Questions tagged [digestion]
The physiological process of breaking down food into its constituent parts to provide nutrition for the body.
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Why are prions in animal diets not destroyed by the digestive system?
According to CBC:
Mad cow disease is the common name for a condition known technically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. [...] The only known source of mad cow disease is from animal-...
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Why are sugars in whole fruits not digested the same way sugars in juice are?
In this paper of the WHO, it is claimed that we should limit our consumption of free sugars:
WHO recommends a reduced intake of free sugars throughout the
lifecourse. [...] Free sugars include ...
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Why is wombat scat (feces) shaped like cubes?
I've heard that wombat scat is cube shaped, but I don't understand how that can happen. Has anyone studied the phenomenon? What would the evolutionary pressure have been to cause this?
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How can birds disperse seeds when they are able to digest them?
I've just read in a book that birds' guts can digest almost all the consumed seeds with the exception of mistletoe and loranthus (which stays stuck on the branches). On the other hand, I know that the ...
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Why aren't the antibodies in the mother's milk digested by the infant's digestive system?
Why aren't the antibodies in the mother's milk digested by the infant's digestive system?
Enzymes like pepsin have been found to be present in infant's digestive system(1). Though the pH in the ...
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Do sharks fart?
My son is 5 and I'm encouraging him to be curious and ask questions of the world around him.
He asked if sharks fart and how does it smell? He feels that it would smell of fish and be disgusting.
He ...
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Would fewer cows mean less methane emission?
Rotting grass produces the same amount of methane as cows that digest grass (see this source). So if cows did not eat the grass, it would still emit methane. Therefore, if there were fewer cows, would ...
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Does freezing microorganisms such as probiotics kill them?
Does freezing microorganisms such as probiotics kill them? If not, what is the process that allows them to "come back to life" after the temperatures are increased?
As an example, lets say you ...
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Do mosquitos excrete blood?
Since insects like mosquitos ingest only blood, and insects generally excrete their solid and liquid waste at the same time as frass, I was wondering: is mosquito defecation more like iron pellets or ...
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Does a walk after a meal help with digestion?
I am a bit confused with the notion that "walking after meals helps you in digestion ",
Some say that it helps, whereas others oppose it. Can someone come up with a valid explanation for this?
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How does the stomach handle continuous eating?
In biology class, we learned this familiar story: Food enters the stomach, the stomach churns it with acid and enzymes, and then, somehow, the stomach senses when the stew is ready and releases it ...
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Why are triacylglycerols broken down before being absorbed?
So when dietary fats are in the small intestine, they are emulsified by bile salts in order for action by lipases to occur. Lipases degrade the triacylglycerols into monoacylglycerols, ...
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Human Digestion of Cellulose?
Most animals can digest the cellulose in grass because of the anaerobic bacteria called Fibrobacter succinogenes living in their rumen (gut). The bacteria produces the enzyme cellulase and is ...
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Where does all the food go?
Food goes in, excrement come out. This seems obvious.
But it seems like the mass of the excrement is less than the one of the food.
Most people I asked answered: "There's a difference because it's ...
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How do bile salts affect lipase activity?
BACKGROUND: It is well known that bile salts are needed for emulsification of fats. It is then said that this increases the surface area for activity of pancreatic lipase, implying that bile salts ...
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Why does biomagnification of mercury occur more in large fish?
I love tuna so this question has been bugging me senselessly.
I am aware that larger fish tend to have more mercury concentration in their flesh than their prey, however, I don't understand how this ...
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Why is sugar absorbed very fast into the blood stream?
Recently, I heard from a pregnant person I know that immediately after she eats something sugary/sweet, the baby starts kicking and moving around, as if reacting to the sugar. She told me (...
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Is there evidence to suggest that nutrients in vitamin capsules are not as readily absorbed as the same nutrients in whole foods?
I recently fell ill with a cold, and began to take a vitamin C capsule each day to help my immune system. When I noticed no change in my condition, I began to incorporate an abundance of citrus into ...
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Is aquafaba readily digestible?
I have always drained and tossed the water from canned beans. My understanding has been that the water that canned beans are soaked and cooked in contains raffinose, the gas-causing sugars that humans ...
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Why does flatulence vary in temperature and smell?
Quite simply, why do some farts feel warmer than others? Some feel regular, while others feel like lava. What causes this?
If there is no real temperature difference, why do I perceive some to be ...
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What happens to lactic acid I eat?
Let's say I drink some Kefir Milk, what happens to the lactic acid in the Kefir Milk that has entered my digestive system?
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How Anopheles crop doesn't digest gametocytes of P. vivax?
Background
According to my A-level textbook: When Anopheles mosquitoes inject their proboscises and suck up blood from human host of malaria agent, they suck all stages of malaria parasite present in ...
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Can Fluoride be absorbed into the blood from within the mouth without swallowing?
I'm having a discussion with somebody regarding Fluoride usage. I told him that even if he doesn't like the idea of ingesting it, brushing and spitting it out will do you no harm. He then said this:
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Digestion of milk in humans
The intial step in the digestion of milk in humans is carried out by which of the following enzymes?
A) lipase.
B) trypsin.
C) rennin.
D) pepsin.
I'm confused between the C and D option. as it'...
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Is there a link between digestion and nightmares?
A common belief is that eating too much before going to sleep can cause to have nightmares. In fact, I often experience it: I systematically have nightmares after eating too much in the evening.
