how is food absorbed in the body
Answers
Answer:
The small intestine absorbs most of the nutrients in your food, and your circulatory system passes them on to other parts of your body to store or use. Special cells help absorbed nutrients cross the intestinal lining into your bloodstream.
Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
Digestion and absorption begins in your mouth and ends when waste exits your colon. Food is fuel for your body and provides nutrients, which are broken down and absorbed during digestion. Components in foods, including carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, each have their own function in your system and are metabolized in different ways.
Absorbing Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates, your body's main energy source, come from nearly all foods in your diet. Fruits, vegetables, beans, lentils and dairy foods are all rich in simple and complex carbohydrates. Sugars, a type of simple carbohydrate, rapidly convert into glucose in your small intestine. After conversion, tiny finger-like projections called villi that line the intestines absorb glucose molecules directly into your bloodstream. Cells immediately pick up glucose, giving you a sudden sugar rush or burst of energy. Starches, which are complex carbohydrates, deconstruct in your mouth. Saliva surrounds starch when you chew, breaking apart long branches and forming smaller maltose molecules, a type of simple carb. Maltose travels down to your small intestine, where it turns into glucose and enters your bloodstream through intestinal walls. Because starch undergoes several steps during digestion, you're more likely to feel sustained energy, rather than a quick surge.
Absorbing Protein
Protein comes from meat, seafood, eggs and dairy, but you get additional protein from beans, tofu and several other types of plant foods. After swallowing protein compounds, an enzyme called pepsin in your stomach breaks proteins into peptides. These smaller fragments head to your small intestine where pancreatic juices digest peptides into the smallest form of protein known as amino acids. Villi in your intestinal tract snag amino acids, absorb them right into your bloodstream and send them to your brain, muscles and various other parts of your body.
Absorbing Fat
Fat provides a cushion for vital organs, absorbs several vitamins and acts as a backup fuel source. Your small intestine secretes lipase enzymes, which emulsifies large fat molecules from whole milk, nuts, avocados and other fatty foods. From there, tiny emulsified fats absorb into the mucosa lining of your intestinal tract. Once absorbed, your system turns the smaller fat molecules back into large compounds, which are picked up by lymphatic veins that surround your intestines. These specialized veins carry fat around to various storage deposits all over your body.
Absorbing Vitamins and Minerals
Virtually any food you consume provides vitamins and minerals, although processed junk foods tend to have lower amounts than produce, low-fat milk and other nutritious foods. Most vitamins and minerals separate from other food components and absorb into your bloodstream through the small intestine. Some nutrients have additional steps that further delays absorption. For example, vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, meaning they absorb and are stored alongside fat. If you take a multivitamin with these nutrients but do not eat something with fat when you take it, your system may not pick up these vitamins. Vitamin B-12 absorbs differently than any other nutrient. This vitamin attaches to a protein called intrinsic factor in your stomach. Once B-12 and intrinsic factor combine, your small intestine is able to pick it up and send it to your bloodstream