Food and

Digestion
We need food for three main reasons

To provide To help prevent

To supply us
materials for disease and
with a fuel for
growth and keep our bodies
energy.
repair of tissues. healthy.
Diet
Balanced diet
There are
certain factors Age – Children require more protein per kg of body
that affect diet weight than adults
such as: Gender – Males generally use more energy than
females

Activity – Higher levels of physical activity will

increase demand for nutrients

Pregnancy – Higher demands for nutrients in order

to supply fetus with energy for development

Breast feeding mother – Higher requirements for

vitamin and water
Malnutrition
Malnutrition can lead to consequences such
as:
Essential nutrients
Investigate the vitamin C content of lemon
juice. (Vitamin C will remove the colour
from a blue dye called DCPIP.)
Calculation
Example:
Energy from food
Measuring the energy content of a food
Calculation
Energy in joules per gram ( j per g )
Calorimeter
Advantages of food calorimeter
Structure and function
Useful definitions
Ingestion – Taking in of substances e.g. food and drink into
the body through the mouth

Mechanical digestion – Break down of food into smaller

pieces without chemical change to food molecules

Chemical digestion – Break down of large insoluble

molecules into small, soluble molecules

Absorption – Movement of chemically digested food

molecules through the small intestine walls into the blood
Assimilation – Movement of digested food molecules
into the cells of the body where they are used and
become a part of the cells
Mouth
Oesophagus
Stomach
Pancreas
Duodenum
Ileum
Liver
Colon
Digestion
Mechanical digestion
The arrangement of an animal’s teeth is
called its dentition.
Structure of human teeth
Molar
Pre-molar
Canine
Incisor
Dental decay or dental caries
Proper dental care
Periodontal disease
Peristalsis
• Peristalsis is a mechanism that helps moves food along the alimentary
canal
• Firstly, muscles in the walls of the oesophagus create waves of
contractions which force the bolus along
• Once the bolus has reached the stomach, it is churned into a less solid
form, called chyme, which continues on to the small intestine
• Peristalsis is controlled by circular and longitudinal muscles
• Circular muscles contract to reduce the diameter of the lumen of the
oesophagus or small intestine
• Longitudinal muscles contract to reduce the length of that section the
oesophagus or the small intestine

• Mucus is produced to continually lubricate the food mass and reduce

friction
• Dietary fibre provides the roughage required for the muscles to push
against during peristalsis
Chemical digestion
Digestive Enzymes
Carbohydrases
Proteases
Lipase
Bile Production & Storage
• Bile is an alkaline substance produced by cells in the liver
• Before being released into the small intestine bile is stored in
the gallbladder
Bile has two main roles:
• Bile has two main roles:
• Neutralising the hydrochloric acid from the stomach
• The alkaline properties of bile allow for this to occur
• This neutralisation is essential as enzymes in the small
intestine have a higher (more alkaline) optimum pH than
those in the stomach
• Breaking apart large drops of fat into smaller ones (and so
increasing their surface area)
• This is known as emulsification
• The more alkaline conditions and larger surface area allows lipase
to chemically break down the fat (lipids) molecules into glycerol and fatty
acids at a faster rate
Absorption
Structure of a villus
▪ The surface of a villus is made of single layer of cells called an
epithelium.
▪ It makes easier for the products of digestion to diffuse through
and enter the blood.
▪ The blood vessels from the ileum join up to form a large blood
vessel called the hepatic portal vein, which leads to the liver.
▪ The liver acts rather like a food processing factory, breaking some
molecules down, and building up and storing others.
▪ The soluble food molecules are absorbed from the blood into cells
of tissues, where they are used to build new parts of cells. This is
called assimilation.
The large intestine
The body mass index
Food hygiene
Salmonella
esterica
Salmonella Typhi
Listeria
monocytogenes
Clostridium
botulinum
Stages to prevent transmission of food-
borne microorganism
Preventing transmission of
microorganisms in food
Food preservation