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Influence of eating at late night on sleep
I have often heard the saying that one shouldn't eat a mountain of food because blood will go to the stomach and it'll be difficult to sleep well because the stomach can't rest at night.
I see that ...
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How do people digest fat after gall bladder removal surgery?
How do people digest fat after gallbladder removal surgery?
How can they tolerate a high fat diet?
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Can you eat enough to make your stomach explode?
Background
After eating a large meal last night, I noticed that my tummy had significantly enlarged. After that, I started wondering if eating too much could cause a stomach to explode. Could this ...
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Enzymes and Digestion
If biological enzymes (protease,amylase,lipase etc.) just speed up the reaction (in the digestion process), then what actually digests the food?? (I'm a secondary student)
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Can reptiles digest grains?
As a caretaker of a turtle, I sometimes struggle understanding the logic behind the inclusion of corn, soybean, and wheat meals in reptile food, such ingredients seem truly aberrant from what a ...
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Relationship between immunologic response to specific gluten epitopes and clinical antibody testing
Celiac disease is understood to be an immune response to certain proteins which occur in a group of cereals; most commonly they are glutens (wheat), secalins (rye) and hordeins (barley). A clinical ...
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Human evolutionary innovation for rapidly restoring glycogen, and link to cardiovascular disease?
I'm a physicist, not a biologist, but I'm interested in human evolution and its link to the physiology of endurance sports. Circa August 2019, I read an article in the newspaper whose contents I'll ...
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Does food really give our bodies the energies that we have determined by burning them in the lab?
You are likely to have come across numbers like sugars 17kJ/g (4kcal/g) as the energy supposedly available to our bodies after eating. Yet these values have been determined using very artificial means,...
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How does the human stomach handle a mix of digested and undigested food?
As I understand it, the stomach digests the bolus into chyme and then passes the latter on to the small intestine. This process takes between 40 minutes and a few hours.
However, what happens when ...
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Is ghrelin only secreted when the stomach is empty?
Several texts indicate that ghrelin is secreted when the stomach is empty. However, some(not all) texts also indicate that ghrelin is secreted when blood sugar levels are low. Is the second statement ...
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Why is livestock bad for the climate?
It is always told that eating meat is bad for our climate. This is most often explained by mentioning following reasons (Source):
Methane is produced when digesting the food and also the faeces of ...
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Is sugar absorbed into the bloodstream through the walls of the mouth?
If you let a piece of candy melt in your mouth, but did not swallow it, would the sugar be absorbed through the walls of your mouth?
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Why do feces vary so little in color?
Why do feces vary in color so much less than the food they are results of? E.g. you may eat food of all kinds of different colors but the resulting feces will almost always be some shade of brown.
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How does hydration affect digestion?
My textbook( biochemistry by Satyanarayana, 4th edition pg.no:166) says:
The polysaccharides get hydrated during heating which is essential for their efficient digestion.
(I think there is a typo ,...
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Betaine HCl stomach pH
It seems betaine HCL is often recommended for those suffering from "low stomach acid" -- which, as I understand, is having too high stomach pH for proper digestion (especially for proteolysis via ...
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Does eating bananas help digestion? [closed]
I don't know what I am asking is silly or not, but I have always heard that eating a banana after a meal helps in digestion.
Some people says before food while others say after.
Is it a fact or some ...
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How is bad garlic breath eliminated by swalllowing a bit of raw garlic?
Please bear with me, as I am just a poor physicist.
I have learned how to make traditional pastourma from a recipe given by my late aunt Dora, which is like pastrami except with a very strong garlic ...
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Why is pollen used as a dietary supplement?
Sporopollenin is the hardest biological substance and can't be degraded by any know enzyme (my school textbook). Then why is pollen used as a dietary supplement if it can't be digested?
Also, pollen ...
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Does food continue to stay sequential once it is inside my body?
I may be very off on many scientific details here, but I'm always all ears.
As far as I understand, any food that is eaten goes to the stomach, gets broken down even further into smaller food ...
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Does adding milk to cereal make it harder for our body to absorb the vitamins and minerals from the cereal?
I add about 3/4 cups of Blue Diamond almond milk (unsweetened) every morning to a single serving of Cheerios. The milk contains filtered water, and I read that drinking water with food at the same ...
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Is gut bacteria Succinivibrionaceae's low methanogenesis understood well enough for GM of cattle gut bacteria to be considered?
After watching the Periodic Table of Videos episode linked in this question I watched the episode Wallabies and Methane where Sir Poliakoff says (a bit after 02:00):...
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Why do we get sleeply after we eat?
After we have eaten, we feel cold and sleepy. I think it's because the maximum blood supply is transferred towards the digestive system so that digestion is done, and therefore the brain to does not ...
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Are the byproducts of mammalian digestion simply depleted versions of the food or liquid consumed?
When mammals consume food and digest it or drink fluids that are then filtered by their kidneys, are the waste products generated simply depleted versions of what they consumed?
Are there other ...
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Why can't humans digest dietary fiber when we can digest starch?
So, I can see that there's a couple of questions touching on this subject already, but none of them answer the aspect that I'm curious about:
Dietary fiber is a polymer composed of multiple starch ...
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What are the consequences of drinking water with food?
Does drinking water with a meal release lesser energy/glucose into the blood stream due to a diluted digestive mixture ?
For simplification : If a person eats 100 grams of cooked jasmine rice with no ...
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