Enzymes

• Fat, in a liquid form at room temperature, is known as oil
• Digestion

  1. Food provides energy for essential living processes and functions

  2. Food allows growth, repair, and reproduction

  3. Food provides substances for maintenance of good health and to fight disease
• Classes of Food

  • Living organisms require nutrients for healthy growth and development
  • Major nutrients contain important elements such as carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen
  • Living organisms depend on food to obtain these essential nutrients
  • The process by which living organisms obtain the nutrients they need is known as nutrition
• Food containing essential nutrients

  • Fats
  • Proteins
  • Carbohydrates
  • Minerals
  • Vitamins
  • Water
• Constipation prevention

  • Including enough fibre in the diet, reducing stress, and drinking enough water
• Food-borne diseases are also known as food poisoning
• Not all bacteria are harmful; some are beneficial as they help fight off diseases, absorb nutrients, and produce enzymes, vitamins, and amino acids
• Excessive simple sugars in our body can lead to diabetes
• Diabetes is associated with high blood sugar levels, obesity, and can cause serious health problems like heart attack, kidney problems, high blood pressure, blindness, and stroke
• Gastritis


  Painful swelling or inflammation of the stomach lining, caused by bacterial or viral infection
• Beneficial bacteria sources

  • Yoghurt, bread, cheese
• Prevention of food-borne diseases

  Keeping foodstuff in refrigerators, practicing good personal hygiene, and washing food before eating
• Food-borne diseases cause

  Infection directly in the intestine or release of toxins in the bloodstream, leading to symptoms like fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, dehydration, and stomach aches/cramps
• Constipation


  Faeces move slowly through the large intestine, causing them to become hard and dry
• Gastritis prevention


  • Practising good lifestyle habits such as not skipping meals or eating too much oily food
• Importance of bile

  Breaks down fats into fat globules through emulsification, providing larger surface areas for the enzyme lipase to digest fats more effectively and efficiently
• Diabetes arises when the body does not produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels balanced
• Process of digestion

  1. Food is taken into our body (or eating) is called ingestion

  2. Chewing of food by teeth is known as physical digestion in the mouth

  3. Salivary amylase breaks down starch into simple sugars (or maltose)

  4. Food becomes a small, moist ball called bolus after chewing

  5. Bolus is pushed down along the oesophagus through peristalsis

  6. Food reaches the stomach and is mixed with gastric juice containing hydrochloric acid and proteases

  7. Partly digested food called chyme enters the small intestine after two to six hours
• The simpler and soluble substances are then able to pass through the wall of the small intestine for absorption into our body
• Diabetes arises when

  1. Our body does not produce enough insulin to keep the blood sugar level balanced

  2. Our body fails to respond properly to insulin
• Enzymes are specific and can only break down one type of food substance
• The action of bile on fats is a physical digestion because fats do not undergo chemical change to become simpler substances
• Health problems associated with diabetes

  • Heart attack
  • Kidney problems
  • High blood pressure
  • Blindness
  • Stroke
• The liver and the pancreas secrete juices to assist in breaking down complex food substances
• Food is broken down through chemical reaction to form simpler and soluble substances
• We should monitor our blood sugar level constantly to ensure that we do not develop diabetes
• Diabetes is a disease in which the blood sugar level becomes too high
• The human digestive system is a long tube that starts from the mouth to the anus called the gut or alimentary canal, approximately eight metres in length
• The action of enzymes on food is classified as chemical digestion
• Proteins are made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus
• Active site is the site of reaction where food binds to it during digestion like a 'lock and key'
• Physical digestion is the breaking down of food into smaller pieces without involving enzymes
• Enzymes break down complex substances into simpler substances
• Enzymes are biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions in living organisms
• Common sources of carbohydrates

  • Rice, wheat, corn, potatoes
• All enzymes are made up of proteins
• Cell membranes are partially permeable, complex food substances cannot pass through
• Carbohydrates are made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen and are the main source of the body's energy
• Common sources of proteins


  • Fish, eggs, meat, peas, nuts, milk
• Chemical digestion


  Breaking down large, insoluble food into smaller, soluble substances that can be absorbed into the bloodstream