Life Processes & Diseases

Nutrition: The Human Digestive System

Objectives
• By the end of this lesson students should be able to:
• define nutrition;
• recall the importance of nutrition to living organisms;
• distinguish between digestion and ingestion;
• distinguish between mechanical and chemical digestion;
• define absorption and egestion;
• relate the structure of the alimentary canal in humans to its functions;
• identify the different parts of the alimentary canal;
• describe the process of digestion and absorption of food in the alimentary canal;
• describe what happens to the products of digestion after their absorption;
• describe the structure of a villus in relation to absorption;
• distinguish between egestion and excretion
Introduction
What is Nutrition?

• Nutrition is the process by which living organisms take in substance

from their environment which can be used to build or repair cells, or
provide energy.
Why is nutrition important?
• Organisms need nutrients for growth and development, repair,
reproduction and to obtain energy needed to carry out other
processes. It is through feeding that they obtain these needed
nutrients to survive.
Key Terms
• Digestion is the breakdown of large nutrient molecules into smaller ones, so that they can
be absorbed through the walls of the alimentary canal and into the blood.
• Alimentary canal: is a long tube through which food passes between ingestion to egestion.
• Absorption: the uptake of nutrients from the alimentary canal into the bloodstream.
• Ingestion: taking food into the mouth.
• Egestion: is the removal of undigested food , in the form of faeces through the anus.
• Excretion: is the removal of metabolic wastes from an organism.
• Enzymes: proteins which catalyze metabolic reactions.
Importance of Digestion
• Digestion makes nutrients easier to absorb. The alimentary canal in humans (and other
mammals as well) is a long tube running from one end of its body to another.

• Before food can be useful to humans it has to get out of the alimentary canal and into the
bloodstream in a process called absorption.

• For absorption to occur the molecules of food have to get through the walls of the
alimentary canal, they must be very small for this to happen.

• Food eaten by animals is usually some large molecules, before these can be absorbed,
they must be broken down into small molecules, in the process of digestion.
Not All Food Needs to be Digested
• Large carbohydrate molecules, such as polysaccharides, have to be broken

down into simple sugars (monosaccharides). Proteins are broken down into

amino acids. Fats are broken down into fatty acids and glycerol.

• Simple sugars, water, vitamins and minerals are small molecules, and do

not need to be digested and can be absorbed as they are.

 Mechanical Digestion vs Chemical Digestion
• Mechanical digestion: the breakup of large pieces of food to smaller ones,

increasing their surface area. This is carried out by the teeth in the mouth and by

the contraction of the of muscles in the walls of the stomach.

• Chemical digestion: is the breakdown of large molecules of food into smaller ones

by the action of enzymes.

The Alimentary Canal
The Human Digestive System

FIGURE 1: DIAGRAM SHOWING THE HUMAN DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

The Alimentary Canal
• The alimentary canal is a long tube which runs from the mouth to the
anus. It is part of the digestive system. The digestive system also
includes the liver and pancreas.
• The walls of the alimentary canal contains muscles, which contract
and relax to make food move along, this is called peristalsis.

FIGURE 2: DIAGRAM SHOWING WHAT HAPPENS IN PERISTALSIS

The Alimentary Canal Cont’d
• Sometimes it is necessary to keep food in one part of the alimentary
canal for a while, before it is allowed to move to the next part. Special
muscles called sphincter muscles can loose the tube completely in
certain places.
• To help the food move easily through the alimentary canal it is
lubricated with mucus. This mucus is made in goblet cells found along
the alimentary canal.
• Each section of the alimentary canal has its own role to play in the
digestion, absorption and egestion of food.
Parts of the Alimentary Canal
The Mouth
• Food is ingested using the teeth, lips and tongues.
• The teeth then bite or grind the food into smaller pieces, increasing the surface
area.
• The tongues mixes the food with saliva, forming a bolus. The bolus is then
swallowed.
• Saliva is made in the salivary glands. It is a mixture of:
• water: helps to dissolve substances in the food, allowing us to taste them
• mucus: helps the chewed food to bind together forming the bolus and lubricate it so it can
easily slide down the oesophogus when it is swallowed.
• amylase: begins the digestion of starch in the food to maltose
The Oesophogus
• This is one of two tubes located at the back of the mouth that takes
food down to the stomach.
• When you swallow, a piece of cartilage (the epiglottis) covers the
entrance of the trachea and stops food from going down into the
lungs.
• The entrance of the stomach from the oesophogus is guarded by a
ring of muscles called sphincter muscles. This muscle relaxes to let the
food pass into the stomach.
• Food is carried/pushed along the oesophagus by peristalsis ( a wave
like muscular contraction).
The Stomach
• The stomach has strong, muscular walls. The muscles contract and
relax to churn the food and mix it with enzymes and mucus,
producing a mixture known as chyme.
• In the pits of the stomach walls there are:
• goblet cells which secrete mucus. It also contains other
• cells that produces the enzymes pepsin and rennin
• cells that make hydrochloric acid which helps to kill any bacteria in the food.
•
The Stomach Cont’d
• Pepsin is a protease which begins the digestion of proteins by
breaking them down into polypeptides. Pepsin works best in acidic
conditions.
• Rennin is ONLY produced in the stomach of young mammals, it causes
the milk they get from their mothers to clot, the milk proteins are
then broken down by pepsin.
• The stomach can store food for a very long time; after one or two
hours the sphincter muscle at the bottom of the stomach opens and
lets the chyme into the duodenum.
The Stomach Cont’d

