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Learn about food processing, digestion, and nutrition, including the human digestive system, nutrient absorption, and the importance of vitamins and minerals for a healthy diet.
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Chapter 45 Processing Food and Nutrition
Heterotrophs • Organisms that obtain nourishment from the organic molecules manufactured by other organisms • Nutrients used to • Run the systems of the body • Make compounds for metabolic processes • Grow and repair tissue
Nutrition • Process of taking in and using food • Malnutrition results from dietary intake that is either below or above required need • Undernutrition (particularly protein deficiency) • Obesity (common in the US)
Food processing • Ingestion • Taking of food into the digestive cavity • Digestion • Process of breaking down food mechanically and chemically • Absorption • Nutrients pass through the lining of the digestive tract and into the blood
Food processing, cont. • Egestion or elimination • Food that is not digested and absorbed is discharged from the body
In cnidarians and flatworms • Food is digested in the gastrovascular cavity • The gastrovascular cavity serves as both mouth and anus
In more complex invertebrates and in all vertebrates • The digestive tract is a complete tube with an opening at each end • Digestion takes place as food passes through the tube
Various parts of the digestive tract are specialized to perform specific functions • Food passes in sequence through • The mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and anus
Mechanical and enzymatic digestion of carbohydrates begin in the mouth • Mammalian teeth include incisors for biting, canines for tearing, and premolars and molars for crushing and grinding • Three pairs of salivary glands secrete saliva
As food is swallowed, it is propelled through the pharynx and esophagus • A bolus of food is moved by peristalsis • The mixing and propulsive movements of the digestive tract are known as motility
In the stomach • Food is mechanically digested by vigorous churning • Proteins are enzymatically digested by pepsin • Rugae are stomach folds that expand with food • Gastric glands secrete hydrochloric acid and pepsinogen
After several hours in the stomach • Chyme leaves the stomach through the pylorus and enters the small intestine • Most enzymatic digestion takes place in the duodenum • The liver produces bile, which emulsifies fats
After several hours in the stomach, cont. • The pancreas releases enzymes that digest protein, lipid, and carbohydrates, as well as RNA and DNA • The large intestine eliminates undigested waste and incubates bacteria that produce Vitamin K and certain B vitamins
Digestion of carbohydrate, protein, and lipid • Nutrients in chyme are enzymatically digested as they move through the digestive tract • Polysaccarides are digested to the disaccharide maltose by salivary and pancreatic amylases
Digestion of carbohydrate, protein, and lipid, cont. • Maltase splits maltose into glucose • Proteins are split by pepsin and by proteolytic enzymes into the final product of amino acids • Lipids are emulsified by bile salts and then hydrolyzed by pancreatic lipase
Structural adaptations that increase the surface of the digestive tract • The surface area of the small intestine is greatly expanded by • Folds in its wall • Intestinal villi • Intestinal microvilli
Lipid absorption • Nutrients are absorbed through the thin walls of the intestinal villi • The hepatic portal vein transports amino acids and glucose to the liver
Absorption of other nutrients • Fatty acids and monacylglycerols enter epithelial cells in the intestinal lining where they are reassembled into triacyglycerols • They are packed into chylomicrons • The lymphatic system transports chylomicrons to the blood circulation
Nutritional requirements for dietary carbohydrates • Most carbohydrates are ingested in the form of complex carbohydrates • Fiber is a mixture of cellulose and other indigestible carbohydrates • Carbohydrates are used mainly as an energy source
Lipids are used as • An energy source • Components of cell membranes • To synthesize steroid hormones and other lipid substances • Most lipids are ingested in the form of triacyglycerols
Proteins • Serve as enzymes • Are essential structural components of cells • The best distribution of essential amino acids is found in the complex proteins of animal foods
Vitamins • Organic compounds required in small amounts for many biochemical processes • Many serve as components of coenzymes
Vitamins, cont. • Fat-soluble vitamins include A, D, E, and K • Water-soluble vitamins are the B and C vitamins
Minerals are inorganic nutrients ingested as salts dissolved in food and water • Trace elements are minerals required in amounts less than 100 mg per day
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) • The body’s cost of metabolic living • Total metabolic rate • BMR plus the energy used to carry on daily activities
Energy input and output • When energy (kilocalories) input equals energy output, body weight remains constant • When energy input exceeds energy output, body weight increases • When energy output exceeds energy input, body weight decreases
Current hypotheses regarding the regulation of food intake and energy homeostasis • Researchers are identifying signaling molecules • The hormone leptin • The neuropeptite Y (NPY), a neurotransmitter produced in the hypothalamus