Nutrition and Digestion: A Guide to the Digestive System

NUTRITION AND DIGESTION
Regents Biology
TYPES OF NUTRITION
1. Autotrophic nutrition –
Auto (self)
trophic (refers to feeding and nutrition)
“Self feeding.”
-Organisms that make their own
organic compounds
ex. Photosynthesis
Chemosynthesis

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b. Chemosynthesis –
Chemo (chemical)
synthesis (creating, making)
-Chemical activity is the source of energy
for the production of organic compounds.
Who?
-organisms in environments that do not
rely on the sun to make food.
ex. Deep sea organisms

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Photosynthesis Chemosynthesis
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Chemosynthetic nutrition - Deep sea tubeNUTRITION
wormsAND and
DIGESTION
arthropod
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2. Heterotrophic nutrition –
Hetero: other
trophic: (refers to feeding and nutrition)
“Fed by others.”
- Heterotrophs: Organisms that eat
organic compounds made by others.
ex. Animals or animal-like protists
called protozoa: amoeba, paramecium.
Proto (first)
zoa (animal, zoo)

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Examples of heterotrophs
paramecium

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More heterotrophs….
Are you a heterotroph?

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Human nutrition involves FIVE basic steps
1.Ingestion taking food into digestive system
2.Digestion i) mechanical- chopping and grinding food with teeth and

muscular churning of food in stomach.
ii) chemical- breaking large insoluble molecules into
small, soluble ones using enzymes.
3. Absorption taking digested food into bloodstream
4. Assimilation using the absorbed food in metabolic processes.
5. Egestion removal of undigested food from alimentary canal.

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9
Digestion
 Types
 Mechanical (physical)
 Chew
 Tear
 Grind
 Mash
 Mix
 Chemical
 Enzymatic reactions to improve digestion of
 Carbohydrates
 Proteins
 Lipids
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WHAT IS DIGESTION
Digestion is the process of breaking complex food into simple food
by the help of enzymes
The system associated with the process of digestion is known as

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM.
Starch, Fats and Proteins are complex food
Glucose, Fatty acids and glycerol, amino acids are simple food

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Starch molecules –
large and branched
Amylase – digestive
Breaks down starch to
enzyme
Maltose
Still too big!



Maltase in the small

intestine breaks down
maltose to glucose

units Readily absorbed.

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Proteins – large and branched



Trypsin from the pancreas Breaks down proteins into
peptides.
Still too big!


Peptidase from the small

intestine
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Fats &
Oils Bile from the liver mixes
with the ‘fat’ to make an
emulsion
Fatty acids and

glycerol which is
easily absorbed.
Lipase from the
pancreas breaks
down the fats to...
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What is the gut?
 The gut is a coiled
tube where food is
broken down
(digested) and
absorbed into the
body.
 Any waste food is
passed out of the
body through the
anus.

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Digestive System Organization The Elementary Canal
 Gastrointestinal (Gl) tract

 Tube within a tube
 Direct link/path between organs
 Structures
 Mouth
 Pharynx
 Esophagus
 Stomach
 Small intestine
 Large Intestine
 Rectum
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N
U
T
R
Mouth
T  Teeth mechanically
break down food  Epiglottis is a flap-
O
N into small pieces. like structure at the
A
Tongue mixes food back of the throat
N
D with saliva (contains that closes over the
D
amylase, which trachea preventing
G helps break down food from entering
E
starch). it.
S
T
O
N
Regents Biology
Teeth
 Teeth are needed to tear, rip and
chew food to physically break it into
smaller pieces.

