chapter 47 ~ digestive system Flashcards
The processes by which an organism takes in, digests, absorbs, and converts food into organic compounds.
Nutrition
The feeding methods used to take food into the digestive cavity.
Ingestion
The splitting of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids in foods into chemical subunits small enough to be absorbed into the body fluids and cells of an animal.
Digestion
The uptake of food from the surroundings.
Feeding
An animal that obtains energy and nutrients primarily by eating plants.
Herbivores
An animal that primarily eats other animals.
Carnivores
An animal that feeds at several trophic levels, consuming plants, animals, and other sources of organic matter.
Omnivores
A form of malnutrition. A condition in animals in which intake of organic fuels is inadequate, or whose assimilation of such fuels is abnormal.
Undernutrition
A form of malnutrition. The condition caused by excessive intake of specific nutrients.
Overnutrition
A condition resulting from a diet in which intake of organic fuels is inadequate or whose assimilation of such fuels is abnormal (=undernutrition), or in which there is excessive intake of specific nutrients (=overnutrition).
Malnutrition
Any amino acid that is not made by the human body but must be taken in as part of the diet.
Essential amino acids
Any fatty acid that the body cannot synthesize but needs for normal metabolism.
Essential fatty acids
An organic molecule required in small quantities that the animal cannot synthesize for itself.
Vitamins
Any inorganic element such as calcium, iron, or magnesium that is required in the diet of an animal or, in the case of plants, that generally must be present in soil.
Essential minerals
Any of the essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals required in the diet of an animal.
Essential nutrients
An animal that obtains nourishment by ingesting liquids that contain organic molecules in solution.
Fluid feeders
An animal that ingests small food items suspended in water.
Suspension feeders
An animal that consumes particles of organic matter from the solid substrate on which it lives.
Deposit feeders
An animal that consumes sizeable food items whole or in large chunks.
Bulk feeders
A process in which chemical bonds are broken by the addition of H + and OH-, the components of a molecule of water.
Enzymatic hydrolysis
An enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of starches.
Amylases
A pancreatic enzyme that hydrolyzes fats.
Lipases
An enzyme that hydrolyses proteins.
Proteases
An enzyme that digests a nucleic acid molecule.
Nucleases