Question

Track the ingestion and digestion of a ham-and-cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce, green pepper, and tomatoes. Describe the fate of this sandwich from the time you eat it. Be very detailed regarding the digestive process, location, enzyme action, and use of accessory organs of digestion

Answer 1

Hello !

First let us focus on the constituents of the Ham and cheese sandwich, Ham is a source of protein, cheese contains saturated fat and protein and calcium . Brown bread has carbohydrate and other nutrients .

lets startthe process of digestion .

first as soon as a bite of sandwich is taken the salivary glands produce salivawhich moistens and softens the food,ptyalin of the saliva breaks the starch component of the sandwich and converts it into disaccharides.

From here the chewed sandwich through esophagus reaches the stomach.

Gastric juices present in the stomach play a significant role in the protein digestion.The action of hydrochloric acid activates certain enzymes now the sandwich in stomach is acted upon by various protein digesting enzymes like the pespsin .

pepsin acts on the protein and breaks the protein in the ham into peptones and proteoses.Apart from this mechanical digestion through the pounding action occurs in the stomach so the sandwich is partially digested bythe action of these enzymes.

From the stomach through the pyloricvalve chyme passes into the small intestine.

Small intestine receives secretions from the liver and pancreas

The sandwich had cheese which is a saturated fat , the bile salts released from the liver helps in emulsification of fats.so the cheeses is emulsified and the acidity of the chyme is made alkaline by the bile.

The Ham which is high protein will be exposed to many proteolytic enzymes from the pancreatic juice. the meat is exposed to trypsin , chymotrypsin , carboxypeptidases whic act on the Ham and convert it into simple peptides and proteoses.

The steapsin present in the pancreatic juice acts on the emulsified fat of the cheese and converts it into fatty acid and glycerol.

Now the carbohydrate portion of the bread is digested by the sucrase , maltase , lactase enzymes present in the intestinal juices which convert them into glucose and it is absorbed through the intestinal wall.

So the digestion of the carbohydrate, Fats , Proteins occur in the small intestine. the undigested food now enters the large intestine and the sandwich also had lettuce which is the cellulose part of the food is decomposed by the symbiotic bacteria and the remaining carbohydrates are fermented releasing hydrogen and methane.

and finally the faces are formed and release outside .