Question

We eat food composed of all the nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. After digestion, these are absorbed in the form of glucose, amino acids, fatty acids, glycerol etc. What mechanisms are involved in the absorption of digested food and water?

Answer 1

Digestion:

1. Digestion is the complex process of turning the food you eat into nutrients, which the body uses for energy, growth, and cell repair needed to survive.
2. The digestion process also involves creating waste to be eliminated.
3. The small organs consume most of the nutrients from your diet, which your circulatory system then distributes to different parts of your body for storage or use. Special cells help transport consumed nutrients through the visceral layer and into the bloodstream.

Mechanisms involved in Digestion:

1. As food travels through the digestive tract, it interacts with digestive juices, breaking down large food molecules into smaller molecules.
2. The body then absorbs these small molecules through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream where they are distributed throughout the body.
3. Diffusion is the process by which molecules collide with each other with kinetic energy and move from high to low concentrations. Osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a semipermeable membrane from a low concentration solute to a high concentration solute.
4. Digested food can enter the blood vessels in the wall of the small intestine. Diffusion allows digested food to enter the blood vessels lining the wall of the small intestine, and osmosis allows water to be absorbed from ingested food.
5. Diffusion and osmosis aid in the absorption of nutrients.
6. Osmosis is the movement of a solvent across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of ​​low solute concentration to an area of ​​high solute concentration. On the other hand, diffusion does not require a semi-permeable membrane to occur and molecules move from an area of ​​higher concentration to a region of lower concentration.