Answer to Question #95801 in Human Anatomy and Physiology for satish gurav

Question

2. Enumerate and illustrate the digestion, absorption and utilization of food
in our body.

Answer 1

The breakdown of food into simpler substances is called digestion and the simple substances are then absorbed and finally assimilated to all the cells of the body. This is a process which involves two phases -

Mechanical digestion

\Chemical digestion

Digestion takes place with the help of numerous enzymes and hormones. It begins in the mouth and ends in the anus. Biochemically digestion is completed in two phases-

Acidic phase- takes place in the stomach where HCl helps to kill the bacteria and makes the medium acidic for certain enzymes that digests the food in stomach like pepsin.

Alkaline phase - this occurs in the small intestine where alkaline juices from liver i.e bile, intestinal juice i.e succus enetricus and pancreatic juice are secreted and rest of the digestion is complete in the small intestine.

Villi is the finger like projections present in the surface of small intestine that increase the surface area of the enzymes and thus helps in the absorption of food.

Undigested substance are not absorbed and are send to large intestine and thrown out of the body as wastes from the anus.

Digestion begins in the alimentary canal which begins in the mouth and ends in the anus. The sequence of digestion in different organs is-

Mouth ------------ esophagus -------------- Stomach ------------ Small intestine ---------- Large intestine ---- Rectum -------- Anus