Digestion


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The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of the macronutrients goes like this for carbohydrates, proteins, and fats;

The mouth starts the digestion of the Carbohydrate breakdown. The salivary glands contain a starch digesting enzyme, the liver helps with digesting fats by manufacturing bile, the gallbladder then helps with keeping the bile in place until it is needed, the bile duct moves bile to the small intestines, and the pancreatic duct produces juices for the small intestines, and then the pancreas gathers the enzymes to digest all the energy yielding nutrients. The salivary glands that are in the mouth secrete saliva which then moistens the food that is chewed. The salivary glands release enzymes called amylase which starts the process of breaking down the polysaccharides in the carbohydrate food.

The digestion for protein starts in the stomach and the duodenum through the enzymes pepsin that is comes from the stomach, and  then trypsin and chymotrypsin that is comes from the pancreas.
Fats are not digested until they reach the small intestine and meet up with the bile. The salts in the bile emulsifies the fats which then breaks the large fat into smaller molecules and then into even smaller ones so that can be easily digested by the pancreas.

Sizer, F. & Whitney, E. (2017). Nutrition: Concepts and controversies (14th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

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