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Teeth •The enamel is the white part you can
see covering the crown.
The crown is •Enamel is the hardest substance in the
the part of the human body
tooth above •It covers the dentine and stops bacteria
the gum line getting inside the tooth
•The dentine is the major component

within the tooth.
The root is •It is made from softer material than
the part of the enamel so is easier to decay.
tooth below
the gum line
•The pulp contains the nerves and blood
vessels of the tooth.
•It is underneath the dentine.
•This is the bit which hurts when you
have toothache!
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Teeth
The crown
is the part •The cementum is found
of the tooth
above the outside the dentine in the
gum line root.
•It cements (holds) the
The root is tooth into the jaw bone.
the part of
the tooth
below the
gum line

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Types of teeth
There are different types of teeth for different functions:
Sharp pointed teeth
for cutting and
tearing food
Grinding and
mashing food
Crushing and
grinding food
Cutting and chopping food

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Experiment
 Get a mirror and look at your own teeth.
 Can you identify your incisors, canines, pre molars and molars?
 A dentist would write your dental records as
 I: 2/2 C:1/1 PM:2/2 M:3/3
 What do you think this means?
 What is your dental record?
 If you do not have a full set of teeth, can you explain why some
teeth are missing?

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Tooth decay
 What do you think causes tooth decay?
 Saliva is normally slightly alkaline. When we eat,
bacteria in our mouth feed on sugar and turn it into
acid. The sugar starts to attack the enamel and wear
it away.
 What is dental plague?
 How it is formed?

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Tooth decay
Decay has Decay has Decay Decay has

started in the reached the reaches the spread down
enamel dentine pulp to the nerve
root
NO PAIN SLIGHT SEVERE EXCRUCIATING

TOOTHACHE
NUTRITION ANDTOOTHACHE
DIGESTION PAIN!!
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Preventing Tooth Decay
 How can we prevent tooth decay?
 How well do you brush your teeth?!
 What sort of foods should you avoid?

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Mouth: What happens
 Food is crushed and ground up by teeth
 The salivary glands make saliva which makes the
food moist and easy for swallowing
 Amylase enzyme (in saliva) breaks the carbohydrate
starch down into glucose.

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Swallowing and Peristalsis
 saliva which moistens it and adds the enzyme salivary
amylase which begins to digest starch.
 The tongue helps to form the food into a small, moist ball
called a bolus, which can be easily swallowed.
 The bolus is squeezed down the esophagus (gullet) by

wavelike contractions of the surrounding muscle. This is
called peristalsis.
 Peristalsis occurs throughout the length of the digestive

system
 If acid from the stomach gets in here that’s heartburn.

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Peristalsis
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Layers of Digestive track
 First layer ismucosa, so called because its

epithelial layer contains many mucus-secreting
cells. Mucosa is present from the mouth through
the esophagus, and also in the anus
 Cells that secrete digestive juices are located in
the mucosa.
 The layer of connective tissue beneath the
mucosa is the submucosa, which contains blood
vessels and some of the nerves that help regulate
digestive activity.
 In the small intestine, the submucosa has many
glands that produce mucus to protect that organ
from the highly acidic material it receives from
the stomach.
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TION
 The next layer is composed of two

layers of smooth muscle: an inner layer
of circular muscles, and an outer layer
of longitudinal muscles.
 When the circular muscle contracts, the
lumen of the organ narrows; when the
longitudinal muscle contracts, a section
of the wall shortens and the lumen
becomes wider.
 These alternating muscular contractions
create the wavelike movement, called
peristalsis, that propels food through
the digestive tract and mixes it with
digestive juices.
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TION
 The outermost layer is

serosa, a thin, moist
tissue composed of
simple squamous
epithelium and loose
connective tissue.
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Digestion in Stomach
 Stomach muscles contract and relax to
mechanically break down the food
 They also mix the food up with gastric juice and
hydrochloric acid
 The acid kills germs in the food and soften
the food.
 The gastric juice contains the protease
enzyme PEPSIN to digest protein into

peptones, peptides and amino acids
 Food spends about 3-4 hours in here.
 The food is now a semi liquid, highly acidic
mush called chyme.
 It needs to be neutralized and digestion needs to
be continued…
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Digestion in the stomach
When food enters the stomach it stimulates the secretion of hydrochloric acid (HCl) from the stomach
wall. HCl increases the acidity of the stomach to about pH2 – the optimum pH for stomach enzymes.
oesophagus
mucus cells
gastric gland
parietal cells
(acid-producing)
duodenum
Regents Biology
Digestion in the small intestine
Digestive enzymes found in the small intestine are damaged by a strongly acidic pH.
How does the body avoid this problem?

