About the Digestive System! About the Digestive System! The digestive system process starts before you take a bite! The digestive system is the groups of organs that break down and absorb food. Food is our fuel for our body like how the car needs its fuel for energy.
Carbohydrate is the universal energy cell. Carbohydrate breakdown, glycogen serves as a source of glucose for your cells, your tissues, including your brain and muscles use glucose as a source of energy to support metabolic functioning. When your body requires glucose your liver and muscle breakdown their glycogen stores releasing glucose. Some glucose may be used directly in your liver and muscles while other glucose is released into your blood stream and used throughout body. Lipid break down, your body can breakdown triglycerides as a source of energy.
Fructose and galactose will enter the liver via the hepatic portal system where they are broken down to glucose. Glucose is already at an optimal state for use in tissues at the cellular level for use in glycolysis, so glucose will travel in the bloodstream to the intended tissues that require the glucose for energy. Insulin will allow the uptake of the glucose into the tissues and as one might imagine, is critical for blood glucose
Glucose: Glucose is a type of sugar and is a very important biochemical. For one thing, glucose is the only fuel used by brain cells. Glucose is also an important source of energy for muscles and other tissues in the body. The glucose in your blood comes from the food you eat. Complex carbohydrates, found in pasta or cereal, for example, are long chains of sugar molecules that are broken down by enzymes to simple sugars, such as glucose.
Once inside the small intestine, enzymes are released that allow the usable parts of the food to be absorbed into the body for energy. The first section of the small intestine where this begins is called the duodenum and the end of the small intestinal tract is known as the ileum. The ileum is where the last useable amounts of nutrients are absorbed from food. The next step in the digestive process is the large intestine. Once inside the large intestine, the process slows to allow the absorption of final nutrients and also allows bacteria to grow.
Small molecules such as oxygen and carbon dioxide can diffuse in and out of the cells through the phospholipid bilayer; ions and glucose molecules enter and leave the cell via the channel proteins. Waste products such as nitrogenous compounds are carried to the kidneys and are excreted in the form of urine. Antidiuretic hormone, (ADH), is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland. It is carried by the plasma to the kidney and stimulate the occurrence of water reabsorption. When the body is dehydrated, ADH is released, causing the collecting ducts to become more permeable.
Introduction All organisms and their individual cells need a source of energy and air supply in order to maintain life. Organisms achieve this through two metabolic reactions: Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis. Cellular respiration is the process of breaking down an organic molecule such as glucose into inorganic carbon molecules and reducing oxygen to produce water (Berry J,1982). This process also produces ATP for the cells to use as a source of energy. Cellular respiration is the only metabolic process that could be utilized within heterotrophs; which are organisms who aren’t capable of making their own energy without consuming organic molecules.
(Swann, 2008) The pancreas also makes amylase (alpha amylase) to hydrolyse dietary starch into disaccharides and which are converted by other enzymes to glucose to supply the body with energy. Hypothesis: Most enzymes are very specific for a certain substrate. The active site on the enzyme molecule forms a keyhole into which the substrate fits like a key. The substrate molecule is then broken up into many smaller pieces. “The higher the reaction temperature, the more kinetic
Peristalsis also is at work in this organ, moving food through and mixing it with digestive secretions from the pancreas and liver. The duodenum is largely responsible for the continuous breaking-down process, with the jejunum and ileum mainly responsible for absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream. Pancreas-The pancreas secretes digestive enzymes into the duodenum, the first segment of the small intestine. These enzymes break down protein, fats, and carbohydrates. The pancreas also makes insulin, secreting it directly into the bloodstream.
The main goal of the digestive system is to break down large macromolecules (proteins, fats and starch), which cannot be absorbed as-is, into smaller molecules (amino acids, fatty acids and glucose) that can be absorbed across the wall of the tract, into the circulatory system for diffusion around the body, and excretion. There are two types of digestion which are mechanical digestion (breaking food into smaller pieces ie. chewing) and chemical digestion (enzymes ie. salivary amylase). Mechanical digestion in the mouth helps begin chemical digestion by mixing the food with enzyme-containing saliva.