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Unit 1
Digestion track
Enzymes and Digestion
Fats
Tissues
Chemistry of food
Metabolism 2/9/24
hormones and appetite
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Digestion track


“road trip” through our digestive track
2 kinds of digestion
Mechanical Digestion
chemical digestion
Food is chemically digested in the stomach, then “squirted” into the small intestine, the small intestine absorbs the main nutrients, large intestine absorbs water.
Mechanical digestion is the teeth, they shred the food, so the pieces will fit into your body to break it down.
Saliva is an action of chemical digestion.

In the mouth: where digestion begins
teeth- shred and tear food
tounge- manipulates food
saliva- begins the process of digestion chemically, specfiically carbohydrates
amylase- enzyme that breaks down carbs into simple sugars
lipase- breaks down carbs into simple sugars
mucus- to coat food, to make it easier to transport the food down esophagus to the stomach
bolus- ball of chewed-up food+ saliva+ mucus mixture
mouth- pharynx- esophogas- stomach

Stop #2 the pharynx and esophagus

epiglottis- flap of cartilage that covers the air ways so food doesn’t enter
how you casn choke. food thats too big but small enough that it can get stuck
peristalsis- sysmic contraction of muscles to move food theough digestive system
gag reflex is here, like a swallowing reflex

Stop 3: Stomach

stomach-store food as we digest it
begins the process of digesting proteins
protiens → amino acids (pepsin)
gastric juice: pepsin (enzyme)
HCI: hydrochloric acid
activates pepsin + kills bacteria
softens connective tissues (such. as meat)
Mucus- coats stomach lin9ng to protect it against the acid and pepsin
Chyme- mixture of partically food+ gastric juice
chyme exits the stomach into the small intestine through the sphincter

Stop 4: small intestine

~ 18 ft long, taller ppl tend to have more small intestine, smaller ppl have shorter ones
the main site of digestion
break down:
carbs → sugars
proteins → animo acids
fats/lipids → fatty acids
Neutreinta pass through the intestinal cells into the blood
The small intestine gets help from other organs, aka accessory organs, making the enzymes it uses to digest food
liver- produce bile to coat fats to dissolve them into the blood
gallbladder stores and releases bile into the pancreas
pancreas - produces amylase (carbs), fats, Trypsin, produces sodium bicarbonate to neutralize the stomach acid

Stop 5: the large intestine/ colon

absorbs water
process and clear solid wastes
` 1000 types of bacteria live in your gut
they make the growth of harmful bacteria lessen
digest some materials we cant use
provide vitamins for us, like vitamin K
Feces
mostly water(3/4)
fiber
bacteria (odor)
material that your body cannot process (foreign objects)
if we pass waste back too quickly, not enough water is absorbed, there's too much liquid, resulting in diarrhea
if the waste is too slow, you absorb too much water, and you end up with constipation bc of how dry it is.



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