FIGURE 3: DIAGRAM SHOWING A GASTRIC PIT

The Small Intestine
• The small intestine is about 5m long, it is called the small intestine
because it is very narrow. The small intestine has three parts:
• Duodenum: the first part and is closest to the stomach
• Jejunum: the middle part
• Ileum: the last part and is closest to the colon
• Digestion ends in the small intestine.
• Digested food is absorbed in the small intestine.
The Small Intestine Cont’d
• Several enzymes are secreted into the duodenum, these are made in
the pancreas, (the pancreas is located just beneath the stomach).
• The pancreatic juice made in the pancreas enters the duodenum by
flowing along the pancreatic duct. The pancreatic juice contains the
following:
• Amylase: this breaks down starch to maltose
• Trypsin: this is a type of protease which breaks down proteins to polypeptides
• Lipase: this breaks down lipids to fatty acids and glycerol
• Sodium hydrogencarbonate: this creates a suitable environment for the
enzymes amylase, trypsin, and lipase to work by partially neutralizing the
chyme.
The Small Intestine Cont’d
• Bile also flows into the duodenum, it:
• is a yellowish green watery liquid produced in the liver
• is stored in the gall bladder
• flows to the duodenum along the bile duct
• lacks enzymes
• contains salts (bile salts) that carry out emulsification (breaking up large drops
of fat into small ones) of fat. This makes it easier for lipase to digest them.
The Small Intestine Cont’d
• The enzymes produced by the cells of the villus in the small intestine
are:
• Carbohydrases:
• Maltase: this breaks down maltose to glucose
• Sucrase: this breaks down sucrose to glucose and fructose
• Lactase; this breaks down lactose to glucose and galactose
• Peptidase (a Protease): this breaks down polypeptides into amino acids
• Lipase: completes the breakdown of fats to fatty acids and glycerol
The Small Intestine Cont’d
• In addition to the enzymes found in pancreatic juice, the small
intestine (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum) makes some enzymes by
cells in its walls.
• Millions of tiny projections, called villi (villus singular) covers the inner
walls of the small intestine. Each villus is about 1mm long. Cells
covering the villi make enzymes. The enzymes do not come out into
the lumen of the small intestine but stay close to the cells that make
them, these enzymes complete digestion of food.
The Small Intestine Cont’d

FIGURE 4: DIAGRAM SHOWING A LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH A VILLUS

The Small Intestine Cont’d
• After the carbohydrates have been broken down to glucose, the
proteins to amino acids and the lipids to fatty acids and glycerol they
are now small enough to pass through the walls of the small intestine
and into the blood in a process called (absorption). The table below
shows how the small intestine is adapted to carry out absorption.
The Small Intestine Cont’d
TABLE 1: TABLE SHOWING HOW THE SMALL INTESTINE IS ADAPTED TO CARRY OUT ABSORPTION

Feature How it Helps in Absorption

It is very long, about 5m in adults This gives plenty of time for digestion to be completed
and for digested food to be absorbed as it slowly passes
through.
It has villi. Each villi is covered with cells This gives the inner surface of the small intestine a very
which have even smaller projections called large surface area, the larger the surface area the faster
microvilli. nutrients can be absorbed.

Villi contain blood capillaries Monosaccharides, amino acids, water, minerals, and
vitamins pass into the blood to be taken to the liver and
then around the body

Villi contain lacteals, which are part of the Lipids are absorbed into the lacteals
lymphatic system

Villi have walls only one cell thick The digested nutrients can easily cross the wall to reach
the blood capillaries and lacteals.
The Large Intestine
• Not all the food eaten can be digested, the undigested food cannot be
absorbed by the small intestine. It travels on through the caecum, past the
appendix and into the colon.
• In humans the caecum and appendix have no function. In the colon more
water and salts are absorbed.
• The colon and rectum are called the large intestines because they are wider
than the small intestine.
• By the time food reaches the rectum, most of the substances have been
absorbed by the blood. All that remains is indigestible food (roughage),
bacteria, and some dead cells from inside the alimentary canal. This
mixture forms faeces, which can be passed out through the anus in a
process called egestion. The rectum temporarily stores undigested food.
Liver
This is not a part of the alimentary canal but it is apart of the digestive system in
humans.
The Liver
• After absorption into the blood the nutrients are taken straight to the
liver, this is done by the hepatic portal vein. The liver:
• process some of the nutrients before they go any further
• some are broken down
• some converted into other substances
• some stored
• The nutrients dissolved in the blood plasma, are then taken to other
parts of the body where they may become assimilated as part of a
cell.
Summary
• Please see the links:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JT02G1GJbI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBgRqiOjG1U