Digestion is the process of breaking down the foods you eat into small molecules your body then absorbs. Your body employs both mechanical and chemical processes during digestion. That is, you chew and swallow your food to decrease the size of food particles and introduce them to your digestive tract. Your digestive juices then break the food particles into molecules small enough to enter your bloodstream and your cells.
Unsaturated Fat Background
The majority of the fats you consume in your diet are triglycerides, made up of three fatty acid chains attached to a glycerol backbone. The chemical structure of the fatty acids determines whether it is a saturated or unsaturated fat. Saturated fats contain as many hydrogen atoms as the fatty acid can hold, while unsaturated fats have fewer hydrogens within its carbon chain. The degree of a fatty acid's saturation matters once your body absorbs it, but the digestion process is the same regardless of how many hydrogens the fatty acid contains.
Unsaturated Fat Digestion
As food enters your stomach, it mixes with gastric juices to create a mixture known as chyme. Chyme moves into your small intestine where lipid, or fat, digestion begins. During this process, a substance called bile -- produced in your liver and stored in your gallbladder -- emulsifies the unsaturated fat so that lipase -- an enzyme secreted by your pancreas -- can break the triglyceride down into glycerol and fatty acids. Your small intestine then absorbs the glycerol and fatty acid molecules, where they move into your bloodstream and eventually your cells.
Enzyme Background
Enzymes are protein molecules that function as catalysts in your body, speeding up the rate of a biological reaction while remaining unchanged themselves. Therefore, the enzymes you consume as part of the food you eat undergo the same digestion process as any other food protein. The structure of a protein consists of a long string of amino acids linked together and then folded into a complex three-dimensional molecule. The digestive process of a protein involves unfolding the molecule and releasing the individual amino acids it contains.
Enzyme Digestion
Protein digestion begins in your stomach. Your stomach acid denatures the protein, causing it to begin to unfold. As this happens, the enzyme pepsin breaks the large protein molecule into smaller peptides. As the peptides move into your small intestine, digestive enzymes from your pancreas -- including tryspin, chymotryspin and carboxypeptidase -- snip the amino acids off the smaller peptide chains. Individual amino acids then undergo absorption by the cells of your small intestine, where they enter your bloodstream and then into your cells.
