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All of our energy and nutrition come by way of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It is an
amazing machine well designed for digesting and absorbing nutrients and for shielding
the rest of the body from microorganisms, viruses and other foreign matter. The GI
tract spans from the mouth to the anus, with each separate organ having a role in
digestion, absorption or excretion.
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On This Page:
It All Starts in Your Head
Digestion in the Mouth
Digestion in the Stomach
Digestion and Absorption in the Small Intestine
It Ends in the Colon
Got Gas?
Hormones and Nerves
Lets examine the journey that a sandwich (or any piece of food) takes as it makes its
way through the digestive tract.
Because chyme was mixed with HCl in the stomach, it has a very low pH. The mucosa
of the small intestine does not have as much protective mucus as the stomach, but it
does have something else to shield it from the acid - pancreatic juices. The presence of
chyme in the upper portion of the small intestine triggers the pancreas to secrete
bicarbonate to neutralize the acid, lipase to digest fats, amylase to digest starches, and
proteases to digest proteins. The cells of the small intestine secrete additional enzymes
to complete digestion.
The gallbladder gets into the act here as well. When fat is present in the chyme (as it is
from the cheese and mayonnaise in our sandwich), the gallbladder contracts and
secretes bile into the small intestine. Bile acts like a detergent and emulsifies the fat,
breaking it into small globules, aiding fat absorption.
You need a very large surface area to absorb all of the nutrients your body requires. If
the lining of your small intestine were smooth like the inside of a rubber tube, you
would not be able to absorb adequate nutrition. Instead the walls of the intestinal
lumen are wrinkled and folded, which increase its surface area threefold. But this is still
much too little. Therefore, the folds are covered with tiny fingerlike projections
calledvilli, which, in turn, are covered, by microscopic projections called microvilli. This
combination of folds and projections increases the absorptive area of the small intestine
600-fold to the size of a tennis court! And that allows for the absorption of far more
nourishment than most of us would want to eat.
Once starches and sugars have been digested into monosaccharides - glucose,
galactose or fructose - they are ready for absorption. They pass through the lining of
the small intestine, into the bloodstream via the portal vein and to the liver. Proteins
are broken down primarily to single amino acids. They follow a similar path to the liver,
as do the monosaccharides. Because of their lack of water-solubility, the majority of the
fats take a much different path. Most of the dietary fat comes in the form of
triglycerides and is digested into two free fatty acids and monoglycerides. While within
the intestinal cells, however, these components are resynthesized into triglycerides.
They do not go through the portal vein. Instead, they are packaged with cholesterol
and coated with proteins to form particles called chylomicrons. The lymphatic vessels
transport the chylomicrons to the junction of the lymphatic and circulatory systems
where they enter the bloodstream. Only a small portion of fats is absorbed into the
portal vein. These are the smaller fatty acids that are more water-soluble than the longchain fatty acids.
Vitamins, minerals, water and many drugs are also absorbed through the intestinal
mucosa.
It Ends in the Colon