Digestion And Absorption

Question 1

What are the benefits of having bacteria living in our gut?

Answer 1

• prevents other bacteria from causing disease
• produce some vitamins

Question 2

Digestion of carbohydrates?

Answer 2

Carbohydrates are broken down into sugars.
Enzymes break down long chain sugars to shorter chain sugars and then into single sugar units (monosaccharides)

Question 3

Digestion of proteins?

Answer 3

Protease e.g Pepsin breaks proteins (polypeptide) down until amino acids.
Protease is stored as inactive form and activated only in a safe environment.

Question 4

Digestion of fat?

Answer 4

Fat to fatty acids & monoglycerides by bile salts and lipase.
Bile breaks fat up into smaller droplets through emulsification.
Lipase then breaks the fat molecules into small units

Question 5

How does the small intestine have a large surface? What are the benefits?

Answer 5

• folds in the gut
  -villi on the epithelial walls
  -microvilli found on the villi

Question 6

What cell does Absorption occur? What happens after they are absorbed?

Answer 6

The cells are enterocytes.
Sugars and amino acids are absorbed into boood and go to the liver.
Fats absorbed until the lymph vessels and into venous blood.

Question 7

Where does the blood from the GI tract go?

Answer 7

To the liver then to the heart.

Question 8

What happens to unabsorbed material?

Answer 8

Egestion. These material pass through the colon and temporary stored there until moved to rectum and expelled.