Nutrition in humans Flashcards
In humans, what does nutrition consist of?
- feeding
- digestion
- absorption
- assimilation
What are the parts in the human digestive system?
- Mouth
- buccal cavity (teeth, tongue)
- pharynx
- oesophagus
- stomach
- small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, ileum)
- large intestine/colon
- rectum
- anus
What are the associated glands in the human digestive system?
- salivary glands
- liver
- gall bladder
- pancreas
What does the teeth do?
- it performs mechanical digestion
- it breaks up food into smaller pieces (mastication)
- increases surface area to volume ratio for salivary amylase to work on
What does the tongue do?
- rolls food up into bolus for easier swallowing
What does the pharynx do?
- it is a common passageway for respiration and digestion
- food and air had to enter the pharynx to enter the oseophagus or trachea
What does the oseophagus do?
- it is a long muscular tube that transports food from the pharynx to the stomach through peristalsis
What does peristalsis do?
- wave-like contractions
- along the walls oesophagus
- circular and longitudinal muscles work antagonistically
- circular muscles contract, longitudinal muscles relax → oesophagus constricts, narrower and longer → food is pushed forward
- circular muscles relax, longitudinal muscles contract → oesophagus dilates, oesophagus widens and shortens → food is pushed through
What does the stomach do?
- gastric glands in the stomach are stimulated by the presence of food and secrete gastric juices into the stomach cavity
- peristalsis churns the food and mixes it well with gastric juices
- food remains in the stomach for 3 to 4 hrs
- the partly digested food is liquefied, forming chyme
- chyme passes in small amounts into the duodenum when the pyloric sphincter relaxes and opens
What does gastric juice contain?
- dilute solution of hydrochloric acid and pepsin
What does dilute hydrochloric acid do?
- stops the action of salivary amylase by denaturing it
- changes the inactive form of pepsinogen, in the gastric juice into active pepsin
- provides a slightly acidic medium suitable for the action of pepsin
- kills potentially harmful microorganisms in food
How to proteins get digested into polypeptides?
- protease (pepsin) digests it
What happens when chyme enters the small intestine?
- it stimulates the pancreas to secrete pancreatic juice
- it stimulates the gall bladder to release bile
- it stimulates the epithelial cells in the small intestine to produce maltase, peptidase and lipase
What does pancreatic juice contain?
- the enzymes pancreatic amylase, pancreatic protease (trypsin) and pancreatic lipase
How does the pancreatic juice enter the duodenum?
- pancreatic juice passes through the pancreatic duct into the duodenum
What does bile contain?
- bile does not contain enzymes
- bile salts
What do bile salts do?
- speeds up the digestion of fats
How does bile enter the duodenum?
- bile passes through the bile duct into the duodenum
What do pancreatic juice, intestinal juice and bile do to food?
- all three fluids are alkaline
- they neutralise acidic chyme
- provide a suitable alkaline medium for the action of pancreatic and intestinal enzymes
What is starch digested by?
- amylases
Where does starch digestion occur?
- mouth
- small intestine
(no starch digestion in the stomach)
How much starch is digested in the mouth?
- only a little as food does not remain in the mouth for long
What starch digestion occurs in the small intestine using what enzymes?
- starch is digested by pancreatic amylase to form maltose
- maltose is digested by maltase to form glucose
- lactose is digested by lactase to form glucose and galactose
- sucrose is digested by sucrase to form glucose and fructose
What happens after carbohydrate digestion?
- the end product is simple sugars
- they can be absorbed into the bloodstream
What are proteins digested by?
- proteases
Where does protein digestion take place?
- stomach
- small intestine
What is the process of protein digestion in the small intestine?
- undigested proteins which enter the small intestine are digested into polypeptides by trypsin
- polypeptides are digested by peptidases into amino acids