The liver produces bile (an alkali), which is stored in the gall bladder and released into the
small intestine.
hepatic
duct
Bile neutralizes the acidic contents
coming from the stomach, creating gall
the alkaline environment that the bladder
intestinal enzymes need to work.
pancreas
duodenum bile duct

Regents Biology
Small Intestine (3 regions)
duodenum
jejunum
ileum

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 A ring of muscle called a pyloric sphincter is relaxed to
allow the food out of the stomach.
 It passes into the duodenum. In the duodenum the food
is mixed with bile, which is stored in the gall bladder.
 This emulsifies any fats in the food, breaking them up
into small globules and allows lipase enzymes to attack
them.
 The pancreas secretes alkali, protease, carbohydrase

and lipase enzymes into the duodenum.
 These further digest all the food types into their smaller
molecules.

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 What’s emulsify mean?
 It means to make the fats into smaller blobs to make
their surface area larger. So that the lipase can digest
quicker.

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THE PANCREAS
 Pancreatic juice is composed of :

 digestive enzymes
 bicarbonate.

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Digestive Enzymes
 There are 3 main types of digestive enzymes:
 Amylase breaks starch and maltose down into glucose.
 Protease breaks down protein, peptone and peptides
into amino acids.

 Lipase breaks fats down into fatty acids and glycerol

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Digestive Enzymes Secreated by Pancreas
 1. Proteases
 The two major pancreatic proteases
are
 trypsin and
 chymotrypsin,
 These are synthesized as an inactive
proenzymes trypsinogen and
chymotrypsinogen.
 Trypsinogen is activated by the
enzyme enterokinase, which is
embedded in the intestinal mucosa.
 Chymotrypsin is activated by
trypsin.

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 2. Pancreatic Lipase
 A triglyceride molecule is digested into glycerol and fatty acids by pancreatic lipase.
 Sufficient quantities of bile salts must also be present in the lumen of the intestine in
order for lipase to efficiently digest dietary triglyceride .
3. Pancreatic Amylase
Amylase is the enzyme that hydrolyses starch to maltose (a glucose-glucose disaccharide). The
major source of amylase in all species is pancreatic secretions, although amylase is also present in
saliva.

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Stomach
Liver
Gall
bladder
Duodenum
Pancreas

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Enzyme summary
Enzyme Substrate Product Where it is Where it acts
produced
Amylase
Pancreas Duodenum
Amino Acids
Fat
Small
intestine
NUTRITION AND DIGESTION 43
Absorption
 The digested food is ABSORBED through the wall of
the small intestine into the blood stream.
 To do this effectively, the small intestine needs to
have a large surface area.
 This is achieved in the following ways:

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Absorption 1
 The tube is over 6 meters long

 The inner wall of the tube has bends in it
 The wall is covered in villi (small finger like structures)

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 *The villus has the epithelial layer.
*This layer has micro villi to help increase surface
area of absorption.
*Epithelial cells may engulf fat molecules by
phagocytosis.
- The main adaptation of villus is the large surface
area for absorption.
* Folds appear to the naked eye
* Villi appear under the light microscope
*Micro villi appear under the electron microscope

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Absorption 2: Villi
Outer wall Pathway
for Food
Inner wall

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Absorption 2: Villi
Why does the epithelium have to be thin?
The glucose and amino acids pass into the

blood capillary. From here they go to the
liver in the HEPATIC PORTAL VEIN

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Absorption 2: Villi
Lymph is a fluid that is made when the liquid part of
blood comes out of blood vessels and washes over
the cells.
Lymph drains into lymphatic vessels before

joining the blood again.
The fatty acids and glycerol go into lymphatic

vessels in the villus.

