(1) Eating and Digesting Food, the ADG and Dietary Requirements, Allergies and Intolerances Flashcards
(88 cards)
What is hunger and ghrelin?
Hunger is the drive to satisfy the body’s need for food.
Ghrelin is an appetite-stimulating hormone that is produced and released by the stomach when it is empty, creating pangs of hunger. It is secreted into the bloodstream where it travels to the hypothalamus, triggering a feeling of hunger.
Appetite
Appetite is the ‘desire for food’, even when the body isn’t hungry. An appealing sound, appearance or aroma can trigger an appetite for food.
Satiety
Satiety is the sense of fullness that comes after eating food when there is no longer a desire for food.
Leptin + Satiety
Leptin is produced by the adipose tissue which sends a signal to the hypothalamus in the brain to supress the sensation of hunger. It opposes the action of ghrelin by curbing appetite.
Thus, helps regulate body weight.
Peptide YY (PYY) + Satiety
Produced in the lower part of the small intestine and sends signals of fullness to the brain.
Particularly after eating foods high in fat or protein
Cholecystokinin (CKK) + Satiety
Produced in the small intestine and suppresses appetite when a high-fat meal is eaten.
Slows the rate at which the stomach empties, helping suppress appetite.
Satiety Levels in Food
High satiety:
- high protein foods: meat, fish, poultry and dairy products
- low glycaemic index (GI) foods: wholemeal pasta, basmati, multigrain and sourdough bread, lentils (high-carbohydrate foods)
Low Satiety:
- High fat foods, snacks, pastries, sweet biscuits, chips
Glycaemic index (GI)
A measure of how quickly and how much a food raises blood glucose levels.
Low-GI foods delays the onset of hunger because they are broken down slowly during digestion.
Appearance
Appearance - It is the first sense used to assess food and is important as a motivator to eat something. Colour plays a huge role in our perception of food, as we expect different colours to mean different flavours, or it serves as a guide for judging quality (spoilage/ripeness/raw)
The appeartnace and aroma of the food set of nerve impulses from the eyes and nose. These nerve impulses trigger the release of enzymes that will eventually break the food down and release the nutrients it contains
- chemical digestion
- stomch contractions at the sight/aroma of food
Aroma
Refers to the smell or ‘fragrance’ of food.
We detect the chemicals from food as they escape into the air and are then inhaled by the nose to reach the olfactory cells.
Our sense of taste and smell work together to distinguish minute differences in food and are closely linked where a blocked nose may make it hard to distinguish taste.
Flavour
Combination of the taste and aroma of food; the total sensory impression formed when food is eaten.
Taste sensations begin when the papillae on the supper surface of the tongue are stimulated.
As food enters the mouth, saliva begins to dissolve the flavour chemicals. At the same time the olfactory cells in the nose detect the aromas of the food, and the nerve ending in the skin within the mouth detect the food’s temperature.
Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami
Texture
Texture is the tactile sense, and determines the way food feels in the mouth
Digestion
Digestion is the process by which food is broken down into substances that can be absorbed and used by the body for energy, growth and repair to build new tissue.
Teeth, tongue, salivary glands, pancreas, liver and gall bladder are accessory organs that also contribute to the digestion process.
Alimentary Canal/Gastrointestinal tract
is the main feature of the digestion system which is a long tube that starts in the mouth and ends in the anus.
Mechanical Digestion
involves the use of force like chewing, churning or squashing movements of the stomach or intestines to break down food
Chemical Digestion
the breakdown of food using chemicals such as enzymes and acids
Enzymatic Hydrolysis
is a chemical digestive process that breaks down food by breaking the bonds that hold the molecular “building blocks” within the food together
In enzymatic hydrolysis, reactions occur when an enzyme incorporates a water molecule across the bond allowing it to break.
e.g.
- when an enzyme such as pepsin breaks down protein into amino acids in the stomach.
Mouth - teeth
the teeth bite of pieces of food and chew them into smaller pieces to a greater surface area is exposed to the enzymes
no digestion of macronutrients
Mouth - salivary glands
Three pairs of salivary glands produce saliva that contains the enzyme salivary amylase. Saliva lubricates the food and form it into a soft bundle called a bolus that makes it easier to swallow.
Salivary glands - macronutrient digestion
The enzyme, salivary amylase, begins the digestion of carbohydrates in the food, converting the starch to the disaccharide maltose, through the process of enzymatic hydrolysis.
Mouth - tongue
The tongue helps to move the food around in the mouth.
Before swallowing, the epiglottis covers the trachea to prevent food going down the windpipe.
Tongue - macronutrient digestion
The enzyme lingual lipase is produce by the tongue to begin the breakdown of fat by acting on triglycerides to free fatty acids from glycerol.
Oesophagus
As food enters the oesophagus, its passage is assisted by a ‘rush’ of saliva. The oesophagus is ringed with muscles that contract to form wavelike motions to push the bolus towards the stomach.
no digestion of macronutrients take place
Stomach
The bolus enters the stomach. The walls of the stomach are strong and muscular. They contract with force to further break down the food and churn the bolus into a liquefied mass called chyme. The wavelike contractions squeeze the chyme towards the first section of the small intestine - the duodenum.
The stomach is highly acidic, with a pH of between 15-25. Hydrochloric acid in the stomach helps destroy bacteria and extract the nutrients from food.