Questions tagged [digestive-system]
Organs that play a role in digestion and/or absorption of nutrients: breaking down of food into smaller components that can be absorbed and used as for sources of energy, cellular/tissue building blocks, or cofactors for vital biochemical reactions.
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Shape of feces in herbivores
Why do some herbivores like sheep, cow, and others excrete feces in a pellet (or biscuit or other) shape, while other species including humans do not do so? What is the reason for such an adaptation ...
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How would a herbivore's digestive tract differ from a human's? [closed]
How would a herbivore's digestive tract differ from a human's? What are parts (organs, tissues, etc.) or enzymes that can't be found in one but is in the other? Also, is it correct to say that a ...
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What are the sites of nutrient digestion and absorption in the human GI tract? [closed]
Where does nutrient digestion and then absorption take place for different nutrients along the alimentary tract?
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What are the obstacles to "refitting" the human body's metabolism?
As a layman, I understand the problem of rising obesity like this:
In the old times, humans could never get enough food, thus they would eat whatever they could get. This "program" is encoded in our ...
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Are nutrients absorbed in human esophagus?
Following this question regarding absorption in human oral cavity (sadly not yet fully answered), I'm curious if any nutrient absorption occurs during the descent of food through the esophagus.
And ...
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What percentage of human excrement is toxic if ingested?
I have been considering food production, waste management and 3D food printing, particularly during space exploration. This led me to wonder if human excrement could be processed into raw materials ...
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Product of reaction between HCl and bile [closed]
In the mammalian digestive system HCl is the main acid and bile is the main alkali. What is the product of the reaction between these two chemicals?
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Is it safe to feed an adult fire salamander with slime maggots? [closed]
As a reminder, maggots feed of a flesh, while fire salamander consumes his prey alive, without killing it.
Can it happen that the maggot will start eating the salamander from the inside?
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Do I have to chew for digestion to kick in?
Liquid nutrient-rich products (such as Soylent) are consumed without chewing. But if I have to chew to initiate digestion, are those nutrients really "processed"?
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Is there any mechanical digestion that occurs once food/chyme enters the small intestine?
Does mechanical digestion occur in small intestines and, if so, how does it occur? I found some sources that say digestion happens mechanically and chemically in the small bowel, and others that say ...
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How does consumption of vinegar affect food chemistry?
For example: does consumption of vinegar somehow change digestion of flour (bread, cakes, pasta, puffs) ? May be there are some benefits to eat flour meal with vinegar ?
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What is a lethal dose of THC?
With the oil form of THC being stronger then ever. What would happen if one was to take a stomach full of THC oil?
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does life make or break?
Ok, this question seems like it may be impossible to answer, but would be interesting to see if anyone has an idea.
Throughout the course of a human life, do we make more molecular bonds than we ...
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If chylomicrons can not get into the capillaries, how do they supply to tissues?
The transport of chylomicrons is into the lacteals mainly because they are too big to get into the capillaries and yet they later supply triglycerides in the extra hepatic tissue by traversing in the ...
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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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Anatomical differences between herbivores and omnivores [closed]
What are differences of herbivores vs omnivores? I do not mean dietary differences (obviously), but physical ones.
E.g., afaik herbivores have a much longer digestive tract than carnivores; then ...
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How does protein enter bloodstream?
If a hemophiliac patient injects his factor 8 through the veins directly into the bloodstream to provide the body with clotting factor... Why don't they just make the drug as a pill and have the liver ...
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Can swallowed fingermails, hair, or skin get caught in your appendix? [closed]
There is a common saying in my place: If you eat your skin, hair or nails, it will be deposited in the cecal (Vermiform) appendix, and can cause appendicitis. (This is mostly told to children to ...
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Is there nutrient absorption in the large intestine of hindgut fermenters?
In hindgut fermenters, plants are digested in the caecum by microbes. I want to know whether hindgut fermenters can absorb the nutrients obtained from the digestion in the large intestine because the ...
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Do intestinal flora have the same DNA as their host?
Please bear with me, this is not my professional field and I might be mixing things up. In an explanation why seeds won't start growing in one's intestines, the explanation given was that foreign ...
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Do adult humans exchange beneficial bacteria? If so, how?
Recently there has been increasing interest and research into symbiotic bacteria present in humans and human gut. I'm aware of two new discoveries:
humans are surrounded by a unique cloud of ...
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How can heart disease cause dizziness after eating?
I have been reading several articles explaining dizziness after eating (see here and here), and both articles gloss over something that I found pretty remarkable.
Both articles claim that "heart ...
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How protein denaturation affects digestion?
Which one of these is a) easier to digest, b) more nutritious (in whatever sense):
1. scrambled egg,
2. raw egg.
Bascially is "denatured protein are worse than not denatured" a myth, or not?
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Ramifications and possibility of a diet consuming exclusively of human semen
Semen is a thick, nutritious liquid, rich in vitamins (such as C, B12), amino acids, lipids, monosaccharides (fructose), et cetera. Can semen's ability to fulfill the needs of human organism provide ...
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Are gizzard muscles voluntary or involuntary?
I started raising chickens this year. They have amazing appetites, and I often wonder what eating is like for them. They have no teeth, so they don't chew their food as they eat it. They do seem to ...