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Mouth Oesophagus Stomach
Small intestine (ileum) Small intestine (duodenum)
Indigestible food Digested food
Fats Carbohydrates and proteins
Lymph vessel Blood vessel
Large intestine Rectum Anus
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CARBOHYDRATES PROTEINS WATER
(C.H.O.) FATS + OILS (C.H.O.N.) VITAMINS + SALTS (H2O)

carbohydrase protease
(C.H.O.) (various elements)
lipase
Glucose Glycerol Amino Keeping Many

and and fatty acids the body excess uses in
simple acids in good the body
sugars health
Excess broken
down in liver
Excess Energy Stored Form

urea
stored in produced under the proteins in
liver as in cell skin the body glucose Passed to the
glycogen respiration kidneys by
blood for
removal as
urine
Some out in
sweat
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Egestion
 Any indigestible food (e.g. fibre) passes into the
large intestine (colon).
 Water is absorbed back into the body.
 Where has this water come from?
 The food becomes a solid waste called faeces.

 Faeces are stored in the rectum and removed
through the anus. This removal is called
EGESTION.

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Assimilation
 It is the process whereby absorbed food material is
transported and converted into new protoplasm or
used to provide energy.
 Glucose may be used as it is, as a substrate for RESPIRATION to
release energy.
 After a meal, the excess glucose is stored in the form of glycogen in
the cells of the liver and muscles.
 The uptake of glucose and its conversion to glycogen is controlled
by the hormone insulin, secreted by the pancreas.

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 Amino acids are used in cells for building up proteins as the cells grow, and also
for making special proteins such as enzymes. Amino acids and proteins are never
stored. Any excess amino acids are broken down in the liver by a process called
DEAMINATION.

 Two separate molecules are produced as a result of deamination:
i. carbohydrate which can be changed to glycogen and stored.
ii. Urea, a nitrogenous waste product (i.e one which contains nitrogen), which
passes in the blood from a liver to the kidneys for excretion in urine.
 In the blood fatty acids and glycerol recombine to form tiny fat droplets. Lipids are
stored in special cells in the skin called adipose tissue and around the kidneys.

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Your Liver
 The liver is such an important organ that we can survive

only one or two days if it shuts down
 If the liver fails, your body will fail, too.
 Fortunately, the liver can function even when up to 75%
of it is diseased or removed.
 This is because it has the amazing ability to create new
liver tissue (i.e. it can regenerate itself) from healthy liver
cells that still exist.

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Functions of Liver
There are more than 500 functions:
processing digested food from the intestine
controlling levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood
combating infections in the body
clearing the blood of particles and infections including bacteria
neutralising and destroying drugs and toxins
deamination

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Functions of Liver
 manufacturing bile
 storing iron, vitamins and other essential
chemicals
 breaking down food and turning it into energy
 manufacturing, breaking down and regulating
numerous hormones including sex hormones

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N
U
T
R
Fun Facts
T
O
N
A
• HOW LONG ARE YOUR INTESTINES? At least 25
N feet in an adult. Be glad you're not a full-grown horse --
D their coiled-up intestines are 89 feet long!
D
• Food drying up and hanging out in the large intestine
G
can last 18 hours to 2 days!
E
S
T
• In your lifetime, your digestive system may handle
about 50 tons!!
O
N
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Regents Biology 61
N
U
T On a sheet of paper, write the name of each colored
R
organ:
T
O  Green:
N
A
 Red:
N
D
 Pink:
D  Brown:
G  Purple:
E
S  Green:
T
 Yellow:
O
N
Regents Biology 62
N
U
T
R
How’d you do?
T
O  Green: Esophagus
N
A
 Red: Stomach
N
D
 Pink: Small Intestine
D  Brown: Large
G Intestine
E
S  Purple: Liver
T
 Green: Gall Bladder
O
N
 Yellow: Pancreas
Great Job!
Regents Biology 63
Thank you for travelling along
Alimentary Canal.
Have a nice shit……
Regents Biology
64

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NUTRITION AND DIGESTION