8A Food and Digestion
8A Food and Digestion
8A Food and Digestion
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Starchy foods contain carbohydrates, which are made of long chains of identical small sugar molecules.
1 Sugar molecule
Carbohydrate
The body has to break these large food molecules up into smaller pieces. The small sugar molecules are very useful. The body can use them to make
ENERGY
Mechanical digestion
Food is firstly broken down (mechanical breakdown) into smaller parts by the teeth in the mouth. It is then mixed with saliva and swallowed.
The stomach
Food enters the stomach, which is basically a muscular bag, filled with hydrochloric acid (HCl). Two things happen here: Chemical breakdown of the food. Microbes are destroyed.
cross section of stomach
All that is left is waste material and water. The body will want to leave the waste material within the digestive system but the water is valuable and so it is re-absorbed here.
The waste material is passed to the rectum where it is stored until it leaves the body through the anus.
Fat molecule
Sugar
This is because smaller molecules can pass through the walls of the small intestine and then dissolve into the blood stream. Larger molecules cannot do this.
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Digestion quiz
Enzymes
Enzymes are chemicals which break the larger molecules down into smaller molecules. There are three types of enzymes that you need to know about.
Enzymes
The three types of enzymes are:
Carbohydrase chops carbohydrates into smaller sugar molecules. Protease cuts proteins into the soluble amino acids.
Lipase breaks fats down into the smaller fatty acids and glycerol.
Proteins digestion
Proteins are digested in the stomach by an enzyme called Protease. This enzyme needs to work in an acidic environment. Protease breaks proteins (chains of different molecules) down into up to 20 different amino acids (four of which are shown).
Protease
Starch/ carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are chains of identical sugar molecules. The enzyme called Carbohydrase breaks the chemical bonds between the individual sugar molecules (called glucose) as part of digestion.
Fats
Fats are digested in two stages:
Firstly bile (released by the gall bladder) allows the fat to mix with water by breaking the fat up into smaller droplets. This is called emulsification.
Bile Secondly, an enzyme called Lipase breaks the fats down into the smaller fatty acid molecules and glycerol. Lipase Fatty Fat acid
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Glycerol