Chapter 39

Digestion and
Nutrition

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39.1 Your Microbial “Organ”
• Vast majority of the body’s microorganisms live
in the gut
– Species vary among individuals and populations
• Helicobacter pylori resides in more than half the
worldwide population
– 5 to 20 percent of infected people develop peptic
ulcers
– Infection also increases the risk of stomach cancer
sixfold
– Infected people less likely to have GERD
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More on Gut Microorganisms
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
– Caused by shift in diversity and proportions of
intestinal bacteria
• Probiotic
– Food or supplement containing beneficial living
organisms
– Example: Bifidobacterium

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39.2 Animal Digestive Systems
• Four tasks of processing food
– Ingestion
• Taking food into a digestive organ
– Mechanical and chemical digestion
• Breaks food down into absorbable components
– Absorption
• Nutrient molecules move across the wall of a digestive
organ into the body’s internal environment
– Elimination
• Expelling undigested material from the body

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Sacs and Tubes
• Two types of digestive systems
– Saclike gastrovascular cavity
• Flatworms and cnidarians
• Functions for both digestion and gas exchange
– Complete digestive tract
• Tubular gut with two openings
• Food travels through regions specialized for food storage,
food breakdown, nutrient absorption, and waste
elimination

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Complete Digestive Tract Components
• Esophagus receives food from the pharynx
– Tube with enlarged part called the crop stores food
• Stomach
– Muscular digestive organ
– Chemically and mechanically breaks down food
• Gizzard
– Grinds up food
– Present in earthworms, birds, and other animals
lacking teeth

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Multiple-Chambered Stomach

ingestion, regurgitation, reswallowing

of food through esophagus stomach
chamber 1

stomach
chamber 2

stomach
chamber 3

stomach
chamber 4 to small
intestine

left, Based on A. Romer and T. Parsons, The Vertebrate Body, Sixth Edition, Saunders Publishing Company, 1986; right, Jouan Rius/n

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Intestine
• Intestine
– Place where most chemical digestion happens
– Nutrients are absorbed from the intestine
• Carnivores have a shorter intestine than
herbivores
– Meat is easier to digest than plant material
• Some animals have a multipurpose opening for
waste known as the cloaca

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39.3 Overview of the Human Digestive
System
• Digestive tract
– Also known as alimentary canal
– Features coiling and folding to allow lengthy tube to
fit
– Lined with mucus-secreting epithelium
• Accessory digestive organs
– Salivary glands
– Liver
– Pancreas

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Food Movement
• Peristalsis
– Process by which food moves through the esophagus
and digestive tract
– Smooth muscles contract and relax in rhythmic
waves
• Sphincters
– Rings of muscle that can relax to open or contract to
close
– Control flow of substances through a passage

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 Digestive Tract Accessory Organs

Mouth Salivary glands

Pharynx (throat)

Esophagus

Stomach Liver

Gallbladder

Pancreas
Small
intestine

Large
intestine
(colon)

Rectum

Anus
© 2016 Cengage Learning
© Cengage Learning 2016. All Rights Reserved.
39.4 Chewing and Swallowing
• Humans are omnivores
– Eat both meat and plant material
– Have all four kinds of mammalian teeth
• All are equally well developed
• Canine teeth
– Enlarged in carnivores
– Reduced in herbivores

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Tooth Name and Function
incisors
canine
premolars
molars

A A dult human mouth. Humans have all four tooth types and all are equally large.

B Carnivore with enlarged canine teeth.

C Herbivore with reduced canines and large broad molars
and premolars.
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The Mouth
• Teeth consist of dentin, a bonelike material
• Tongue is a skeletal muscle
– Covered by a membrane
• Salivary glands open into the mouth
– Enzyme in saliva begins process of chemical
digestion
• Breaks starch into disaccharides
• Presence of food at back of throat triggers
swallowing reflex

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Structure of a Human Tooth

enamel
crown
dentin

pulp cavity
(contains nerves gingiva
and blood vessels (gum)

ligaments
root
root canal

periodontal
membrane

bone

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39.5 Food Storage and Digestion in the
Stomach
• Empty stomach
– Inner surface is highly folded
– Folds smooth out as it fills with food
• Adult stomach can expand to hold as much as
one liter of fluid
• Mucosa lines the stomach’s inner wall
– Secretes gastric fluid into the stomach
• Mixture of mucus, hydrochloric acid, and pepsinogen

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Stomach Functions
• Stomach wall rhythmically contracts about three
times a minute
– Gastric fluid mixes with food to form chyme
– Chyme’s acidity denatures proteins
– Further broken down by pepsin, converted from
pepsinogen
• Gastrin
– Hormone secreted upon arrival of food in the
stomach

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Ghrelin
• Ghrelin
– Hormone secreted when stomach is empty
– Stimulates the appetite
• Gastric bypass surgery
– Reduces the size of the stomach
– Removes Ghrelin-secreting cells

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 gastroesophageal
sphincter
esophagus serosa

longitudinal
muscle
pyloric
circular
sphincter
muscle
oblique
muscle

submucosa
small mucosa
intestine

© 2016 Cengage Learning

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39.6 Structure of the Small Intestine
• Duodenum
– First portion of the small intestine
• Small intestine
– Small in diameter (about one inch)
– Would stretch to five to seven meters uncoiled
– Villi cover the surface of each intestinal fold
– Epithelial cells at the surface of a villus have
microvilli
• Also called brush border cells
• Function in digestion and absorption

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39.7 Digestion and Absorption in the
Small Intestine
• Small intestine’s lumen receives:
– Chyme from the stomach
– Enzymes and bicarbonate from the pancreas
– Bile from the gallbladder
• Carbohydrate digestion and absorption
– Pancreatic amylase and enzymes on brush border
cells split disaccharides into monosaccharides (such
as glucose)
• Move into brush border cells, then into the interstitial
fluid, and finally into the blood

