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The things we eat: types of food and the problem of getting them inside us

Source

Food includes carbohydrates (starch and sugars), fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals.

(The image on the left is of "villi" the hair-like "arms" that line the inside of the intestine and which absorb nutrients from the intestine into the body.)

Starch is a polysaccharide. Sugars include disaccharides (sucrose, lactose) and monosaccharides (glucose, galactose).

Different carbohydrates can be detected by special tests: the iodine test (Lugol's) for starch (starch goes blue); the Benedict's test for sugars (sugars give an orange precipitate. This test works with most sugars but not with sucrose).

The body uses carbohydrates and fats to supply energy for work, proteins to build its structure, vitamins to make key components in its chemical machinery, minerals for such purposes as making bone.

To make use of food, the body has to break the food down into small molecules and absorb them.

The result of breaking down starch (a polysaccharide) is glucose molecules (a monosachharide).

The result of breaking down protein ( a polypeptide) is amino acid molecules (a monopeptides).

The parts of the digestive system, and what happens where

The digestive system has parts: mouth, oesophagous, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (colon), rectum, anus.

The parts of the digestive system which form a passageway between mouth and anus are collectively called the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract).

Different sections of the GI tract are closed off from each other by the action of circular muscles called sphincters. Food passes from one section to the next when the sphincter opens.

The sphincter muscles are located at the following places and junctions

a. mouth
b. oesphagous/stomach
c. stomach/small intestine
d. small intestine/large intestine
e. anus

At the junction of the small and large intestines, there is a small blind-ended tube called the appendix. Sometimes food gets trapped in the appendix, which becomes inflammed and swells up. This is called appendicitis.

Food enters the body by the mouth and the undigested products leave by the anus. The undigested products form the faeces.

Expulsion of the faeces from the rectum is called defaecation.

Absorbing the breakdown products of digestion

All the useful breakdown products (small molecules) are absorbed in the small intestine.

[Karl Note:  There is a vital omission here.  "Useful breakdown products" are also absorbed, particularly, in the mouth.  This concept of digestion and absorption is usually never mentioned in the West -- as only the Ayurvedic approach to health stresses the absorption through the tissues of the mouth.  This is the area of absorption which is most of use in healing the body and it is also the reason why this herbal MSM is supposed to be put in the mouth as a powder, tasted, and mixed with the saliva in the mouth -- this would be the ONLY way by which these particular herbal components could be absorbed in the mouth tissues.

In fact it is hardly understood at all in the West.  The Villi are said (below) to be the area of the body (in the intestines) where "food" is absorbed.  The use of the word "food" is much too limiting.   A plant can serve as food and its components be absorbed within the intestine, and by these villi.  But that same plant could contain components that would never become available without the enzymes in the mouth, and would still never be available unless absorbed through the mouth tissues.

This is one of the primary principles of Ayurvedic treatment -- first it is plants, herbs that are used as the source of treatment, not toxic drugs.

Next, these plants are often used as food, absorbed in the intestines, but the same plant, properly processed in the mouth, in fact, becomes a "medicine" within the Ayurvedic tradition.

Thus in order for the herbal MSM to be useful beyond the already great action of the MSM, alone, the extracted herbs must come into contact with the saliva and mouth tissues, and enter the body through that area rather than the intestines.]

The efficiency of absorption depends upon the surface area of the inside surface of the small intestine.

The surface area of the small intestine is increased enormously by millions of finger-like extensions called villi (singular: villus). The surface of the cells which form the outermost layer of these villi are covered by even smaller finger-like extensions called microvilli (forming a 'brush border' to each cell), which increases the surface area still further.

Villi contain blood vessels and branches of the lymph system.

The blood vessels in the villi absorb the sugars and amino acids. The lymph branches absorb the fats.

When sugars are absorbed into the blood they are taken to the liver and stored as glycogen (a polysaccharide).

Breaking food down

The breakdown of food involves

a. mechanical breakdown of food by chewing.
b. chemical break down of food by enzymes.
 

Chewing increases the surface area which creates more surface for the enzymes to attack.

Food is moved through the GI tract by peristalsis (muscular contractions of the walls of the GI tract which squeezes the food along the gut like toothpaste).

Peristalis does not require conscious thought; it takes place without thinking.

Each enzyme works best at a specific pH.

Each part of the GI tract has a different pH, which suites the enzymes which work in that part.

The enzyme which works in the mouth (amylase) requires a neutral pH.

The enzyme which works in the stomach (pepsin) requires an acid pH (due to HCl).

The acid in the stomach makes it more difficult for disease producing organisms to survive in the body when they are taken in with the food.

The enzymes which work in the small intestine (e.g. lactase) require a basic pH.

The enzymes found in the intestine come from the pancreas, via the pancreatic duct, and from small intestine itself.

The bile turns fats into small droplets which lipase can attack. The liver makes bile. Bile is stored in the gall bladder; it is released each time you eat a meal.

The functions of some of the different enzymes produced by the mouth, stomach, small intestine and pancreas are:

When the food is chewed it is mixed with small amounts off water. The water (which contains amylase) is called saliva and is produced by the salivary glands. Much more water is added when the food reaches the stomach.

The water is reabsorbed in the large intestine.

Infant diarrhea and rehydration therapy

If too little water is reabsorbed the faeces are very liquid; this is called diarrhea. If too much water is reabsorbed, the faeces are not liquid enough; this is called constipation.

Diarrhea is especially common where contaminated drinking water carries disease-producing organisms. Once the large intestine (colon) becomes inflammed, it secretes water instead of absorbing it. This water has a lot of Na (sodium) salts and other important molecules in it. People, especially children, die from the loss of Na salts and the other molecules after a few days. Giving the sick person just water to drink doesn't replace these salts.

Rehydration therapy is a technique of feeding a person with a drink containing Na salts and the other important molecules in water, until the person gets better. This reduces the death rate for cholera from 50% to 0%.

Building up the substances of the body

Enzymes are also necessary to build proteins out of amino acids, and build glycogen (an energy store in the liver) out of glucose.

Proteins can be hundreds of amino acids long, but they are made out of only 20 different amino acids. What makes one protein differ from another is the order of the amino acids in the protein (just as the words 'ocean' and 'canoe' are made out of the same letters, but the order of the letters is different). Proteins can also differ in length.

When we eat protein, the enzymes in our small intestine break it down into individual amino acids which we can then absorb. When the enzymes in our cells build the amino acids back into the proteins out of which our bodies are made (hair, muscle, skin etc.) the amino acids are arranged in a new order. This new order is different from the order they were in when they were in the proteins we ate. They have to be in the order required to make the proteins we need.

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