Question

Using a piece of meat as an example, explain how proteins that are eaten are assimilated into the blood. Your answer should include mechanical reduction in particle size, digestion and absorption.

Answer 1

Answer: Meat is a protein rich diet these are the following steps how the protein get assimilated in the blood.

Mechanical digestion:

This digestion of protein is initially starts from the mouth. By chewing the saliva in the mouth consist of two main enzymes they are salivary amylase and lipase. The amylase breaks the carbohydrates and lipase breakdown the fat in the food. In mouth there is some reduction in the size of the protein molecules. And the further reduction of size occurs by the action of enzymes these process are occurs in the chemical digestion.

Chemical digestion:

And the main part of protein digestion is occurs in the stomach. In stomach consist of main enzymes called pepsin it breakdown the large molecules of protein into smaller peptides and it moves to the duodenum of small intestine. Duodenum secretes the enzymes such as Trypsin , Chymotrypsin and Carboxypeptidase which breaks the smaller peptides into amino acids.

Absorption:

   After the proteins are converted into amino acids then it moves to jejenum and the small intestine consist of epithelial cells. These epithelial cells has hair like projections called villi. The villi absorb the amino acids and it released into the blood stream. This is how the protein get assimilated in the blood stream.