2.4: Adaptions for nutrition Flashcards
What is ingestion?
The taking in of food into the body through the mouth.
What is digestion?
The breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into simple, soluble molecules by means of enzymes.
What is mechanical processing?
Chewing, mixing due to teeth and contractions of the gut. Increase the surface area for enzyme action.
What is absorption?
Through mucosa, into blood or lymph vessels.
What is egestion?
Undigested material eliminated.
What do teeth do?
Chop food up to increase the surface area.
What does the tongue do?
Skeletal muscle, moves food in mouth, involved with taste.
What does saliva contain?
Amylase, HCO3 and CO3 ions and mucus.
What does Amylase in saliva do?
Starts the digestion of starch into maltose.
What does the HCO3 and CO3 ions in saliva do?
So the pH is slightly alkaline to provide optimum conditions for amylase.
