After my last blog post, I issued the
challenge of eating foods rich in macro- and micro-nutrients or to start taking
a multivitamin. I ended up going with
the daily multivitamin and I can honestly say that I feel better a week into
taking them. I feel like I have more
energy and my mind is more focused and sharper.
After my last discussion about what macro- and micro-nutrients are, I
wanted to follow up in this post with the digestion, absorption and metabolism
of macro-nutrients.
 |
| Source of picture: http://www.health-lesson-plans-teacher.com/images/DigestiveProcessPic1.jpg |
Your digestive tract is actually one of the first
things that is formed when your body is being made as an embryo, it is made up
of a flexible muscular tube that transfers food from one end of your body to
the other (The Digestive System). More
specifically, this tube extends from the mouth to the throat, esophagus,
stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and rectum to the anus creating
about twenty six feet of travel for your food to go before it evacuates your
body (Sizer & Whitney, 2013, pg. 82).
The main purpose of the digestive tract is to ensure that our body
receives the vital nutrients that we need in order to grow and thrive.
 |
| Photo source: http://data.whicdn.com/images/49965011/423274_469148543141359_337681780_n_large.jpg |
Your body is a machine that engages several of its
organs and muscles to work together so that a person can digest their
food. Once you eat something, it can
stay in your digestive tract for as long as three days before your body fully
digests it (The Digestive System). The
small particles that your food gets broken down to contain the macro-nutrients
your body needs.
Carbohydrates begin their digestive process in the
mouth where they are chemically digested with the enzyme salivary amylase that
breaks down the carbs into maltose, maltotriose and limit dextrin (Cummings,
2015). Protein begins to gets digested
and absorbed into the stomach by the enzyme pepsin. Most of the chemical digestion and almost all
of the absorption of the vital nutrients takes place in the small intestine;
this includes carbohydrates, proteins and fats (Cummings, 2015). Pancreatic digestive enzymes are good enough
on their own to digest the carbohydrates and proteins that you eat and then
pancreatic lipase is essential for the majority of fat digestion and once the macro-nutrients have been digested and absorbed they aid the liver in metabolism
(Cummings, 2015).
That was a lot of scientific talk but essentially,
your body is a machine. When you eat the
proper foods and absorb the right nutrients, your body functions at its best
and will work like the well-oiled machine it was created to be.
Cummings, Benjamin.
(2015). The Digestive
System. Retrieved from http://bk.psu.edu
/clt/bisc4/ipweb/misc/assignmentfiles/digestive/Digestion_Absorption.pdf
Sizer, F. & Whitney, E.
(2013). Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies (13th ed.).
Mason,
OH:Cengage
Learning.
The
Digestive System. YouTube. Retrieved
from
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.