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Protein Digestion and Absorption
• Pepsin breaks proteins into polypeptides
• Pancreatic proteases cut the polypeptides into
smaller fragments
– Brush border cell enzymes break them into smaller
peptides, then into amino acids
• Amino acids transported into brush border cells
– Then into interstitial fluid by membrane proteins
– From here, they enter the blood

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Fat Digestion and Absorption
• Occurs entirely in the small intestine
• Bile
– Green liquid containing salts, pigments, cholesterol,
and lipids
– Made in the liver and stored in the gall bladder
– Aids in fat digestion by dispersing fat droplets
• Process called emulsification
• Small droplets can then be broken down by
lipases

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Chemical Digestion Summary

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Water Absorption
• Eating and drinking
– Results in one to two liters of fluid entering small
intestine
• Secretions from stomach, accessory glands, and
intestinal lining add six to seven more liters
• 80 percent of water is absorbed in small intestine
– Water follows the gradient from chyme into
interstitial fluid

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© Cengage Learning 2016. All Rights Reserved.
 1
carbohydrates
monosaccharides 6
5 emulsification
fat globules free fatty acids,
droplets monoglycerides+ bile salts
(triglycerides)
3 proteins amino acids +
bile salts
2 7
4
Lumen of Small Intestine

Brush triglycerides + proteins

Border lipoproteins
Cell
8

Internal Environment
(interstitial fluid inside a villus)

Stepped Art
© Cengage Learning 2016. All Rights Reserved. Figure 39.10 p695
39.8 The Large Intestine
• Wider and shorter than the small intestine
– Only about five feet long
• Waste materials travel from small intestine to the
large intestine
– Wastes concentrated by pumping sodium ions across
the wall of the large intestine
• Water follows the gradient
• Feces
– Compacted digested waste

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Appendicitis
• Cecum
– First part of the large intestine
• Appendix projects from the cecum
– Reservoir for beneficial bacteria
• Appendicitis causes an infection in the appendix
– Requires prompt surgical treatment to avoid
appendix bursting and dispersing bacteria into the
abdominal cavity

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 ascending
colon

last
portion
of small
cecum appendix

A intestine

© 2016 Cengage Learning; photo: National Cancer Institute

transverse colon colon polyp

descending colon
B

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39.9 Metabolism of Absorbed Organic
Compounds
• Macronutrients
– Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins
– Body needs in large quantities
– Function as energy sources and raw materials
• Essential fatty acids
– Cannot be synthesized by the body
– Must be obtained from nuts, seeds, or vegetable oils

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© Cengage Learning 2016. All Rights Reserved.
 FOOD INTAKE

dietary carbohydrates, lipids dietary proteins, amino acids

Cytoplasmic Pool Cytoplasmic Pool

of Carbohydrates, Fats of Amino Acids
(interconvertible forms)

ammonia

storage building specialized instant urea nitrogen- building

forms blocks for derivatives energy containing blocks for
(e.g., cell (e.g., steroids, sources derivatives structural
glycogen) structures acetylcholine) for cells (e.g., hormones, proteins,
excreted nucleotides) enzymes
in urine

Stepped Art
© Cengage Learning 2016. All Rights Reserved. Figure 39.12 p697
Essential Amino Acids
• Those the body cannot make for itself
– Must obtain from food
• Meat is a complete protein and has all essential
amino acids
• Vegetarian diet
– Most plant proteins are incomplete
– Must obtain essential amino acids by combining
foods
• Example: rice and beans together

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39.10 Vitamins, Minerals, and
Phytochemicals
• Vitamins
– Organic substances the diet requires in small
amounts
– A, D, E, and K are fat soluble
• Stored in the body’s own fat
• Daily intake not needed
• Not sensitive to heat
– B and C are water soluble
• Not stored
• Must be eaten more frequently
• Often destroyed by cooking
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Vitamin Sources and Functions

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Minerals
• Essential elements in the diet
• Largest quantities needed of these minerals
– Calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium,
chlorine, and magnesium
• Iodine is another essential mineral
– Necessary to produce thyroid hormone
• Iron: mineral most commonly deficient in the
diet
• Flourine helps keep teeth strong

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39.11 What Should You Eat?
• United States government issues updated
guidelines every five years
– Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains
• Should make up largest portion of the diet
– Heart-healthy oils
• Essential fatty acids: omega-3 and omega-6
– Lean meat and low fat dairy
• Provide protein, vitamins, and minerals
– Minimal added salt and sugar

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39.12 Maintaining a Healthy Weight
• Body mass index (BMI)
– An indirect measure of body fat
– Calculated by the formula:

– Overweight: BMI 25-29.9

– Obese: BMI over 30
– Dangerously underweight: BMI below 18.5
• Balance caloric intake with energy output to
maintain weight
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Metabolic Rate
• Basal metabolic rate
– Rate at which energy is used when the body is at rest
– Decreases with age
– Higher for more muscular individuals
• Dieting can lower basal metabolic rate
– Survival mechanism
• Obesity increases risk for a long list of diseases

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Obesity
• Obese person’s organs can be squashed by fat
• Some genes affect body weight
– ob gene
– fto gene
• Obesity’s contributing factors
– Trend toward larger food portion sizes
– More meals outside the home
– Decrease in physical activity

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Points to Ponder
• In an incomplete digestive system, what types of
foods would be avoided due to elimination
difficulties? What is an obvious problem with an
incomplete digestive system?
• What are some of the reasons that dietary fiber,
such as bran, is so important in our diet?

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