Nutrition: Getting Food to Cells

Animal’s nutrition is the process of taking in, taking apart and taking up the
nutrients from a food source. Food processing has four main stages:
Ingestion, Digestion, Absorption and Excretion.

In Ingestion, or process of taking in food substances, the animal takes in food

in different ways. Microscopic animals, for instance, can use special activities
which can allow entrance of food or they can use phagocytosis or pinocytosis
wherein food particles are engulfed, thus creating a food vacuole.

Digestion of food involves either intracellular digestion or extracellular

digestion or both processes. Digestion can be either mechanical or chemical.
Mechanical digestion aids in physically breaking down food particles for easier
chemical digestion. Chemical digestion is the process of breaking down
complex molecules into simpler molecules through chemical hydrolysis.
Absorption allows the animals to acquire the necessary energy, organic
molecules, and essential nutrients from the digested food. Chemical energy
comes from sources such as sugars from carbohydrates. Organic molecules
can serve as the organic building block of the body where muscles, connective
tissues, nerve tissues are built.

Excretion is the removal of metabolic wastes, which include carbon dioxide

and water from cell respiration and nitrogenous wastes from protein
metabolism. The organs of in humans are the skin, lungs, kidney, and the liver
(where urea is produced). There are three nitrogenous wastes: ammonia, urea,
and uric acid, which waste an organism excretes is the result of the
environment it evolved and lives in.
Mouth. In the mouth, the tongue and differently shaped teeth work
together to break down food mechanically. Form relates to function, and the
type of teeth a mammal has reflects its dietary habits. Humans are omnivores
and have three different types of teeth; incisors for cutting, canines for tearing,
and the molars for grinding. Salivary amylase released by salivary glands
begins the chemical breakdown of starch.
Esophagus. After swallowing, food is directed into the esophagus, and not in
the windpipe, by the epiglottis, a flap of cartilage in the back of the pharynx
(throat). No digestion occurs in the esophagus.
Stomach. The stomach churns food mechanically and secretes gastric
juice, a mixture of the enzyme pepsinogen and hydrochloric acid, that
begins the digestion of proteins. The acid environment (pH 2-3) activates
pepsinogen to become the active enzyme pepsin and also kills germs. The
stomach of all mammals also contains rennin to aid in the digestion of the
protein in milk. The cardiac sphincter at the top of the stomach keeps from
backing up into the esophagus and burning it. The pyloric sphincter at
the bottom of the stomach keeps the food in the stomach long enough to be
digested

Small Intestine. Digestion is completed in the duodenum. Intestinal enzymes

and pancreatic amylases hydrolyze starch and glycogen into maltose. Bile,
which is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder, is released into
the small intestine as needed and acts as an emulsifier to breakdown fats,
creating greater surface area for digestive enzymes. Peptidases such as
trypsin and chymotrypsin, continue to breakdown proteins. Nucleic acids
are hydrolyzed by nucleases, and lipases break down fats. Once digestion is
complete, the lower part of the small intestine is the site of absorption.
Millions of fingerlike projections called villi absorb all the nutrients that were
previously released from digested food. Each villus contains capillaries, which
absorb amino acids, vitamins and monosaccharides, and a lacteal, a small
vessel of the lymphatic system, which absorbs fatty acids and glycerol. Each
epithelial cell of the villus has many microscopic cytoplasmic appendages
called microvilli that greatly increase the rate of nutrient absorption by the villi
Large Intestine. The large intestine or colon serves three main functions:
egestion, the removal of undigested waste; vitamin production, from bacteria
symbionts living in the colon; and the removal of excess water. Together, the
small intestine and colon reabsorb 90 percent of the water that entered the
alimentary canal. If too much, water is removed from the intestine,
constipation results; if inadequate water is removed, diarrhea results. The
last 7-8 inches of the gastrointestinal tract stores feces until their release and
is called the rectum. The opening at the end of the digestive tract is called
anus.