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Blood urea nitrogen and usage of proteins?
I have been reading some books and am getting slightly confused. Here is roughly what I have read.
The greater the blood urea nitrogen the greater the usage of proteins (since blood urea nitrogen ...
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How does botulinum toxin enter the blood stream from the digestive tract?
To my understanding, large polypeptides such as botulinum toxin cannot pass the intestinal lining intact. How, then, can it enter the bloodstream and cause botulism poisoning?
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By what mechanism does an obstructed bile duct cause excess fat in the stool?
By what mechanism does an obstructed bile duct (for example gallstones) cause steatorrhoea (excess fat in the stool)?
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Does inhaling glue (glue sniffing) reduce appetite?
I have heard from many homeless people that they sniff glue just to reduce appetite, as it comes cheap and is more affordable than actual food.
Is this true, and if yes, why? This is totally opposite ...
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Can sugar be absorbed orally within seconds? [duplicate]
Whenever I feel a little light headed or tired, it helps to eat something sweet.
Specifically, simply chewing or sucking on a sweet seems to aleviate the symptoms within a matter of seconds and then ...
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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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Are there grass or fiber eating birds?
My understanding, that may be wrong, is that cellulose/fibre has little nutritional value to many animals because it's hard to break down thus making consumption inefficient. However, Ruminating ...
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how food moves in horizontal coils of small intestines [duplicate]
This is a very very basic question, and I am looking at it more from point of view of physics. The small intestine is a highly coiled structure, which means it has horizontal coils as well. I can ...
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What is the biological basis for tiredness after eating? [duplicate]
I can sometimes feel quite drowsy after some "meals" (e.g. a cold cut & cheese sandwich with juice on the side) and less drowsy (or maybe less often) after others (such as a salad).
This ...
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Why does the stomach ache if you take a brisk walk after lunch or dinner
After eating your lunch or dinner, if you take a brisk walk, most of the time your stomach aches. Why does that happen? What happens with respect to the body metabolism?
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How is satiety measured?
I am aware of satiety only through experience, rules-of-thumb and possibly myths. For example: white bread is not filling, a pasta meal can be filling but because we "burn" carbs quickly pasta itself ...
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Does sour food cause sweating?
While eating sour food or candy, I start to sweat if it's sour enough. My body feels much hotter although my actual temperature is the same, my forehead starts sweating a lot and I feel like it just ...
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Question about what the liver does NOT do
Which of the following functions is NOT performed by the liver?
a) Storage of vitamins and minerals
b) converts glucose to glycogen
c) converts toxins to harmless chemicals
d) produces bile
I chose ...
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Does eating antacid (such as Magnesia) before meal have any impact on digestion? [closed]
During an anatomy lecture I heard of the importance of the acidity of gastric acid (e.g., killing microorganisms, dissolving food, being a factor for triggering further processes). If a healthy person ...
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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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Do humans have chemosensors for nutrients or chemicals? [closed]
I'm reading about chemoreceptors on Wikipedia, and see that the typical ones are mentioned: taste, smell, CO₂. I would like to learn more about the other kinds of chemoreceptors that humans may ...
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Did the Britons 100 years ago have different intestinal flora and fauna?
Note: this is not a question about history, but about human digestive system over time :)
I know a lot of colleagues who traveled for business trips to India. All of them caught terrible diarrhea ...
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Excretion of small kangaroos while in the pouch
How is the excretion of small kangaroos done when they are in the pouch of their mother, fastened onto her teat? My question is what happens with the products; do they accumulate in the pouch?
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Long term liquid food diet by blending/grinding all quality foods one would normaly eat, not any weight loss or prepared drinks
I want to know what are the effects of not using your teeth to grind foods but preparing it before eating with blending and grinding them into a liquid.
Here I am not talking about any weight loss or ...
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Absorption rate of Infrequently eating animals?
Clearly, creatures such as us humans, after vastly increasing the entropy of our food, expel most of the mass that we consume.
Some creatures, however, do NOT get the opportunity to eat nearly as ...
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What nutrients can humans absorb in the mouth?
For instance, I realise being able to absorb simple sugars in the mouth is pivotal in the rapid action of oral glucose gel. Thus I was wondering what nutrients in general can be absorbed directly ...
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Is there a biological reason for spreading food intake into breakfast-lunch-dinner?
I keep hearing over an over how humans can satisfy their entire daily caloric need in one sitting at a fast food restaurant. At the same time I'm looking at the kitchen plates, cups, etc, and they ...
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How compatible are mammalian digestive systems?
I'm interested in what kinds of nutrients mammals extract from food and would like to know how similar are the outputs of these systems.
For example, if it is possible to successfully replace one ...
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Are there any fungi that can digest humic acids?
Humic acids are a complex group of organic substances, that are generally known to be hardly biodegradable. Fungi as agroup are known for breaking down complex organic matter like cellulose or lignin. ...
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why can't we digest cellulose [duplicate]
I have a very tricky question....all the veg and fruit
cells contain cell wall and it is made of cellulose when we eat how our body digest though we
don't have the enzymes to breakdown 1-4 beta ...
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