subject: Digestion Metabolism [print this page] Digestion metabolism begins in the mouth with your saliva. Digestion is your body's ability to break down food and convert it for absorption. The saliva's job is to lubricate, dissolve and cause the chemical breakdown of food. Saliva is made of 99.5 percent water and .5 percent solutes. Saliva also helps to soften the food. Saliva is still secreted after food is swallowed.
Your teeth play an important role with digestion metabolism. Your teeth are used to chew and grind the food into small particles. You should eat your food slow. Chewing your food into small particles gives your saliva time to do its job.
Saliva is critical for starches. Eating slow is especially important for starches and you don't want other foods in your mouth at the same time with starches. This way the starches don't have to compete with other foods for your saliva. Starches hae a special need to be chemically changed.
The next stage of digestion metabolism occurs in the stomach. The primary function of the stomach is to digest proteins. Carbohydrate rich foods leave the stomach faster than proteins. Carbohydrates leave the stomach after a few hours. Foods with large amounts of fat empty the stomach the slowest.
After your food enters your stomach a process called mixing waves occurs. Mixing waves soften food, mixes it with secretions from the gastric gland. Mixing waves also reduces food to a thin liquid called chime.
Most substances are not absorbed until they reach the small intestine. The small intestine is where most digestion and absorption occur. Approximately 90 percent of nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine. The remaining 10 percent is absorbed in the stomach and large intestine. In adults the enzymes of the small intestine are used to digest fats.
Digestion in the small intestine requires the help of the pancreas, liver and gallbladder. The pancreas has juices to digest proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Your liver is a vital organ. You will have major health problems if your liver stops working, in fact you will die.
Your liver does many things. Your liver stores and detoxifies poisons, such as pesticides. Pesticides can cause chronic liver damage. Over time the pesticides accumulate in your fat. Your liver stores poisons that can't be broken down and excreted.
The harmful effects of pesticides in the body extend much further than the liver such as your nervous and reproductive systems. Pesticides are sprayed on fruits and vegetables and also found in the animal products you eat. The DDT pesticide is the strongest in animal and fatty foods.
You should be fine when you eat fruits and vegetables as long as you wash them thoroughly. The animal foods you eat are a different story. Animals ingest pesticides and it becomes part of their fatty tissue. When you eat the animal foods you also take in their pesticides.
The next step of digestion metabolism is the large intestine. The large intestines job is to complete the absorption of foods. It manufactures vitamins and forms feces and expulses the feces out of the body.
The colon is part of the large intestine and is a big cause of cancer for many. A diet low in fiber is a cause of colon diseases.
