Needed for growth
Absorbed as: amino acids (20 types)
Deficiency will cause: poor growth, Kwashiorkor
Food examples: meat, eggs
Vitamins:
Vitamin C:
To make the stretchy protein collagen, found in skin and other tissues
Keeps tissues in good repair
Food source:
Citrus fruits
Deficiency will cause: scurvy, which causes pain in joints and muscles, and bleeding from
gums.
Vitamin D:

Helps calcium to be absorbed, for making bones and teeth

Food source: butter, egg yolk, most of it is made by the skin

Deficiency will cause: rickets, the bones become soft and deformed
Minerals:

Inorganic substances

Only small amounts of them are needed in the diet

Calcium:

Needed for bones and teeth and for blood clotting

Food source: milk

Deficiency will cause: brittle bones and teeth; poor blood clotting
Iron:

For making haemoglobin

Food source: red meat, egg yolk, dark green vegetables

Deficiency will cause: anaemia, there are not enough red blood cells to deliver
enough oxygen
Fibre:

Indigestible part of food made primarily from cellulose

Keeps the digestive system in good working order and helps to prevent
constipation

Food source: cereals, grains, and wheat

Water:
70% of our body is made of water mainly in the cytoplasm of the cell
Functions:
● Blood plasma is made of water
● An important solvent
● Needed for chemical reactions
● Transport
● Dissolving enzymes and nutrients in the alimentary canal
● Digestion
● To get rid of waste products
Food and energy
The amount of energy needed depends on: age, gender, and job

If you eat too much food, some of the extra will be stored as fat

Pregnant and breast-feeding women need more energy

Energy requirements decrease with age as metabolism slows down

The digestive system
The human digestive system includes the alimentary canal, the liver, and the pancreas

Alimentary canal: a long tube which runs from the mouth to the anus

Nutrition involve a sequence of processes:

Ingestion: taking food and drink into the mouth using the lips, teeth and tongue

Digestion: the large pieces is broken down to small pieces (physical digestion) and the large molecules is broken
down to small molecules (chemical digestion).

Absorption: the movement of the small nutrient molecules and mineral ions through the walls of the intestines and into
the blood.

Assimilation: the nutrients as they become part of the body. They are absorbed by individual cells and used for energy
or to make new substances.

Egestion: material that cannot digest “fibre” remains in the intestines and eventually passes out as faeces
Alimentary canal
Alimentary canal has:

Muscles: contract and relax to make food move along

Sphincter muscles: special muscles that can close the tube completely in certain
places

Mucus: lubricate food, made in goblet cells which are found in the lining of the
alimentary canal
1. The mouth
Food is ingested by teeth, tongue and lips

Physical digestion by teeth

The tongue mixes the food with saliva and forms a bolus

The salivary glands make saliva (water, mucus, and amylase)

Water: helps to dissolve substances in the food

Mucus: helps the chewed food to bind together to form the bolus, and lubricates it for swallowing

Amylase: begins to digest starch

2. The oesophagus
Behind the trachea

Takes food down to the stomach

The centre of the oesophagus is called a lumen

The entrance to the stomach from the oesophagus is closed by a sphincter

muscle.

The food is pushed by peristalsis

3. The stomach
The muscles contract and relax to mix the food with the enzymes and mucus
The stomach wall contains:
Goblet cells: secrete mucus.
Cells: produce enzymes
Other cells: make hydrochloric acid
Sphincter at the bottom of the stomach opens and lets the partly digested food
move into the duodenum
4. The small intestine
About 5 m long

The duodenum: part nearest to the stomach is

The ileum: last part nearest to the colon

The ileum is where all the digested nutrients are absorbed into the blood.
5. The large intestine
Made up of the colon and rectum

The colon absorbs much of the water that still remains in the food

The rectum stores undigested food as faeces to be egested later

The pancreas
A gland lying just underneath the stomach.

The pancreatic duct leads from the pancreas into the duodenum

Pancreatic juice, contains many enzymes for chemical digestion

It flows along the pancreatic duct into the duodenum

The liver
Secrete bile then it’s stored in the gallbladder

When food enters the duodenum, the bile flows along the bile duct and is mixed
with the food in the duodenum

Bile: is a yellowish green, alkaline, watery liquid, which helps to neutralize the
acidic mixture from the stomach.
Gallbladder
Stores bile to release to duodenum when it’s needed
Teeth

Held in the bone of the jaw

Used for chewing
Increase the surface area of the food so that it can be exposed to saliva
Types of human teeth:

Incisors: for biting and cutting

Canines: for holding and biting

Premolars and molars: for chewing and crushing

Types of digestion:
Physical digestion:

Breakdown of food into smaller pieces without chemical change to the food molecules

Types:

The chewing action of the teeth

The churning action of the stomach by the muscles

The emulsification of fats by bile in the duodenum

Emulsification:
Breaking down large drops of fat into smaller ones by the action of bile to increase
the surface area for lipase to chemically breakdown lipids

Bile has two main roles:

It is alkaline to neutralize the hydrochloric acid which comes from the stomach

The enzymes in the small intestine have a higher (more alkaline) optimum pH than
those in the stomach
Chemical digestion:
The breakdown of large, insoluble molecules into small, soluble molecules by the action of
enzymes to be absorbed

Amylase:
Salivary amylase: produced in the mouth
Pancreatic amylase: produced by the pancreas and secreted in the duodenum
Digests starch to maltose
Maltose is digested by the enzyme maltase into glucose on the membranes of the epithelium
lining of the small intestine
Maltase

breaks down maltose to glucose on the membranes of the epithelium lining the
small intestine
Proteases:

Group of enzymes that break down proteins into amino acids in the stomach and small
intestine
Pepsin:
Produced in the stomach and breaks down protein in acidic conditions
Has a very low optimum pH – around pH 2

Hydrochloric Acid
The stomach produces several fluids which together are known as gastric juice
The stomach produces mucus to protect the lining form the gastric juices
Functions of hydrochloric acid:
Kills bacteria in food (denatures the enzymes in their cells)
Gives an acid pH (optimum) for pepsin to work in the stomach
Trypsin:

Produced in the pancreas and secreted into the duodenum

Breaks down protein in alkaline conditions

Has an optimum pH just above 7

Lipases

Produced in the pancreas and secreted into the duodenum

Digest into fatty acids and glycerol

You have 10 minutes!
Prepare a table for the enzymes of the digestive system.

Add the name of the enzyme, the substrate, the product, the optimum pH of the
enzyme, where it is secreted
Absorption
The movement of digested food molecules from the digestive system into:
Blood: glucose and amino acids
Lymph: fatty acids and glycerol
Happens in the small intestine
Water is absorbed in both the small intestine (ileum) and the colon (mostly in small intestine)
The ileum:
Adapted for absorption: (increases the surface area for absorption)
Very long
Has a highly folded surface with millions of villi
The ileum
Adapted for absorption: (increases the surface area for absorption)

Very long

Has a highly folded surface with millions of villi

Has microvilli to increase surface area more for faster absorption of nutrients
Wall of the villus is one cell thick, only a short distance for absorption to happen by
diffusion and active transport
Produce mucus by goblet cells to prevent being digested by its own enzymes
Well supplied with a network of blood capillaries for transport of molecules
Lacteal runs through the centre of the villus to transport fatty acids and glycerol
into the lymph